Football Weekend Recap

 Premier League

Nine games were played in the Premier League this past weekend, with 21 goals scored. The biggest clash in the English top-flight was the North London Derby between Arsenal and Tottenham Hotspur at the Emirates. Arsenal went out 2-1 winners thanks to goals from Martin Odegaard and Alexandre Lacazette. Spurs went in front thanks to a wonderful rabona goal from Erik Lamela, who later got sent off after receiving a second yellow card. Another wonderful goal was scored by Dwight McNeil for Burnley in their 2-1 win against Everton at Goodison Park. The Burnley wide-player breezed past Allan before curling the ball past Jordan Pickford. Chris Wood also scored for Burnley with Dominic Calvert-Lewin pulled one back for the Toffees. Kelechi Iheanacho scored his first Premier League hat-trick as Leicester City trashed Sheffield United 5-0. The Nigerian, who scored in Leicester's last two, was too much for the Blades, with Jamie Vardy acting as a perfect foil. His third was the pick of the three, scoring from outside the box to bag the hat-trick. Ayoze Perez and an own goal from Ethan Ampadu sealed a big win for Leicester while Sheffield United will be licking their wounds, with manager Chris Wilder leaving the Sheffield job days before the Leicester game. West Brom is also in serious relegation trouble, following a 1-0 defeat to Crystal Palace. This leaves them eight points off Fulham in 18th and ten points from safety. A late equalizer from Jamal Lascelles was enough for Newcastle United to take a point off Aston Villa in their 1-1 draw. Brighton won their sixth game of the season, defeating Southampton 2-1 at St. Mary's while an own goal from Craig Dawson gave Manchester United a 1-0 win over West Ham on Sunday.

La Liga

Not a lot of goals to report in the Spanish top-flight with just a measly 12 goals from the weekend. The Seville derby between Sevilla and Real Betis was the highlight clash of the weekend. Betis, who won their last four league games, failed to continue their momentum as they lost 1-0 with Youssef En-Nesyri, scoring his 14th league goal of the season. Real Sociedad are losing ground on Sevilla, following their 1-0 defeat to Granada on Sunday. This leaves La Real fifth in the league, nine points behind Sevilla, having played a game more. Villarreal's bad run of form came to an end as the Yellow Submarine beat Eibar 3-1. Moi Gomez, Carlos Bacca and Alfonso Pedraza scored despite going down to ten men 2-1 up, putting the game at risk for Unai Emery's men. Atletico Madrid dropped points to Getafe on Saturday away from home despite the hosts going down to ten men in the last twenty minutes of the game. This allowed Real Madrid to close the gap on their city rivals when they faced Elche. They almost fell on their faces, as they were 1-0 down in the last twenty minutes of the game but Karim Benzema stepped up for Los Blancos, scoring twice to give Madrid the win, leaving them six points behind Atletico. Roger Matri scored in Leante's 1-0 win against Valencia, Alex Fernandez scored a late equalizer for Cadiz in their 1-1 draw with Alaves. Osasuna and Real Valladolid played out a goalless draw which was the same scoreline between Athletic Bilbao and Celta Vigo. 

Serie A

There were loads of goals in Serie A this past weekend with 35 goals from 10 games. AC Milan continues to stumble as they lost 1-0 at home to Napoli with Matteo Politano scoring the only goal of the game. This leaves them nine points behind Inter Milan, who continue to rack up wins after beating Torino 2-1 thanks to Lukaku and Lautaro Martinez. Cristiano Ronaldo responded to the critics following Juventus' exit in the Champions League with a perfect hat-trick in the first half, as the Italian champions beat Cagliari 3-1 on Sunday. Felipe Caicedo scored a late winner in Lazio's 3-2 win over Crotone at the Olimpico. Simeon Nwankwo scored twice for the away side while Luis Alberto and Sergej Milinkovic-Savic scored for the hosts. Lazio's win was pivotal in their chances of finishing in the European places as their city rivals AS Roma lost 2-0 to Parma on Sunday, leaving them two points behind Atalanta in fourth place. Speaking of La Dea, they beat Spezia 3-1 with Mario Pasalic scoring a brace. Dusan Vlahovic scored a hat-trick for Fiorentina in their 4-1 win against Benevento, giving further ground from the relegation places. Bologna beat Sampdoria 3-1, Geona and Udinese played out a 1-1 draw while Sassuolo beat Verona 3-2 with Junior Traore scoring the winner for Sassuolo in the 81st minute.

Bundesliga

26 goals were scored in the Bundesliga from nine games with big results in the title race, Champions League places and the relegation battle. Bayern Munich beat Werder Bremen 3-1 with Robert Lewandowski scoring again and made history as he went second in the Bundesliga's all-time leading scorers. Only behind Gerd Muller. The pressure was now on Leipzig to keep ground on Bayern in the title race but they failed to get a win at home against Eintracht Frankfurt as the game ended 1-1. This leaves Leipzig four points behind Bayern with nine games left to play. Borussia Monchengladbach continues to stutter following a 3-1 defeat to Augsburg, raising more questions on the position of coach Marco Rose at Gladbach.  Arminia Biefeld pulled the shock of the weekend after beating Bayer Leverkusen at the BayArena, hurting Leverkusen's chances of finishing in the Champions League places while Biefeld gave a massive win in their chances of survival. Borussia Dortmund beat Hertha Berlin 2-0 with goals coming from Julian Brandt and Youssoufa Moukoko, pushing them to fifth in the table. Wolfsburg remains third in the table after beating Schalke 5-0, increasing Schalke's goal conceded to 66. 21 goals more than the next worst team, Hertha Berlin. FC Koln isn't faring well losing 2-1 to Union Berlin while Stuttgart beat Hoffenheim 2-0, keeping them eighth in the table. Mainz got a 1-0 win against Freiburg, keeping them close to safety in the relegation zone.