Brits Abroad: Trent Alexander-Arnold finally proves his worth to Real Madrid as Harry Kane reaches 500 career goals & Jarell Quansah leads Bayer Leverkusen to huge win

It's been an underwhelming debut season at Real Madrid for Trent Alexander-Arnold so far. The former Liverpool right-back has had to contend with two different muscle injuries and missed 21 games as a result, while he has only featured in 18 matches for Los Blancos - and that's including last summer's Club World Cup, which technically was part of last season.

Slowly but surely, Alexander-Arnold is working his way back to full health. After making his comeback off the bench in last week's 2-0 win at Valencia, he made his first start since December for Saturday's 4-1 demolition of Real Sociedad.

Real Madrid got off the mark five minutes in thanks to some vintage play from Alexander-Arnold, whose delightfully curled cross around the Real Sociedad backline found striker Gonzalo Garcia, and he redirected the ball so delicately into the far corner. The 27-year-old was given a warm ovation for his endeavours when substituted on the hour mark.

"We're not going to discover anything new about Trent," head coach Alvaro Arbeloa told the press. "It was a nice surprise to see how he understands the game, how he sees the spaces. Those things are very important for a coach, having players who understand what we want. Not just the passing to get the team running, but everything we want from him.

"Working with him, he strikes me as a very intelligent guy, who understands the game very well, and quickly grasps what we want from him. He's not the typical full-back who's always going to be out wide, he can also play centrally. We want players to be able to interchange positions. We're lucky to have a player like that."

Bellingham, meanwhile, watched on from the stands with his partner, Ashlyn Castro, for a special Valentine's Day date. Because nothing says 'I love you' like cheering on your mates.

Scoring goals isn't anything new to Harry Kane. After all, he's now grabbed 500 of them - 280 for Tottenham, 126 for Bayern Munich, nine for Millwall, five for Leyton Orient, two for Leicester City and 78 for the England national team.

Kane bagged a brace in Bayern's 3-0 win at Werder Bremen on Saturday to take himself to 500 career goals, a feat never before achieved by an Englishman in the professional game.

"For me personally, I'm really proud to reach 500 career goals," Kane said in a video posted on his social media channels. "All these milestones are something I'm really proud of. I try and take it in, I try and appreciate it. A big thanks to all my team-mates over the years, all the coaches, all the staff that have helped me to achieve it."

Of the 500 in Kane's career, 26 have come in this season's Bundesliga, meaning he needs 15 from the final 12 games of the campaign to tie the competition record of 41 set by Robert Lewandowski.

"Anything is possible!" Kane said to Sky Sports Deutschland when asked about hitting that number. "Of course, there's still a long way to go and it's an incredible record. I'm in good form and happy to have scored again today and helped the team."

Bayern head coach Vincent Kompany wasn't too impressed at first when he was quizzed on the record at his post-match press conference, but ultimately did see the funny side of his own steadfast mentality.

"I assume that the league title is much more important for him than the record. But maybe I'm wrong because I was a defender not a striker!" the Belgian laughed. "He's Harry Kane, he has and will always score goals."

Away from the harsh spotlight of the Premier League, Jarell Quansah is quietly enjoying a fine first season abroad with Bayer Leverkusen, especially considering the circumstances. Signed by ex-Manchester United manager Erik ten Hag, Quansah's year was plunged into uncertainty when the Dutchman was brutally sacked only two games into the Bundesliga campaign, with former Denmark boss Kasper Hjulmand drafted in as his successor.

Understandably, this has been a season of transition for Leverkusen, who waved goodbye to title-winning manager Xabi Alonso and star playmaker Florian Wirtz over the summer. But Quansah has still made a decent account of himself, featuring 29 times for them across all competitions. On Saturday, he scored his third goal for the club.

Quansah broke the deadlock as Leverkusen boosted their hopes of qualifying for the Champions League with a 4-0 victory at home to St. Pauli. On the second delivery following a corner, the ex-Liverpool defender popped up to nod in Ernest Poku's cross off the underside of the crossbar.

"It feels really good to have contributed to this win offensively as well," Quansah told Leverkusen club channels. "We needed to dominate this game like that today. That was a good performance, now we have 10 games in quick succession and we want to win as many of them as possible."

Quansah also noted how this season of various changes has disrupted Leverkusen's progress. "I have the feeling people sometimes forget that," he added. "That's why my respect goes to all the lads who don't play every week but still deliver a top performance when they're needed."

This is becoming quite the occurrence, isn't it, Ruben Loftus-Cheek? He's only scored three goals all season for AC Milan, but two have come in his last two games.

After netting the opener in an impressive 3-0 win away at Bologna, Loftus-Cheek was once more the deadlock-breaker as the Rossoneri ground out a 2-1 win at Pisa. Starting in a shadow-striker role behind fellow ex-Chelsea man Christopher Nkunku, he ghosted into the box to power Zachary Athekame's cross down and in.

The real drama came late on, with Luka Modric popping up with a late winner and Adrien Rabiot sent off in added time after Felipe Loyola looked to have rescued a point for the hosts. And speaking to DAZN post-match, Loftus-Cheek, who has greatly improved his chances of making England's World Cup squad in recent weeks, admitted head coach Massimiliano Allegri had been urging him to crash the box more and make himself more of a nuisance in the final third.

"There was not too much space between the lines, Pisa were very compact, and it was difficult to play," he said. "When the ball was wide, I'm sure you could hear [Allegri], he was saying get in the box, attack the box. Zack put a great cross in, and I got on the end of it, so I'm very happy."

Milan remain second in Serie A, and though they are eight points behind leaders Inter, Allegri's men have a game in hand on their rivals.

"I think the most important thing is to focus on us," Loftus-Cheek said about the title race. "The games are too difficult to look ahead, we have to take it game by game, as you can see all the matches are so difficult to win. If we take our focus away on other objectives, other teams, it can be detrimental. We'll see where we are."

Marseille are usually only one game away from bursting into flames as a team, club and institution. After losing 5-0 to Paris Saint-Germain in Le Classique last week, head coach Roberto De Zerbi departed OM, bringing an end to his dramatic two-and-a-half year tenure.

Ahead of Saturday's clash with Chelsea's sister club Strasbourg - managed by Gary O'Neil and featuring Ben Chilwell in the starting XI - Marseille ultras vacated their seats to leave an entire stand deserted, save for banners directed at the club board. "Stands empty in protest. For a club self-destructing. All your projects go up in flames during these wasted years," they read.

Under the guidance of caretaker manager Jacques Abardonado, Marseille actually raced into a two-goal lead, with Mason Greenwood scoring the opener. Then, in typical OM fashion, everything unravelled.

Sebastian Nanasi pulled one back for Strasbourg midway through the second half, and in the fourth minute of added time, former Chelsea and West Ham defender Emerson Palmieri conceded a penalty. Following a three-minute delay, Joaquin Panichelli stepped up and converted to salvage a point for Strasbourg.

Arsenal fans will be disappointed to hear that Ethan Nwaneri, whose loan isn't quite going according to plan, was an unused substitute, and he is having to try and focus in a far from ideal environment. La Provence reported that supporters tried to storm the presidential suite at Stade Velodrome as tensions flared further, before sporting director Mehdi Benatia stood down on Sunday. There's never a dull moment at Marseille.

Espanyol, the little brother crosstown rivals of Barcelona, are looking to return to European competition for the first time since 2020, sitting pretty in sixth in La Liga through 24 rounds of fixtures. Summer signing Tyrhys Dolan, who joined on a free transfer from Championship side Blackburn Rovers, has appeared in 23 of those games, and started 17 of them.

The tricky winger has been thriving in Spain, though went into the weekend still without a La Liga goal to his name - but that changed against fellow European hopefuls Celta Vigo. With the scores locked at 1-1 heading into the final five minutes, Dolan made a darting run infield and was on hand to poke home Ramon Terrats' cutback. Obviously ecstatic, Dolan pulled out an acrobatic celebration, thinking his first Espanyol goal was going to be a late winner at an important point in their season.

But it just wasn't to be. Three minutes into stoppage time, Borja Iglesias snuck in behind the hosts' defence and tapped in from close range after Pablo Duran's back-heel towards goal caught Espanyol off guard, meaning the spoils were thus shared as RCDE Stadium.

"Bittersweet not to take all three points, but so happy to score my first goal for this special club, hopefully more to come from this moment," Dolan wrote on Instagram. "Thank you for the amazing support."