We have a title race on our hands in LaLiga. For now, the two teams in the Spanish capital are still best positioned, but Real Madrid‘s shock defeat on Saturday has opened the door for their rivals in Catalonia, too.
In the Premier League, Tottenham Hotspur earned their first league win since December, stringing together back-to-back clean sheets for just the third time this season. Is it the start of a turnaround?
Meanwhile, in the Bundesliga, RB Leipzig‘s winless streak reached four games. The club that as recently as December looked like Bayern Munich‘s closest challenger is suddenly 18 points behind the leaders.
Sam Tighe, Sam Marsden and Constantin Eckner make observations from across Europe to bring you up to speed on what you might have missed this weekend.
Top takeaway: Spurs show some steel. Is it a turning point?
The Gtech Community Stadium has been a fierce place to visit this season, and while Brentford‘s form there has sloped off a little of late, that can largely be attributed to a run of horror fixtures: Nottingham Forest, Arsenal, Manchester City then Liverpool in a row. On paper, the visit of Tottenham Hotspur completed a quintet of extreme challenges, but in reality, this season’s Spurs have often been a soft touch and an easy win.
Well, they were no soft touch here, despite what the team sheet may have suggested. Spurs once again rocked up with a defence that looked completely out of sorts — there wasn’t an established centre-back to be seen, while the left-back was in fact a right-back — plus Dominic Solanke and James Maddison were missing, too. Put simply, this did not look like a team capable of dealing with the Brentford barrage.
But deal with it they did. They made clearance after clearance, tackle after tackle, and when all else failed, Djed Spence blocked one on the line. At the other end they scored via a set piece and an incisive transition move. Son Heung-Min was hugely influential in both goals and worked his socks off tracking back, epitomising a true team display in the 2-0 win.
Including the midweek win over Elfsborg in the UEFA Europa League, that’s two clean sheets on the bounce for Ange Postecoglou, plus defensive help is on its way courtesy of the transfer window. Is this the turning point he’s no doubt been longing for?
Best match: Arsenal 5-1 Manchester City
A clash between these two is appointment viewing these days, and while the scoreline ended up a little one sided, it was a great battle with just the right amount of needle in it. To sum it up: Gabriel Magalhães celebrated Arsenal’s opener in Erling Haaland‘s face; the striker’s equalising goal brought a pointed response; 18-year-old Myles Lewis-Skelly then scored his first Arsenal goal and crowned it with Haaland’s “zen” celebration; and Kai Havertz completed his own redemptive arc with the final goal as signs that read “stay humble” were held aloft around the stadium — a reference to Haaland’s jibe directed at Arteta in the reverse fixture back in September.
This is a proper rivalry!
Dan Thomas is joined by Craig Burley, Shaka Hislop and others to bring you the latest highlights and debate the biggest storylines. Stream on ESPN+ (U.S. only).
What else you missed this weekend
Milan’s derby dent to Inter’s Scudetto charge
Derby days don’t get much more frustrating than the one Inter Milan experienced against fierce rivals AC Milan on Sunday — but credit to them, they absolutely refused to be beaten.
For a long, long time — 93 minutes, in fact — it looked like “one of those nights” for the Nerazzurri. Manager Simone Inzaghi watched on in horror as his team had three goals disallowed and hit the post three times, failing to respond to Tijjani Reijnders‘ goal on the stroke of half-time.
With every Inter chance missed, Milan’s chests puffed outwards a little more. Fikayo Tomori led a determined, gritty effort that did so well for so long, and also saw Kyle Walker make his debut in red and black.
In the end, though, the pressure told. Inter pushed and pushed, bombarded the box, and another debutant, Nicola Zalewski — signed on loan from AS Roma on Saturday — chested a ball back across goal for Stefan de Vrij to stab home and rescue a 1-1 draw.
A point was nothing short of what Inter deserved, but it still opens the door for Napoli to move four points clear at the top of Serie A. — Tighe
Piatek has been reborn in Turkey
There was a time when Krzysztof Piatek looked like the next great Poland striker, ready to follow in Robert Lewandowski‘s footsteps. Suffice it to say, things did not exactly work out as hoped. He moved from Hertha Berlin to Turkish side Istanbul Basaksehir in 2023, where he impressed in his first Super Lig season but has been completely on fire since November, scoring 12 goals in eight league games and four goals in four UEFA Conference League games.
Piatek’s hat trick against Samsunspor on Saturday was his fourth since coming to the Super Lig.
“Piatek is no longer just a penalty area player,” former Poland international Artur Wichniarek commented after Piatek’s three-goal performance put him top of the Super Lig’s goal scoring charts. “He also plays outside of it.”
It is quite unrealistic that, at 29, he will get another shot at a big club as he did when AC Milan signed him in 2019, but his resurgence in Turkey has been great to see. — Eckner
