Iñaki Dufour
Madrid, Oct 6 (EFE).- Neither Aston Villa nor Chelsea can stand the pace of Liverpool, Manchester City and Arsenal, which are opening a gap in the competition for the English ‘Premier League’, while Romelu Lukaku held the Napoli’s leadership in Italy, Omar Marmoush and Eintracht Frankfurt sparked the debate for the top with Bayern Munich in Germany, already equaled by Leipzig, and Paris Saint Germain lost first place, now to Monaco, in France.
The first position belongs to Liverpool, third last season; one point above City, the current champion, and Arsenal, frustrated by two second places in the last two campaigns. Afterwards, they are already four points away from Chelsea and Aston Villa, unable to respond with the same solvency as the top three.
On Saturday, Liverpool beat Crystal Palace 0-1. A goal from Diogo Jota at the beginning of the match was enough for him. Then he lost goalkeeper Alisson Becker to a muscle injury and awaited events. They did not favor him. Arsenal came back and suffered against Southampton (3-1), thanks to Kai Havertz’s great goal from 1-1 and Gabriel Martinelli’s 2-1. City, more of the same, beat Fulham 3-1: a double from Mateo Kovavic raised the score to 0-1.
Everyone remains the same, open between the three visible and unalterable favorites for the title, while the others lose step. Chelsea’s meritorious reaction with Enzo Maresca in charge has limits, with a draw with Forest (1-1), after three consecutive wins, achieved again by Noni Madueke, rediscovered with the goal six games later. Aston Villa, tied with Manchester United in fourteenth place, is not yet able to take the top spot either.
Neither Ipswich nor Crystal Palace nor Southampton nor Wolves have yet won in the English championship, beaten 5-3 by Brentford and at the bottom of the table.
Winner of everything until the previous day, as soon as Bayern Munich met its great rivals it was no longer the winner. It was not against Bayer Leverkusen (1-1) a week ago nor this Sunday against Eintracht Frankfurt, second in the standings before the duel and now third, whom they deserved to beat, but tied in the final moments with the 3-3 of Omar Marmoush, author of eight goals in six duels.
Two of them to Bayern, which maintains the lead, but is already balanced on points with Leipzig, at their level with four wins and two draws, entrusted to a goal from Lois Openda to successfully overcome Heindenheim (0-1). Eintracht is one point away. Freiburg is two, winning 0-1 in Bremen. To three are Bayer Leverkusen, tied against the odds and after a 2-0 in favor of Holstein Kiel, and Unión Berlin, which defeated Borussia Dortmund 2-1.
Precisely, Holstein Kiel and Bochum are the only two teams that have not yet won in the Bundesliga, just as Monza has not done so in the Italian Serie A, although this Sunday they left the last position with their fourth draw in seven days: 1-1 against Roma, who still have ups and downs, with 10 points out of a possible 21 and are ninth in the table.
Six points, however, only behind the leadership of Naples, which has not lost since the first day. The abrupt start of the Antonio Conte era today is impressive, winner of five of the last six games (he also tied 0-0 with Juventus), at the top of the standings with two points ahead of Inter, second, after defeating by 3-1 to Como by Cesc Fábregas. Scott McTominay, David Neres and Romelu Lukaku scored the goals. The Belgian gave two assists.
They are followed by Inter, who beat a Torino team that was outnumbered (3-2) with a ‘treble’ by Marcus Thuram, who has already scored seven goals this season, for his team’s second consecutive victory since their defeat with Milan, who lost this Sunday on his visit to Fiorentina, with David de Gea as the hero: he saved two penalties. One to Theo Hernández and another to Abraham. His team won 2-1.
Thiago Motta’s Juventus – fourth – had not conceded a goal until this Sunday, when Cagliari, fifteenth in the table, and Razvan Marin beat Michele Di Gregorio’s goal with a penalty in the 88th minute to level the score at 1-0 at the start by Dusan Vlahovic, with seven goals in nine games, five in the most recent three.
In France, Monaco took the lead. They won their visit to Rennes 1-2 and waited for Paris Saint Germain to stumble. They have not lost since April 28, when they lost 3-2 to Lyon on the thirty-first matchday of last season. Now they have four wins in the French Ligue 1 to surpass the current champion in the standings.
Because Luis Enrique Martínez’s block, between the agitation of the defeat against Arsenal during the week and the ‘forgiveness’ to Ousmane Dembele (he played as a starter this Sunday after his absence in the squad for London), lost two more points on his visit to Nice. Abdi put the local team ahead, Nuno Mendes leveled the match. Marseille, on the other hand, is losing pace. It’s already five points away. They lost the last two at home, with a 1-1 score. EFE
