Levante were one of just two teams to beat Madrid so far this season, as well as Barcelona, in the league. They took the lead but Cristiano Ronaldo netted a hat trick and Karim Benzema one as Real romped to victory.
They moved further ahead as Barcelona lost 3-2 at Osasuna on Saturday night as their title hopes began to slip away. Pep Guardiola insisted that they would fight on though.
Behind Barcelona are Valencia, who beat Real Sociedad 4-0. Malaga beat Mallorca 3-1, whilst Espanyol suffered a surprise 2-0 home loss to Real Zaragoza. Getafe lost 2-0 at Rayo Vallecano whilst Villarreal beat Granada 3-1.
Real Betis beat Athletic Bilbao 2-1 and Atletico Madrid were held 0-0 away to Racing Santander.
In England Manchester City remain two points clear of neighbours United after battling to a 1-0 win over Aston Villa on Sunday. United beat Liverpool 2-1 in a tempestuous clash in which Luis Suarez and Patrice Evra did not shake hands. Suarez was roundly booed by United fans and booted the ball into the crowd at half time before a row ensued between him and Evra, broken up by Martin Skrtel. Evra then celebrated in front of Suarez at the end, who did not rise to the provocation.
Tottenham were in thrilling form as they crushed Newcastle 5-0 to remain in the title hunt in third, and Arsenal are back into the top four after a fairytale finish to Thierry Henry’s time in the Premier League on loan from New York. He goes back after the Champions League tie with AC Milan this week but he netted a last minute winner at Sunderland to win the game 2-1.
Arsenal moved above Chelsea, who lost 2-0 at Everton, whilst Norwich won 3-2 at Swansea in the newly promoted teams’ clash. The relegation fight got tougher too as Wigan won 2-1 at Bolton, QPR lost 3-2 at Blackburn and Wolves were thrashed 5-1 by WBA.
In France, champions Lille were shocked as Bordeaux won 5-4 in the north. Lyon were another team enduring a shock home defeat, to Caen. Both teams are now well adrift of second place Montpellier, who won 3-0 against Ajaccio, and PSG, who are a point ahead of them after a 0-0 draw at Nice.
Lorient drew 1-1 at Auxerre, Rennes beat Sochaux 1-0 and St Etienne won 1-0 at Toulouse.
In Italy AC Milan went top after coming from behind to beat Udinese at the Stade Fruili. It means Juventus are two points behind, but the unbeaten Bianconeri have two games in hand. Games were postponed, but of those that went ahead Inter were stunned for the second time this season by Novara, who won 1-0 at the San Siro. Cagliari beat Palermo 2-1, Catania thrashed Genoa 4-0 and Atalanta and Lecce drew 0-0.
In Germany, Borussia Dortmund remain top after edging out Bayer Leverkusen 1-0. Bayern Munich beat Kaiserslautern 2-0 to keep up the pace whilst Schalke lost ground after losing 3-0 at Borussia Moenchengladbach, the other top four team.
Porto won 4-0 against Leiria at the weekend in Portugal, but are still five points behind unbeaten Benfica, who beat National 4-1.
In Turkey, Galatasaray beat Kayserispor 1-0 to stay well ahead of Fenerbahce, who lost 2-1 at Karabukspor. Besiktas drew 1-1 at Sivasspor and remain third.
PSV beat De Graafschap 4-1 to stay top in Holland ahead of AZ Aalkmar, who beat Excelsior 2-0. Heerenveen won 1-0 at Waalwijk, whilst Feyenoord beat Vitesse 3-1. Twente suffered a 3-2 home loss to Heracles, whilst Ajax are sixth after the champions won 2-0 at NAC.
