adminPremier League leaders Chelsea suffered a surprise defeat at Aston Villa as title rivals Liverpool, Arsenal and Manchester City all won to keep up the pressure at the top of the table.Real Madrid stayed three points clear at the head of La Liga with victory over Malaga and Lionel Messi became the record scorer for third-placed Barcelona in a 7-0 romp against Osasuna.
Bayern extended their unbeaten Bundesliga run to 50 games and Italian leaders Juventus went 17 points clear in Serie A by winning 1-0 at Genoa.
Premier League leaders Chelsea suffered a surprise 1-0 defeat at Aston Villa as Liverpool, Arsenal and Manchester City all won to close the gap at the top.
City overcame the sending-off of captain Vincent Kompany to win 2-0 at Hull City and Arsenal’s Tomas Rosicky struck in the second minute to earn his side a 1-0 victory at local rivals Tottenham Hotspur.
Captain Steven Gerrard converted two penalties and Luis Suarez scored a late goal as Liverpool eased to a 3-0 win at champions Manchester United in the north-west derby.
Chelsea top the standings with 66 points from 30 games, Liverpool and Arsenal have 62 from 29 and Manchester City are on 60 from 27.
Spain
Cristiano Ronaldo struck midway through the first half as leaders Real Madrid won 1-0 at Malaga on Saturday as Atletico Madrid stayed hot on their heels after Diego Costa netted in a 1-0 victory over Espanyol.
Lionel Messi bagged a hat-trick to become Barcelona’s all-time top scorer as they warmed up for next weekend’s El Clasico against Real with a 7-0 victory over Osasuna on Sunday.
The Argentine now has 371 goals for Barca in all matches including friendlies, surpassing the record of Paulino Alcantara, who played for the club between 1912 and 1927 and notched up 369 goals.
Real have 70 points, three ahead of Atletico and Barcelona are a point further adrift in third.
Germany
Bayern Munich extended their unbeaten league run to 50 matches and stretched their lead at the top of the Bundesliga table to 23 points with a 2-1 win over Bayer Leverkusen.
Mario Mandzukic, with his 17th goal of the season, and Bastian Schweinsteiger, from a 30-metre free kick, scored for Bayern before Stefan Kiessling replied for Leverkusen, whose 2-1 win over Bayern in October 2012 was the last time the Bavarians lost in the league.
Bayern have 71 points with second-placed Borussia Dortmund on 48 after a 2-1 home defeat by Borussia Moenchengladbach. Third-placed Schalke 04, who won 2-1 at Augsburg, are third with 47.
With nine matches to go, Bayern need only two more wins to wrap up a second successive title and could even clinch it next week if they beat Mainz 05 and both Dortmund and Schalke fail to win.
France
Zlatan Ibrahimovic took his season tally to a club record 40 goals when his double led runaway leaders Paris St Germain to a 2-0 home win against St Etienne on Sunday. PSG have 70 points with nine games remaining and lead second-placed Monaco, who beat Olympique Lyon 3-2 away thanks to a goal and two assists from Dimitar Berbatov, by eight points.
With his 24th and 25th league goals, Ibrahimovic took his tally to 40 in all competitions, one more than Argentine Carlos Bianchi’s previous record set in 1977-78.
Lille are third in Ligue 1 on 53 points after a goalless draw against Nantes on Saturday.
Italy
Leaders Juventus won 1-0 at Genoa thanks to a typical late free kick by playmaker Andrea Pirlo and a second-half penalty save from Gianluigi Buffon.
The champions have 75 points from 28 games, 17 clear of second-placed AS Roma who host Udinese on Monday. Napoli, a further three points behind in third, visit Torino the same evening.
Germany forward Mario Gomez was among the scores as fourth-placed Fiorentina beat Chievo 3-1 and Inter Milan’s revival continued with a 2-0 win at Hellas Verona.
Crisis-club AC Milan were beaten 4-2 at home by Parma as they slumped to a fourth consecutive defeat in all competitions.- Supersport.
Online Reporter