European Leagues starting to take shape

So who was the biggest winner this weekend? PSG? Roma? Liverpool? West Ham?

It all depends on who you support, so you can never really say! See, summed that up perfectly.

Dortmund lost for the first time this season, Bayern Munich were held. Juventus and Napoli are hot on the heels of Roma, who thumped Inter 3-0 and made it 7 from 7 in Serie A. Barcelona and Atletico Madrid moved to 8 wins from 8, and Real Madrid had another 94th minute winner - seems those top teams need another 5 minutes to win games, even when there were no injuries of subsitutions! Big spending Monaco and PSG sit atop Ligue Un, with Falcao leading the way with 7 goals. And I didn't pause for breath to mention the Dutch League (Twente and PSV top) or Portugal's top flight (Porto are top).

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The leagues are starting to take shape all over Europe, and it makes you worry if your team is in the relegation zone, or makes you dare to dream if you're in contention.

Take Southampton and Sunderland. One is sitting in the top 4, playing well and already have a third of the points they will need to survive, from just 7 games. The other have 1 point from 7, have sacked their manager, lost their best striker to injury and look a bit of a shambles. Yes, Sunderland played well against both Liverpool and Manchester United in the last 2 weeks, but they're already 6 points from safety and I can't see them winning 1 game, let alone 2 to rejoin the pack. If they are still bottom and in single digits by the end of November, it's all pretty much done and dusted.

And then there were questions about Southampton last year. They sacked Nigel Adkins after all he had done for the club and took a new direction. They have spent a lot of money, become very hard to beat at home, and could be this season's West Brom. It's not necessarily that they are doing things right, but they started well, got points on the board and can now build without having to worry too much about what's going on beneath them.

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And so on to another International week. They seem to come around far too often for my liking, but usually just because England are painful to watch. Gives the Geezer a chance to rest though, and who doesn't want to take some time to reflect on a huge win at White Hart Lane!