City drew 3-3 at home to Sunderland, meaning Man Utd can go five points clear on Monday night against Blackburn. Arsenal lost to QPR 2-1, meaning Tottenham’s 3-1 win over Swansea drew them level with their North London rivals, and five points clear of Chelsea, who won 4-2 at Aston Villa. Newcastle beat Liverpool 2-0 to cement their grip on sixth place.
In France Paris St Germain were stunned at Nancy, losing 2-1 and handing the initiative to Montpellier in the title race. The southern team were already top but have a game in hand as their clash with Marseille was postponed to help Les Phocéens prepare for a Champions League tie with Bayern Munich. Lille beat Toulouse 2-1 to help them consolidate third, and move four points behind the leaders to keep themselves in with a shout of retaining the title. Lyon drew 1-1 at Rennes to go above Toulouse, whilst St Etienne suffered a damaging 3-2 loss at home to Nice.
In Italy AC Milan drew 1-1 at Catania, giving Juventus the chance to close the gap to two points. They did that as they beat Napoli 3-0, whilst Inter Milan won a nine goal thriller with Genoa, 5-4. Roma beat Novara 5-2, whilst Udinese lost 1-0 at Siena, Palermo beat Bologna 3-1, and Chievo won 2-1 at Fiorentina.
In Germany Borussia Dortmund drew a thriller 4-4 with Stuttgart, meaning Bayern Munich were able to close the gap to five points with a win over Nurnberg, 1-0. Borussia Moenchengladbach lost ground with a 2-1 loss at Hannover, and Schalke similarly could only draw 1-1 with Hoffenheim.
Real Madrid thrashed Osasuna 5-1, and Barcelona beat Athletic Bilbao to keep in touch with Real at the top in Spain. Valencia could not return to winning ways as they drew 1-1 with local rivals Levante, who are fighting for a Champions League spot. Atletico Madrid beat Getafe 3-0 and Malaga lost 2-0 at home to Real Betis.
In Russia Zenit St Peterburg won 2-1 at Spartak Moscow in the title race, whilst CSKA could only draw 1-1 at Kuban Krasnodar. Porto and Benfica both won in Portugal, with 2-0 and 2-1 wins over Olhanense and Sporting Braga respectively. The increasingly tight title battle in Holland took another twist as champions Ajax went top for the first time this season with a 6-0 win over Heracles, whilst AZ drew 2-2 at Vitesse, PSV beat Venlo 2-0, Twente beat Roda JC 2-0, Feyenoord beat NAC Breda 3-1 and Heerenveen beat Gronigen 3-1. In Argentina Boca Juniors beat previous leaders Estudiantes 3-0, Tigre lost to Argentinos Juniors 2-1, and Velez Sarsfield won 2-0 at San Lorenzo.
