Arne Slot comes under fire, Jude Bellingham decides El Clasico and a new star is born at Bayern Munich: 10 biggest winners and losers from the weekend of football

Surely - surely - this is Arsenal's year to get over the hump. After three successive second-placed finishes in the Premier League, the Gunners came into the campaign under pressure to finally deliver a first league title since the Invincibles reigned supreme in 2004, and they could hardly have put themselves in a better position through the first quarter of the campaign.

Mikel Arteta's side have looked a class apart, especially over the past month, though they have also been helped by the failures of others. That was certainly on display over the weekend as, while the Gunners laboured to a 1-0 win over Crystal Palace that again came about thanks to a set-piece, all three of Liverpool, Manchester City and Chelsea slipped to defeats. Arsenal subsequently find themselves four points clear at the top, with surprise package Bournemouth their nearest challengers, followed closely by Tottenham and newly-promoted Sunderland.

There is obviously still a long way to go, but given Arsenal have already got daunting trips to Anfield, Old Trafford and St. James' Park out of the way and come out the other side with a healthy lead, it already feels like it would take an almighty collapse for them to throw this one away.

The most damaging of those defeats for Arsenal's title rivals was undoubtedly Liverpool's 3-2 loss at Brentford. There had been hope that the Reds had turned a corner following their 5-1 thrashing of Eintracht Frankfurt in midweek, but the Reds' frailties that have dogged them throughout the opening months of the campaign returned on Saturday as they again defended shambolically while showing little to no cohesion in attack.

Four successive league defeats has left the defending Premier League champions seven points off the summit and, in some quarters, cast doubt on the future of manager Arne Slot. The Dutchman could do no wrong in guiding Liverpool to the title in their first post-Jurgen Klopp campaign last term, but Slot has looked short of answers so far this term, with it clear he neither knows his best starting combination nor is able to avoid panicking when it comes to trying to change games with his substitutions.

Liverpool have regularly finished games with five forwards on the pitch this season as they chase winning or equalising goals, and things came to a head at the Gtech Community Stadium when, having already made four attacking substitutions, Slot was forced to withdraw Florian Wirtz for the final five minutes and replace him with Joe Gomez as his previous changes had ended up neutralising Dominik Szoboszlai's impact, with the Hungarian having been shifted to right-back in the shuffle.

With games against in-form Aston Villa and Manchester City to come in the league before the November international break, Liverpool will have to massively raise their game to not fall totally out of the title race - that is, if they haven't already.

The biggest game of the European weekend was undoubtedly El Clasico between Real Madrid and Barcelona, and it was Los Blancos who ran out 2-1 winners to stretch their lead atop La Liga to five points as Xabi Alonso's revolution begins to take shape at Santiago Bernabeu.

One player who has had to wait patiently to get their season going is Jude Bellingham, but if his performance on Sunday was anything to go by, then the England midfielder is set to become a key piece of what Alonso is trying to achieve in the Spanish capital. For the third time in five La Liga meetings with Barcelona, Bellingham scored the winning goal, though his strike - much like his winner against Juventus in midweek - owed more to being in the right place at the right time to tap home rather than any individual brilliance.

His assist for Kylian Mbappe's opening goal, however, was Bellingham at his best. Picking up the ball just inside the Barca half, the Madrid No.5 produced a turn that sent Pedri for a hot dog and gave himself the time and space to produce an inch-perfect through-ball for Mbappe to run onto and fire past Wojciech Szczesny.

That was the highlight of an all-action display from Bellingham, who is showing few signs of any lasting damage from his shoulder surgery over the summer. With that in mind, it is crazy to think that there are those who believe England might be better off without him at this summer's World Cup. Surely Thomas Tuchel isn't one of them?...

On the other side of the Clasico divide, all eyes were understandably on Lamine Yamal ahead of kick-off. Not only did the teenage sensation carry with him Barcelona's best chance of victory, especially with Raphinha and Robert Lewandowski out injured, he also poked the Madrid bear by claiming in the days leading up to the game that Real are a team who "steals and complains", which many felt was Yamal referencing the pressure Los Blancos regularly put on referees and match officials.

Unsurprisingly, the Bernabeu faithful did not take well to such comments, and Yamal was mercilessly booed whenever he picked up the ball. Whether that affected the 18-year-old, or whether he is still not fully fit after a couple of injury issues of his own, only he will know, but Yamal was miles off his best level on Sunday. His passing and shooting was wayward and he was mostly locked down by Alvaro Carreras when he attempted to dribble inside and create an opportunity for the visitors.

Yamal's miserable day was capped when he became the target of Madrid's post-match wrath, as Dani Carvajal, Thibaut Courtois and Vinicius Jr were all seen berating the youngster at full-time, presumably because of the slanderous nature of his pre-match comments. Yamal will be the hero of plenty of Clasicos in his career, but this was one he will look back on with plenty of regrets.

Now to the most open title race among Europe's 'Big Five' leagues and Serie A, where it was again all change at the top of the table. AC Milan and Inter entered the weekend sitting in first and second, respectively, but both dropped points on a weekend to forget for clubs from the fashion capital of the world.

Milan led off on Friday as they hosted a newly-promoted Pisa side who are yet to record a victory on their return to the Italian top-flight after 34 years away, and things got off to a strong start for the Rossoneri as Rafael Leao gave them a seventh-minute lead at San Siro. However, Milan failed to make their dominance count, and they dramatically fell behind with four minutes to play before a stoppage-time equaliser from substitute defender Zachary Athekame rescued a point for Massimiliano Allegri's side.

The following evening, Inter travelled to take on Napoli in a clash between last season's top two, and on a drama-filled evening at the Diego Maradona, it was Antonio Conte's side who came out on top, winning 3-1 despite losing Kevin De Bruyne to injury in the first half. It marked Inter's third league defeat of the season already, and leaves Cristian Chivu's side sat fourth, three points behind both Napoli and Roma at the top of the standings after eight rounds of matches.

But while both Milan clubs remain firmly in the title race, Juventus are at real risk of being left behind as their awful recent form continued on Sunday with a 1-0 defeat at Lazio. The Bianconeri have now gone eight games without a win in all competitions, a run that has seen them slide to eighth place in the Serie A table, and manager Igor Tudor is beginning to feel the heat as a result.

Tudor opted to start Jonathan David up front alongside Dusan Vlahovic at Stadio Olimpico, but the duo were unable to end Juve's current scoreless run, which is now at four games - their longest goal drought since 1991.

As such, Tudor was sacked on Monday morning, with Roberto Mancini, Luciano Spalletti and Tudor's predecessor, Thiago Motta, all mooted as potential replacements for the Croat who had only been in charge for seven months at the Allianz Stadium.

Over in Germany, a new star has been born in recent days as Lennart Karl has announced himself to the world with his performances for Bayern Munich. The 17-year-old marked his first Champions League start in midweek by scoring a stunning goal against Club Brugge, and Karl backed that up by finding the net again on Saturday as Vincent Kompany's side maintained their 100 per cent start to the Bundesliga campaign.

Bayern were made to wait by Borussia Monchengladbach, who, despite sitting bottom of the table and going down to 10 men inside the first 20 minutes, were able to keep the German champions at bay until midway through the second half when Joshua Kimmich broke the deadlock. Raphael Guerreiro then added a second before Karl put the cherry on the cake with a superb curling effort from outside the area that nestled in the top corner.

Chelsea and Manchester City have been credited with interest in Karl, who is showing exactly why many believe he is the most exciting talent to emerge from the Bayern academy since Jamal Musiala with his early-career performances.

It's never good when a player's performance is so bad that they feel the need to put out a social media apology to supporters, but that's exactly the position Benjamin Pavard found himself in after a night to forget in Marseille's 2-1 loss to Lens on Saturday.

Roberto De Zerbi's side entered the weekend sat top of Ligue 1 and looked to be cementing themselves at the summit when Mason Greenwood gave them an early lead. From there, however, Pavard took over - and not in a good way. He first conceded a penalty midway through the first half that Odsonne Edouard scored to equalise, before Pavard then put through his own net early in the second half to condemn OM to defeat.

"Marseille supporters, I’m sorry," Pavard wrote on Instagram in the aftermath of his disastrous display. "This defeat is on me. I made errors and take full responsibility. When you wear this jersey, you must be impeccable, and tonight I wasn’t. I promise to give everything to earn back your trust and honour this shirt. Thank you for your support, even in difficult moments. We will rise together."

The defeat leaves Marseille sat third in Ligue 1, with Lens having leapfrogged them into second while Paris Saint-Germain regained top spot following their own win at Brest on Saturday.

Over in the Netherlands, the top two sides in the Eredivisie met on Sunday as Feyenoord hosted PSV at De Kuip. Feyenoord, managed by Robin van Persie, sat atop the standings after going unbeaten through their first nine league games of the season, while defending champions PSV trailed them by three points.

A win for the home side could, then, have provided an early hammer blow in the title race, but PSV forward Ismael Saibari had other ideas. Fresh off scoring in PSV's stunning 6-2 demolition of Napoli in midweek, the Morocco forward netted a superb hat-trick in Rotterdam to lead his side to a 3-2 win over the league leaders that pulls them level at the top of the table.

PSV boss Peter Bosz spoke post-match about how Saibari, at 24, has the technical and physical tools to be a success in a stronger division such as the Premier League, but the Eindhoven outfit will be hoping he can continue his fine form for them a little while longer as they aim to defend their crown.

And finally, to Scotland, where perhaps Europe's most shocking title race is starting to take shape. Not since Sir Alex Ferguson's Aberdeen in 1985 has a team other than Celtic or Rangers won the Scottish Premiership, but after a remarkable first two months of the season, Hearts have got themselves into a position to end that 40-year wait for an end to the Old Firm duopoly.

Derek McInnes' side are now eight points clear at the top of the table after just nine matches following Sunday's 3-1 win over Celtic at Tynecastle, and while Hearts have certainly been able to take advantage of the failures of others in building such a lead - Rangers won only their second league game of the season this past weekend, for example - they should be applauded for the speed with which this project has taken off.

Tony Bloom, the man behind Brighton's rise to the top half of the Premier League and Union Saint-Gilloise's success in Belgium, purchased 29% of Hearts over the summer and quickly set about installing a data-driven approach that has been successful at his other clubs. And following a busy summer of signings, the results have been remarkable, with McInnes and his players having only failed to win one of their league matches thus far.

There is still a long way to go, and Celtic will have three more chances to take points off their new rivals, but one of the unlikeliest challengers for a top-flight title in some time needs to be taken seriously over the coming months.