PREMIER LEAGUE
Chelsea made it a miserable return for Jose Mourinho as they hammered his Manchester United side 4-0 at Stamford Bridge on Sunday in the Premier League.
Pedro Rodriguez opened the scoring after just 30 seconds and Chelsea did not look back, Gary Cahill, Eden Hazard and N’Golo Kante completing an emphatic victory.
Manchester City returned to the top of the Premier League with a 1-1 draw home to Southampton on Sunday but the performance again raised questions over the title credentials of Pep Guardiola’s team.
The stalemate was a fifth consecutive game without a victory for City, as Kelechi Iheanacho’s eighth goal in his last 11 league games cancelled out Nathan Redmond’s first-half opener for Southampton, which owed much to an extraordinary mistake by City defender John Stones.
LA LIGA
Real Madrid claimed top spot in LaLiga as Alvaro Morata marked his 24th birthday with the vital goal in a 2-1 victory over Athletic Bilbao at the Bernabeu.
A straightforward win seemed on the cards when Karim Benzema swept in a seventh-minute opener after a clever cut-back from Isco, but Real looked hesitant at the back and Athletic were good value for the equaliser scored by Sabin Merino (27).
It looked as though Zinedine Zidane’s men were on course to drop points until Gareth Bale’s cross from the left picked out Morata, who beat Athletic goalkeeper Gorka Iraizoz at the second attempt.
Sevilla briefly went top, but had to settle for finishing round nine in second place as they beat Atletico Madrid 1-0 at a rain-soaked Ramon Sanchez-Pizjuan.
Steven Nzonzi raced clear and finished coolly in the 73rd minute to end Atletico’s unbeaten start in LaLiga.
It was Sevilla’s fifth consecutive victory in all competitions as Diego Simeone’s Atletico side ended the weekend in fifth.
SERIE A
Nikola Kalinic struck a hat-trick and Federico Bernardeschi hit a brace as Fiorentina’s stuttering Serie A season finally took flight with a classy 5-3 win at Cagliari on Sunday.
Elsewhere, 10-man Napoli added to the woes of basement side Crotone with a 2-1 win that reduced their gap on leaders Juventus to four points
Already winless in their past three games, Inter Milan were stunned by a late penalty at Atalanta that gave Gian Piero Gasperini’s hosts their second big scalp three weeks after stunning Napoli 1-0 at home.
Elsewhere, Roma crushed Palermo 4-1 at home.
LIGUE 1
Rudi Garcia’s first game in charge of Marseille ended in a 0-0 draw with Paris Saint-Germain as his new team frustrated the French champions.
SCOTTISH LEAGUE CUP
Moussa Dembele grabbed a late winner as Celtic clinched a place in the Scottish League Cup final with a 1-0 defeat of Old Firm rivals Rangers at Glasgow’s Hampden Park on Sunday.