Mohamed Salah outburst leaves Liverpool reeling while Real Madrid hit a new low in La Liga: Winners and losers from the weekend's European football

We begin in the Premier League, where despite claims to the contrary, there may be a title race about to break out. Having drawn two of their previous four games, leaders Arsenal suffered just their second league defeat of the campaign on Saturday as they lost out to Aston Villa following Emiliano Buendia's dramatic, stoppage-time strike. The result allowed Manchester City to close to within two points of the Gunners, while Villa themselves are now three points off the summit following a remarkable turnaround in their fortunes.

Following a frustrating summer on the transfer front, there was a concern that Unai Emery's squad had gone a little stale. Villa failed to score in any of their opening four league matches of the campaign, and didn't record their first victory until September 28. That win over Fulham, however, began a run of nine victories in 10 games, with only a defeat at Anfield keeping Villa from a perfect record in that time.

Such a run is testament to the work Emery continues to do at Villa Park. The Spaniard memorably took Villa from the relegation zone to the quarter-finals of the Champions League during his first two years at the club, and if they can maintain their current form for a few months longer, then fans might even start dreaming of making a genuine title challenge. For now, he the ex-Arsenal boss will just be thrilled to have once again got one over his former club, with Emery's record with Villa and Villarreal against the Gunners since departing now read as: Played eight, won four and lost just two.

Liverpool's season has hit various low points already due to their disastrous Premier League title defence, and though they didn't suffer defeat to Leeds United on Saturday, the fallout from the thrilling 3-3 draw at Elland Road has the potential to rock the Merseysiders to their core.

For the third-straight game, Mohamed Salah was named among the substitutes by Arne Slot, and for the second successive time away from home, the 'Egyptian King' wasn't even called upon to make an impact from the bench. Salah, who has been criticised of late for not stepping up and speaking out during Liverpool's poor run, chose this moment to speak to reporters, though his comments rather exacerbated the problem.

"I can’t believe it, I’m very, very disappointed. I have done so much for this club down the years and especially last season," Salah said. "Now I’m sitting on the bench and I don’t know why. It seems like the club has thrown me under the bus. That is how I am feeling. I think it is very clear that someone wanted me to get all of the blame.

"I got a lot of promises in the summer and so far I am on the bench for three games, so I can’t say they keep the promise. I said many times before that I had a good relationship with the manager and all of a sudden, we don’t have any relationship. I don’t know why, but it seems to me, how I see it, that someone doesn’t want me in the club."

Salah's comments have been perceived by many as him suggesting that, if things do not change drastically, perhaps with Slot being sacked, then he sees no future for himself at Anfield. With Saudi clubs swirling, Salah's Liverpool exit may well end up being swifter and more upsetting than anyone previously thought possible.

Salah wasn't the only superstar named among the substitutes on Saturday, but that was where the similarities between his afternoon and that of Harry Kane ended. Kane found himself on the bench for Bayern Munich's trip to Stuttgart, but was introduced after an hour and made sure to make the most of his short time on the pitch, scoring his second hat-trick of the season.

"It's something I'm not used to, but I did it a couple of times this season. The boss (Vincent Kompany) wanted to keep me fresh and save energy," Kane explained following his side's 5-0 win that maintained their eight-point gap at the top of the Bundesliga table. “I came on after 60 minutes with a couple of other guys and we were able to exploit the space and get the goals. We had a tough battle in the cup midweek and today we faced one of the best teams in the league away, but we looked stronger in the last half an hour and punished them."

Kane is now up to 17 goals in 13 league games so far this season, and 28 in 22 across all competitions for a Bayern team who continue to show themselves to be one of the best teams anywhere in Europe, in large part thanks to their outrageously good No.9.

Kane's future is a hot topic in Barcelona right now, with the England captain reportedly on the Blaugrana's radar as they consider how to replace Robert Lewandowski. Ferran Torres, however, is keen to show the Catalan giants that they have their future No.9 already having continued his good recent form with a first-half hat-trick to take down Real Betis on Saturday.

Ferran had secured the match ball by the 40th minute in Seville as his goals helped seal a 5-3 win on the road for Hansi Flick's side, and the Spain international is now Barca's top scorer in all competitions this season with 13 goals to his name, six of which have come in his last four games.

"He is a very intelligent player. He knows how to read spaces very well, and today he did it fantastically," Flick said of Ferran post-match. "His mentality and confidence are excellent. This is the path to follow. He deserves to be in the starting 11. He is always there when he’s needed."

The task for Ferran now is to go from being a player who is 'always there when he's needed' to first choice at Camp Nou, and he will only do that if he is able to maintain consistent form in front of goal. Saturday, then, was a step in the right direction.

Barca's weekend got even better on Sunday when Real Madrid's season hit a new low, losing 2-0 at home to Celta Vigo. Los Blancos have now won just one of their last five league matches, and have gone from having a five-point lead over Barcelona following their win in October's Clasico to a four-point deficit in the space of six rounds of matches.

Xabi Alonso bemoaned refereeing decisions after a match in which both of his available left-backs, Fran Garcia and Alvaro Carreras, were shown red cards, but questions will continue to be asked of the Madrid manager amid further reports of unrest within the Bernabeu dressing room. A number of Madrid's players are said to be unhappy with Alonso's methods, and their performances over the past month certainly suggest that not everyone is pulling in the same direction in the Spanish capital.

Things aren't about to get any easier for Los Blancos, either, with Manchester City in town for a Champions League showdown on Wednesday...

Over in Italy, Europe's most engaging title race continues to swing one way and another. On Saturday, it was Inter's turn to reach the summit as they beat Como 4-0 in what was manager Cristian Chivu's best night since taking over at San Siro back in June.

Chivu got the Inter job only after Cesc Fabregas turned the Nerazzurri down, and ahead of the two men facing off in Milan this weekend, many expected Fabregas to show last season's runners-up exactly what they had missed out on. His Como side came into the match having established themselves in Serie A's top six after a start to the season that had seen them lose just one of their opening 13 games while conceding a measly seven goals.

The visitors were, however, blown away by Inter, with Chivu praised by Corriere dello Sport for the tactical "masterclass" which laid the foundation for his side to run away with victory thanks to goals from Lautaro Martinez, Marcus Thuram, Hakan Calhanoglu and Carlo Augusto. This was perfect preparation, too, for the visit of Liverpool on Tuesday, though they weren't able to keep hold of top spot in Serie A through the weekend...

That's because champions Napoli usurped them on Sunday with their 2-1 win over Juventus, though it should be pointed out that a win for AC Milan over Torino on Monday would see the Rossoneri re-establish themselves atop the Serie A table as we close in on the mid-season break.

Juve's loss was particularly bitter for manager Luciano Spalletti, who returned to Naples for the first time since he left in the aftermath of delivering the Scudetto to Napoli in 2023, only to suffer his first defeat as Bianconeri boss following his appointment in late October as Rasmus Hojlund netted twice for the hosts, sandwiching Kenan Yildiz's equaliser between his two strikes.

"We can do better than we did today, as we gifted an incredible number of passes to them," Spalletti admitted to DAZN. "If you don't control the game, you end up being the passenger for the others making decisions for you."

The result leaves Juve eight points adrift of Napoli and down in seventh, meaning their hopes of ending their six-year wait for a league title are now almost certain to be extended, while they will also be at real risk of missing out on Champions League football next season if they don't pick up positive results against fifth-placed Bologna and fourth-placed Roma in their next two league outings.

In Ligue 1, Marseille had emerged through the first few weeks of the season as the likeliest team to push Paris Saint-Germain in the title race. However, after missing the opportunity to go top of the table last week when they conceded a stoppage-time equaliser to Toulouse, they followed that up on Friday with a 1-0 loss at Lille that has the potential to knock them out of the title picture altogether.

Roberto De Zerbi's side were unable to recover after falling behind in the 10th minute to a goal from Ethan Mbappe (brother of Kylian), and mustered just four shots across the whole game in a performance that left the combustible Italian coach in furious mood.

"We played badly and we deserved to lose," he said. "We didn't string three passes together. We lost every second ball. Even with dribbling, we couldn't beat anyone. Defensively, we were never as aggressive as we usually are. We were passive from the first minute to the last. One shot on target for a player like [Mason] Greenwood isn't enough for him. Shooting so infrequently isn't sufficient.

"Yes, it's true, I'm very angry, I didn't expect us to play like that. Bad, bad. I take it personally, but everyone has to take it personally. When you play for OM, you can't play like that. I have no other explanation."

That loss leaves OM five points behind surprise Ligue 1 leaders Lens, and four in arrears of PSG with one game to play ahead of the French top-flight's winter break.

In Portugal, the weekend could barely have gone better for leaders Porto. On Friday, they watched on as their two rivals from Lisbon, Benfica and Sporting CP, played out a 1-1 draw, before on Sunday, Francesco Farioli's side scored twice in as many minutes early in the second half to secure a 2-0 win at Tondela.

That win was Porto's 12th of the league season so far from 13 games, with the other a draw with Benfica back in October, and leaves them five points clear of second-placed Sporting and eight ahead of Benfica, who also remain unbeaten through the first four months of the campaign.

Farioli was the man in charge of Ajax last season when they infamously collapsed from an almost impossible position during the final weeks of last season, and thus won't be counting his chickens just yet. However, things are certainly looking good for Porto as they aim to win their first league title since 2022.

And finally we head to Scotland, where a new era began at Celtic as Wilfried Nancy took charge of the Bhoys for the first time. Hired from Columbus Crew in MLS, Nancy stepped into the dugout for a crunch top-of-the-table clash against Hearts, but things did not go to plan.

Celtic had all the momentum heading into Sunday's match having successfully closed the eight-point gap Hearts had opened up on them after their first meeting of the season back in October which the Edinburgh outfit won 3-1. Since then, however, Hearts had won just one of their subsequent six Premiership matches, while Celtic had got themselves back on track under interim boss Martin O'Neill following the sacking of Brendan Rodgers.

Nancy, though, couldn't capitalise as his side fell to a 2-1 loss at Parkhead that was labelled as 'embarrassing' by some supporters online. The Frenchman was also ridiculed for repeatedly using a tactics board within the dugout as he struggled to break down Derek McInnes' out-of-form side. Hearts' win means they have now re-opened up a three-point gap on Celtic, though the defending champions do have a game in hand.