Valencia and FC Barcelona pulled ahead in Spanish league on Sunday with easy wins, while Arsenal stretched its unbeaten streak to 47 in England and Juventus suffered its first setback in Italy.
Defending champion Valencia got goals from Vicente Rodriguez and Stefano Fiore to beat Racing Santander 2-0. Vicente scored first from a direct free kick that ricocheted off the crossbar, and Fiore tapped in the second after a precise pass from Vicente.
PHOTO: EPA
Barcelona kept pace by downing Mallorca 3-1. Samuel Eto'o scored two, one from the penalty spot, and Henrik Larsson added the other.
Both Valencia and Barcelona have 13 points from five matches.
Defending English Premier League champion Arsenal got a rare goal from Ashley Cole to beat Manchester City 1-0.
Cole collected a deflected pass from Jose Antonio Reyes to score for the first time in more than two years. Arsenal has beaten City in each their last 11 meetings.
Serie A leader Juventus was held to a 1-1 draw by newcomer Palermo, losing its perfect record in the fourth round.
Defender Cristian Zaccardo gave the Sicilian team the lead, but Zlatan Ibrahimovic netted the equalizer with his third goal of the season off a rebound.
Spain
Real Madrid suffered another setback in the Spanish league, losing to Athletic Bilbao 2-1 on goals from Ismael Urzaiz and Santiago Ezquerro. Madrid captain Raul Gonzalez pulled one back for the losing team.
Crosstown rival Atletico Madrid jumped into a tie for third place by nipping Villarreal 1-0. Salvador "Salva" Ballesta netted the match-winner.
Valencia and Barcelona are followed by Atletico, Espanyol and others with 10 points.
England
Chelsea stayed in second place in the Premier League after beating Middlesbrough 1-0, while surprising Everton continued to impress by nipping host Portsmouth 1-0.
Didier Drogba scored a late goal to give Chelsea maximum points. Tim Cahill was the hero for Everton.
Manchester United also won, moving up to fifth place by defeating Tottenham 1-0 on Ruud van Nistelrooy's penalty.
Arsenal leads the league with 19 points, two more than Chelsea and three more than Everton. Bolton and Manchester United each have 12 points.
Italy
Lazio missed a chance to join Juventus at the top of the Serie A standings, blowing a one-goal lead in a 2-1 loss to defending champion AC Milan.
AS Roma, which fell to nine-man Bologna 3-1, lost coach Rudi Voeller. The former Germany coach quit after the match, his second loss in four games.
Juventus has 10 points from four matches at the top of the league standings, followed by Lecce and Messina with eight each.
Germany
Surprising VfL Wolfsburg stayed at the top of the Bundesliga after beating Kaiserslautern 2-1 on Diego Klimowicz's 90th-minute match-winner.
Stuttgart throttled Bayer Leverkusen 3-0 to stay in second place, while defending champion Werder Bremen got a hat trick from Miroslav Klose to help it beat VfL Bochum 4-1.
Bayern Munich also won, topping SC Freiburg 3-1.
Wolfsburg has 15 points from six matches, followed by Stuttgart with 14, Bremen with 12 and Bayern with 11.
Netherlands
Yannis Anastasiou scored a late winner as Ajax edged Roda JC Kerkrade 1-0. PSV Eindhoven and Feyenoord both strolled to 4-0 victories.
PSV got two goals from Jan Vennegoor of Hesselink and one each from Theo Lucius and Jefferson Farfan in beating Heerenveen.
PSV leads the league with 16 points, with Ajax second with 14 points and Feyenoord third with 13.
Scotland
Henri Camara scored twice as defending Scottish champion Celtic beat Dunfermline 3-0, while Rangers topped Dundee 2-0 to move into second place.
Stanislav Varga also scored for Celtic, while Nacho Novo scored both goals for Rangers against his old club.
Also, Kilmarnock's Kris Boyd hit all five of his team's goals in a 5-2 victory over Dundee United to tie a Premier League record.
France
Monaco stayed one point clear in the French league after holding three-time defending champion Lyon to a 0-0 draw.
Lille, which trounced Metz 4-0, jumped into second place, ahead of Lyon on goal difference. Matt Mossilou scored twice for Lille while Milenko Acimovic and Johan Audel added the others.
Monaco is top with 17 points from eight matches, while Lille and Lyon each have 16 points.
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