Domestic leagues 10/16/2010

In the German Bundesliga, Bayern showed some good form in a 3-0 thrashing of Hannover. However, that isn't the big news; Mainz, the early pace-settters of the league, lost 1-0 in the 89th minute against Hamburg. This result puts them level, with 21 points, with Dortmund, who lead Mainz on goal difference. Other notable results are Schalke drawing 2-2 with Stuttgart, both in the doldroms of the bottom table. Meanwhile, St. Pauli beat Nurnberg 3-2, while Wolfsburg lost by the same margin to Leverkusen. Moving on, in the Scottish League, Rangers seized the league apex with a 4-1 victory over Motherwell. how long they will stay there though depends on Celtic's next match as Rangers have now played one more game than their rivals. Despite the loss, Motherwell still holds third place in the league; however, they only sit two points above the next three teams: Inverness, Hearts, and Dundee United, who each have 11 points. Moving south now, in the English Premier League Chelsea still holds the league with a 5 point gap despite the tie today, 0-0, with Aston Villa. Four teams are in the second place block, each with 14 points: Arsenal, the two main Manchester clubs, United and City, and Tottenham Hotspur make up these four clubs. This occured with Arsenal's 2-1 victory over Birmingham, a game where Arsenal began behind and then scored two goals on either side of half-time. Proceeding with the games, Tottenham edged out Fulham 2-1, scoring first and last in an interesting game. Meanwhile, Manchester United missed an oppurtunity to grab a decisive hold on second place when West Brom managed a 2-2 tie with them. In the topsy-turvy Italian league, AC Milan scored all the goals in their game against Cheivo. The final score was 3-1 because of Ibrahimovic's own goal in the 70th minute. Despite this event, Pato scored twice while Robinho scored the same. Meanwhile, Roma is beating Genoa as I write this by the slim margin of 1-0. Before closing, I'd like to mention happenings in the French League and the Swedish Allsvensken. In France Sochaux lost 2-0 to Montpellier, Marseille defeated Nancy 1-0, Bordeaux beat Auxerre by the same score, and finally PSG leads Toulouse 1-0 as I write this. In Sweden, Malmo holds first place with a 3 point lead over the second place team. Today, AIK took 3 points in a 2-0 victory over Gelfe, both teams are in the lesser portions of the table (13th and 15th respectively). Finally, in Spain, Barcelona is playing Valencia, as I'm writing this Valencia have scored first, but Barcelona has equalized through Iniesta while Puyol has given them a 2-1 advantage. A victory will put Barcelona in top position. That is, until Real Madrid plays, who will be facing the minnows Malaga today in a game that should be a give-away to Madrid.