Title race over?

EPL: It seems very doubtful that anyone will catch the league leaders as Manchester United went nine points clear atop the league despite relying on Wayne Rooney’s lone goal in a pedestrian performance against Fulham.

City allowed them this after drawing 2-2 at home to Liverpool. Liverpool had the best of the match and scored two long-range strikes, however Sergio Aguero scored from an improbable angle to snatch a fortunate draw.

Tottenham moved to within one point of third-placed Chelsea, who lost 3-2 to Newcastle as Moussa Sissoko scored a brace. Tottenham relied on a sole wonder strike from Gareth Bale to down West Brom.

Fifth-placed Everton snuck a draw at home to second-bottom Aston Villa as Marouane Fellaini scored in the 93rd minute to tie the match at 3-3. Arsenal’s Lukas Podolski scored a free kick deep in the second half to give the Gunners the three points and a clean sheet at Stoke, while third-last Wigan drew 2-2 with Southampton.

QPR remain bottom after drawing 0-0 with Norwich while Reading beat Sunderland 2-1.

Top teams stutter

La Liga: Second-placed Atletico Madrid were the only top-seven team to win this weekend and even they could only muster a 1-0 win against Betis.

Barcelona were held to draw 1-1 by Valencia, but remain nine points atop the league, while Real Madrid were clipped 1-0 by Granada as Cristiano Ronaldo netted an own goal. Fourth-placed Malaga were also held as Zaragoza produced a steely performance for the 1-1 tie. Sevilla beat Vallecano 2-1, while Bilbao and Valladolid tied 2-2.

Last-placed Deportivo were beaten 3-1 by Getafe, while second-bottom Mallorca were blanked 3-0 by Sociedad. Osasuna, meanwhile, claimed a valuable three points in their survival battle as they committed Celta to third-bottom with a 1-0 win.

And then there were two

Serie A: The race for the Italian title, the Scudetto, at this point in the season seems to be a race between Napoli and Juventus with three points separating Juve from Napoli.

This weekend both Juve and Napoli won against Chievo and Torino respectively however next week could be a game-changer as they both face tough tasks against Fiorentina and Lazio respectively.

Lazio have slipped to six points behind Napoli as they were downed by third-bottom Genoa 3-2. AC Milan, bolstered by the signing of Mario Balotelli, leap-frogged their Milan rivals to settle in fourth, three points behind Lazio. Balotelli scored two including a 94th-minute penalty to give AC the 2-1 win over Udinese.

Inter went down 3-1 to Siena who lifted themselves from the base of the table with that win, while Palermo were condemned to the bottom with after losing 2-1 to Atalanta.

Roma’s coach, Zdenek Zeman, was removed after they went suffered a 4-2 upset to Cagliari, while Fiorentina blanked Parma 2-0.

Dortmund go second

Bundesliga: Borussia Dortmund sent Leverkusen down to third place as Robert Lewandowski scored his 13th goal of the league campaign to give Dortmund the 3-2 win over Sami Hyppia’s men.

Bayern Munich’s lead is therefore up to twelve points as the Bavarians blanked Mainz 3-0 amid a Mario Mandzukic brace for his 13th and 14th of the season. Fourth-placed Eintracht Frankfurt also earned a clean sheet with a 2-0 win at Hamburg while Schalke were shocked by last place Greuther Furth 2-1.

Third-bottom Hoffenheim also earned a 2-1 win against Freiburg, while Augsburg who are directly below them, held Wolfsburg to a 1-1 draw. Werder Bremen blanked Hannover 2-0, while Robbie Kruse netted a double in Dusseldorf’s 3-1 win over Stuttgart.

Nuremburg climbed further towards survival with a 2-1 win over Monchengladbach.

— Yakum Fitz-Henley