Juve, Barca and Arsenal steam on

ENGLAND

Chelsea suffered their first defeat under coach Jose Mourinho when Arsenal's main rival's for the title went down 1-0 at lowly Manchester City.

An early Nicolas Anelka penalty caused the upset and left champions Arsenal five points clear at the top after they had cantered to a 3-1 win over Aston Villa.

Previously unbeaten in both Premier League and Champions League action, Chelsea were taken by surprise by a City side who had only won two of their previous eight league games.

That defeat leaves Arsenal top on 25 points with Chelsea second on 20 and Everton a point further back after a late 1-0 win over Southampton.

Manchester United slipped to sixth, 11 points adrift of Arsenal, after a 0-0 draw at Birmingham City.

ITALY

Serie A leaders Juventus ended Messina's unbeaten start to the season with a 2-1 win over the promoted Sicilian club.

Goals from Uruguayan Marcelo Zalayeta and European Footballer of the Year Pavel Nedved helped unbeaten Juve to their fifth win in six matches, giving them a three-point lead over AC Milan, who won 1-0 at Cagliari.

The weekend's big performance, though, came from Brazilian striker Adriano, who scored two wonderful goals in the opening 11 minutes as Inter Milan beat Udinese 3-1.

Adriano was not even expected to play, having missed his initial flight back from international duty with Brazil.

The striker returned to Italy only on Saturday but was named in the starting line-up alongside Christian Vieri and, jet lag or not, showed he remained in top form. Vieri scored Inter's third goal.

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SPAIN

Portugal's Deco struck from outside the penalty area in the ninth minute to give Barcelona a 1-0 derby win at Espanyol and take the in-form Catalans five points clear of Valencia at the top of the Spanish first division.

Valencia lost their unbeaten record in a 2-1 defeat at home against nine-man Sevilla, who are now only behind them on goal difference in third place. Barcelona, now the only unbeaten team, have 19 points from seven games.

Real Madrid fell even further behind the leaders when they needed a second-half goal from Ronaldo to salvage a 1-1 draw at Real Betis.

Champions Valencia took the lead in the 58th minute with a Bernardo Corradi strike that took a huge deflection off Aitor Ocio but seven minutes later Julio Baptista equalised.

Each side had a player sent off before Carlos Aranda stole in at the far post for the winner eight minutes from time.

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GERMANY

Unbeaten VfB Stuttgart moved top of the Bundesliga with a convincing 2-0 win over Borussia Dortmund, overtaking VfL Wolfsburg, whose six-match winning streak ended in a 3-0 defeat away to Hanover 96.

Bayern Munich's recovery ended in a humbling 1-0 home loss to Schalke 04 and they dropped to fourth after FSV Mainz upset champions Werder Bremen 2-1.

Andreas Hinkel put Stuttgart ahead in the 52nd minute and Brazilian Cacau cashed in on a Kevin Kuranyi pass for the second 16 minutes later as they moved on to 20 points from eight games. Wolfsburg remain on 18 points, Mainz have 15, Bayern 14 and Werder 12.

Bottom club Hamburg SV fired coach Klaus Toppmoeller after the 1983 European Cup champions lost their sixth match of the season. He will be replaced by former Germany international Thomas Doll.

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FRANCE

Lille kept pace with champions Olympique Lyon at the top of Ligue 1 when they beat Bastia 2-1, their sixth successive win.

They are level on 22 points with Olympique Lyon, who they trail on goal difference after the champions' 4-0 demolition of promoted Caen.

AJ Auxerre are third on 19 points after a 3-0 home victory over Racing Lens and Monaco, held 1-1 at Metz, fourth on 18.