On a busy weekend Manchester United extended their lead, AC Milan and Barcelona maintained their buffers, while Dortmund dropped points and in Turkey the tide may have begun to turn for the big guns.
English Premier League
| Pos | Team | Pts | Pl |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Manchester United | 48 | 22 |
| 2 | Arsenal | 46 | 23 |
| 3 | Manchester City | 45 | 24 |
| 4 | Chelsea | 41 | 23 |
| 5 | Tottenham | 38 | 23 |
Manchester United moved two points clear after Dimitar Berbatov hit a hat-trick in an emphatic 5-0 romp over Birmingham City. Arsenal kept up the chase with a 3-0 win over Wigan, with Robin van Persie hitting a hat-trick.
Manchester City slumped to a shock 1-0 loss at Aston Villa which sees them slip off the pace, while Chelsea sent a warning to their title rivals, showing them the race isn’t over with a 4-0 thrashing of Bolton.
| Pos | Team | Pts |
|---|---|---|
| 18 | Wigan Athletic | 22 |
| 19 | Wolverhampton | 21 |
| 20 | West Ham United | 21 |
The big winners down the bottom this weekend were Fulham who move into 14th after a 2-0 win over Stoke City, while Aston Villa’s win over Man City takes them away from the drop zone. West Ham conceded late to draw 2-2 with Everton.
Italian Serie A
AC Milan kept their four-point buffer at the top with a 2-0 win over Cesena in Sunday’s late kick-off with Zlatan Ibrahimovic scoring one and heavily involved in the other. The bad news is key defender Alessandro Nesta dislocated his shoulder during the match and will miss three weeks.
Napoli continue to challenge after a 2-0 win at Bari with Edinson Cavani scoring again. AS Roma are up to third after 3-0 win over Catania while Inter Milan’s title ambitions took a major hit after a 3-1 loss at Udinese. Sixth-placed Juventus could only manage a goalless draw with Sampdoria.
| Pos | Team | Pts |
|---|---|---|
| 18 | Cesena | 19 |
| 19 | Brescia | 18 |
| 20 | Bari | 14 |
Bari’s 2-0 to Napoli means they’ve now suffered three defeats in a row and are well adrift at the bottom. Lecce grabbed a 1-1 draw at Fiorentina to move out of the drop zone and into 17th on 20 points. Parma and Bologna both grabbed wins to move them up to 12th and 13th respectively.
Spanish La Liga
Just when he needed it, Karim Benzema stepped up to fire the winner for Real Madrid, as they won 1-0 over Real Mallorca to keep the pressure on leaders Barcelona. Earlier in the weekend, FC Barcelona stayed on course for the title with a 3-0 victory over Racing Santander, but boss Pep Guardiola insisted after the game he wasn’t getting carried away just yet.
Villarreal had to come from behind to win 2-1 over Real Sociedad with Giuseppe Rossi grabbing both goals, while Valencia beat Malaga 4-3 and Espanyol won 3-1 at Getafe.
| Pos | Team | Pts |
|---|---|---|
| 18 | Almeria | 17 |
| 19 | Malaga | 17 |
| 20 | Levante | 15 |
Almeria moved out of bottom position on the table and up to 18th after a 3-2 victory over Osasuna with Fernando Ulloa the hero with a double. Osasuna are now down to 17th and are without a win in eight matches. Gijon moved to 15th after a 1-0 win over Atletico Madrid, while Zaragoza made it three wins in four matches with a 1-0 win over Deportivo Coruna.
German Bundesliga
Pawel Pogrebnyak’s late strike denied leaders Borussia Dortmund another win as they drew 1-1 with struggling VfB Stuttgart. That result allowed Leverkusen to cut their league lead to 11 points after they claimed a resounding 3-1 win at Borussia Moenchengladbach, in a game where Michael Ballack made his comeback.
Bayern Munich are now looming ominously in fourth after comprehensive 5-1 victory over Kaiserslautern on Saturday with Mario Gomez netting a hat-trick. Gomez now leads the scoring charts with 15 goals this season.
| Pos | Team | Pts |
|---|---|---|
| 16 | St Pauli | 19 |
| 17 | VfB Stuttgart | 16 |
| 18 | Moenchengladbach | 13 |
FC Cologne moved out of the bottom three with a much-needed 3-0 win over struggling Werder Bremen. German giants Werder> are down in 14th and the pressure is mounting on long-term boss Thomas Schaaf. St Pauli dropped into 16th despite a commendable 2-2 draw at Hoffenheim.
Random League: Turkish Super Lig
The Turkish Super Lig season resumed on the weekend after the winter break. Traditional Turkish giants Fenerbahce and Besiktas were off the pace at the halfway mark, but the latter has opted to make some big signings, while the former is looking for stability to find their groove. And both already made inroads into cutting the leaders’ lead after top two Trabzonspor and Bursaspor drew on the weekend.
Leaders Trabzonspor could only draw 1-1 with Ankaragucu, while champions Bursaspor were held to a 0-0 draw at struggling Konyaspor. Elsewhere, Fenerbahce won 1-0 at Antalyaspor to close the gap.
Meanwhile Besiktas who have bolstered their squad in the transfer window with Portuguese trio Simao> from Atletico Madrid, Hugo Almeida from Werder Bremen and Manuel Fernandes from Valencia, thrashed Bucaspor 5-1 with Simao on the scoresheet. They loom as a title threat but are they too far behind.