Best performances.....

Liverpool and Wigan both deserve credit for producing a thoroughly entertaining game on Saturday. Liverpool came back once again to take all three points while Wigan were left wondering what might have happened if Valencia had not got himself sent off.

A very respectable weekend for the newly promoted clubs of the big five leagues of Europe.  Wins for Hull City and Stoke City in the Premiership; Bologna beat Serie A leaders Lazio; in La Liga Sporting Gijon made in two straight wins while Malaga went one better;

Hoffenheim went to the top of the Bundesliga temporarily on Saturday after beating Hannover; Nantes made in three wins in four games after going winless in their opening five.

As well Chievo and Lecce drew against Atalanta and Udinese who have both made excellent starts in Serie A. Bundesliga clubs Borussia Monchengladbach and Cologne also drew against Bochum and Energie Cottbus while in France Grenoble shared four goals with Caen and Le Havre drew with Sochaux.

Of the fifteen promoted clubs only West Brom (4-0 to Manchester United), and Numancia (by the same score to Valencia) lost.

Best forgotten.....

The 3-0 loss to Houston Dynamo was bad but only capped a torrid season for Los Angeles Galaxy. After a bright start the poorly balanced LA squad struggled for the rest of the season. With one game left the only thing that the Galaxy has left to play for is avoiding the tag of finishing with the worst record in MLS. Bruce Arena, Dave Sarachan and Cobi Jones have a lot of work and soul-searching to do over the next few months - job one is to find a dependable spine to the team. 

The troubles of Tottenham Hotspur continue. No wins and only two draws in their opening eight games has left Spurs bottom of the Premiership and their fans devastated. Spurs and Grimsby remain the only two teams in England without a win and Spurs is the only top flight team in the top five leagues in Europe who have still to notch a win. Tottenham now face Bolton, Arsenal, Liverpool and Manchester City in their next four games.

Roma was torn apart by a rampant counter-attacking Inter side and have now lost as many games this season as they did during the entire 2007/08 Serie A schedule.

Best goals....

Juliano Belletti's rocket from thirty yards left Middlesbrough keeper Ross Turnbull completely and utterly helpless. The goal came two weeks to the year after the Brazilian scored another long range scorcher - that one coming away to Wigan.

It was a cracking opening goal by Ruud van Nistelrooy in opening moments of the Madrid derby. The Dutch striker's swivel and strike into the corner took Atletico keeper Franco totally by surprise.

It's difficult to separate the goals scored by Dejan Stankovic and Victor Obinna for Inter against Roma. The goals came only two minutes apart early in the second half. Stankovic controlled the ball with his chest before blasting a half-volley past Doni.  Then it was Obinna's turn as he cut inside and from a similar position to Stankovic he hit a fantastic left footed shot just inside the goalkeeper's left hand post.

Canadian Will Johnson scored a terrific goal to help Real Salt Lake to a massive win over FC Dallas. He took the ball just outside of the Dallas box, teed himself up and then hit a glorious volley past Dario Sala.

Best Players....

Juventus never came to grips with Ezequiel Lavezzi. He constantly drew defenders to him and was a constant threat. Lavezzi capped his performance off with the deciding goal and in the process increased the pressure on Juventus' embattled coach Claudio Ranieri. 

Wigan's Amir Zaki took his goal tally to seven for the season after a double in a losing cause at Anfield. Both goals were opportunistic but in different ways. The first one came after Zaki stripped Daniel Agger of the ball as the Liverpool defender committed the defender's cardinal sin of trying unsuccessfully to dribble out of defence. The second came from an excellent volley from just inside the penalty box.

Michael Turner has been a colossus at the heart of the Hull City defence this season and has contributed at the attacking end of the park as well. His second goal of the season gave his side a 1-0 win over West Ham and maintained Hull's grip on third place in the Premiership.

You couldn't write this sort of stuff and have people believe it. With a need to win both their remaining games in order to make the MLS play offs the New York Red Bulls had two players suspended late last week for using illegal substances. Danny Cepero was called upon to replace one of the suspended players, goalkeeper Jon Conway. On his debut Cepero make a few key saves and just for good measure scored the Red Bulls' third goal from a free kick from around seventy (yes 70) yards. The 23-year-old launched a free kick from well inside his own half and watched as the Crew goalkeeper Andy Gruenebaum misjudged the ball as it skipped on the artificial surface.

The movement and pace of Zlatan Ibrahimovic was too much more Roma to handle. The Swedish striker caught the Roma defence square at the beginning of each half and scored twice and helped Inter to a 4-0 away win.   

Goal feast......

Five goals away from home is always impressive and it is even more so when the team is somewhat depleted through injury. Chelsea's 5-0 rout of Middlesbrough was clinical. Saturday's result means that Chelsea has now scored eleven goals in their four away wins and conceded only one.

North America F.C. .......

American Danny Szetela scored the third, and what turned out to be the winning goal, for Brescia against Triestina in Serie B action on Sunday. Szetela scored with a minute left to put Brescia up 3-1 although Triestina would pull within one before the final whistle was blown.

Biggest Howlers......

Not such much howlers but a couple of real oddities in the Stoke City versus Tottenham match.

For Stoke's Danny Higginbotham it was a case of lucky seven. The penalty taker had to place the ball on the penalty spot seven times before the breeze subsided and the ball settled. The former Manchester United, Derby and Sunderland defender showed remarkable composure as he then slotted the kick hoe to give his side the lead.

At 2-1 up Ricardo Fuller took over the spot kick duty and had a chance to put the game beyond the reach of Spurs. The Jamaican international saw his hot strike the keeper's left hand post, run along the line, hit the other post and back into play. Rory Delap then cracked his shot off the cross bar - three different parts of the frame hit inside three seconds.

Just seconds after Simao pulled his team level in the ninetieth minute of the Madrid derby, Atletico defender Johnny Heitinga was suckered into a late lunge on Royston Drenthe in the penalty box. Heitinga was late, Drenthe went down and Gonzalo Higuain scored the winner from the penalty spot.

It is going to take Crew goalkeeper Andy Gruenebaum a long time to live down being beaten from seventy yards by a fellow goalie.

Stat facts.....

Is Xabi Alonso carrying a bounty on his legs? The midfielder has been the victim of three brutal tackles in Liverpool's last three Premiership games. Cahill (Everton), Zabaleta (Manchester City), and Valencia (Wigan) have all taken out their frustration on the Spaniard and have been red carded for their efforts.

After Saturday's goalless draw it is ten years since Bolton last beat Blackburn at home.

In eight Premiership games (720 minutes of play) so far this season Hull City have trailed for one hundred and twenty minutes and eighty five of those minutes came in their loss to Wigan.

Danny Cepero's goal for the New York Red Bulls was the first scored by a goalkeeper from open play in MLS history.

What was said....

The battle lines are being drawn up with the FA and Premier League staking out positions.

And the UK government joins the fray and aligns with the FA.

A team from Zimbabwe makes a surprise run in the African Champions League.

Brian Moore with some more food for thought in relation to the Premier League , revenue and debt.

James Lawton on the impact of Fabio Capello on England.

Inter ready to move out of the San Siro/Giuseppe Meazza to a new stadium of their own.

Declan Hill on match-fixing undertaken by Asian gangs.

And the background to the inquiry into the Norwich-Derby match.

There was an infamous case forty-four years ago that involved three Sheffield Wednesday players. Two of them - Tony Kay and Peter Swan - were England internationals. In the case of Kay it was felt that he would have been in the '66 World Cup squad had he not been caught.  Kay told his story a few years ago to the Observer.

Coming up this week.....

We have Champions League match-day 3 on Tuesday and Wednesday. Games for the neutrals to keep an eye on include:

Bayern Munich v Fiorentina
Juventus v Real Madrid
Manchester United v Celtic
Atletico Madrid v Liverpool

The UEFA Cup group stage kicks into gear on Thursday.