SUDDENLY, Manchester City do not look so impressive. Their 1-0 home defeat at the hands of Brighton followed their loss at Aston Villa a week earlier and allowed Arsenal to open up a three-point lead at the top of the Premier League. City fell behind to an 11th minute goal by Yasin Ayari and then pounded Brighton, but they came face-to-face with goalkeeper, Bart Verbruggen, who was in excellent form. It was the first time Brighton had won at City in a league game. Brighton moved into third place, underlining once more their impressive start to 2026-27. Arsenal pulled off an excellent 1-0 win at Liverpool thanks to an 11th minute goal from Kai Havertz. Liverpool complained they should have had a first-half penalty, but Arsenal’s rock-solid defence frustrated the home side. Chelsea are in fourth after their 2-0 win over crisis-torn Manchester United. Their goals came from Morgan Rogers and a penalty from Cole Palmer. Once again, the focus was on the future of United’s coach Michael Carrick, which is looking increasingly uncertain. Tottenham continued their improvement with a 2-0 win over struggling Crystal Palace. Coventry also won again, beating Sunderland 3-1 and there were home victories for Brentford and Bournemouth against Forest and Leeds respectively.
**Game of the week: Bayern Munich 2 Borussia Dortmund 2**
The Bundesliga is already developing into a battle between champions Bayern Munich and their old rivals Borussia Dortmund. The two title chasers are still unbeaten after their 2-2 draw at the Allianz Arena with both on 18 points from eight games. Bayern led twice but newly-crowned _Ballon d’Or_winner, Harry Kane did not get on the scoresheet. Konrad Laimer gave Bayern the lead after 38 minutes and it was not until the 60th minute that Serhou Guirassy equalised for BVB. Six minutes later, Kane headed down for Dayot Upamecano to score. That looked enough to win the points, but with a minute remaining, Fabio Silva netted an equaliser for the visitors.
**Bundesliga: Battle at the bottom**
Bottom-placed Borussia Mönchengladbach were held to a 0-0 draw by visitors Paderborn with goalkeeper Nahuel Noll having a stellar game to deny the home side. Gladbach have just four points this season and have won only once. Schalke have two points more and are struggling to win games and have scored only four times, the lowest in the Bundesliga. They were beaten 2-0 at home by RB Leipzig in front of over 61,000 people and managed just one shot on target. Union Berlin and Hamburg are both on seven points after the former drew 1-1 with Köln and HSV were beaten 3-1 at Eintracht Frankfurt.
**Serie A: Rossoneri win the derby**
Lazio are now three points clear at the top of Serie A after beating Cagliari 2-1. Gustav Isaksen and Andrea Pinamonti scored for the leaders after Cagliari had gone ahead in the 20th minute. The Sardinians had a man sent off in the final minute. The big game, however, was in Milan where the two San Siro tenants came head-to-head. AC Milan ran out 3-1 winners after they went two goals in front (Pulisic and Rabiot) inside 11 minutes to set the tone of the match. Alessandro Bastoni pulled one back but Milan added a third before half-time through Diego Moreira. Roma kept up their challenge with a 5-2 win at Udinese. They went 4-0 up in the first 37 minutes and the home side failed to recover from that setback. Como had to rely on a penalty to win their home fixture with Venezia 1-0. Juventus won 2-0 against Napoli with goals from Kerim Alajbegovic and Jeremie Boga.
**Player of the week: Diego Moreira**
The 22-year-old had an excellent game for AC Milan against Inter, creating two goals and scoring one himself. He was a handful all evening for the Inter defence. The Belgian international (seven caps) numbers Benfica, Chelsea and Strasbourg among his previous clubs. He was signed by Milan from Strasbourg in August 2026 for € 50 million and was given a five-year contract. A dual citizen of Portugal and Belgium, Moreira played at youth level for Portugal before applying to play for Belgium. He was named in their World Cup squad in 2026, but did not get selected during the competition. This season, he has scored four times in eight appearances.
**Attendances**
1: 77,561 – AC Milan v Inter Milan