Barca beaten, Chelsea and Juventus march on

SPAINLeaders Barcelona suffered their first league defeat of the season in a shock 2-1 reverse at Real Betis. Edu and Ricardo Oliveira put B...

SPAIN

Leaders Barcelona suffered their first league defeat of the season in a shock 2-1 reverse at Real Betis. Edu and Ricardo Oliveira put Betis 2-0 up and Barca could not recover despite a late goal from Gerard.

Rivals Real Madrid, who visit the Nou Camp next Saturday, closed to within four points with a dazzling 6-1 demolition of Albacete. Ronaldo scored twice, Zinedine Zidane netted his first of the season and substitute Michael Owen was on target again in a superb Real display at the Bernabeu.

ITALY

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An Alessandro Del Piero goal gave Juventus a 1-0 win at Lecce as the Serie A leaders maintained their six-point advantage over second-placed AC Milan. Ukrainian striker Andriy Shevchenko scored both goals as Milan beat Siena 2-1 at the San Siro.

Inter Milan’s bizarre season continued as they came back from 3-1 down at Cagliari, two goals from Obafemi Martins earning them a 3-3 draw. The result maintains Inter’s unbeaten record but that counts for little, with 10 draws from 12 games, they are now 15 points behind Juve.

ENGLAND

Dutch winger Arjen Robben was again in inspirational form to keep Chelsea top of the table as they and fellow Londoners Arsenal won high-scoring derbies. Arsenal exploited some woeful Tottenham Hotspur defending to record a 5-4 victory at their North London rivals and Robben scored the second for Chelsea in a 4-1 win at Fulham in the West London derby to keep them two points clear.

Robert Pires scored what proved to be the winner as Arsenal ended a run of three league matches without a victory in the joint highest scoring match in Premier League history.

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Wayne Rooney scored twice as Manchester United won 3-1 at Newcastle United. Bryan Robson’s first match in charge of West Bromwich Albion ended in a 2-1 home defeat by Middlesbrough.

FRANCE

Leaders Olympique Lyon returned to winning ways by beating visiting Nantes 2-0. The three-time French champions, beaten for the first time this season by Lille in the League Cup first round in midweek, got back on track thanks to almost identical goals by Pierre-Alain Frau and Sidney Govou. The win extended their lead to three points over Lille.

GERMANY

VfL Wolfsburg and Bayern Munich moved clear at the top of the Bundesliga after rivals Schalke 04 and VfB Stuttgart lost.

Leaders Wolfsburg beat Stuttgart 3-0 with two goals by Martin Petrov and are a point clear of Bayern who won 3-1 at VfL Bochum helped by two late goals from Peruvian Paolo Guerrero. Schalke are third, two points adrift of Bayern, after their six-match winning run came to an end in a 3-1 defeat by Hertha Berlin. Stuttgart trail Schalke by a point in fourth. (Reuters)