Winners and losers of the weekend's football: Raphinha boosts Barcelona's title bid while Inter take advantage of Serie A slip-ups - but Nick Woltemade and Newcastle endure a derby day to forget

Arne Slot admitted Liverpool benefited from "a bit of luck" in Saturday's 2-0 win over Brighton, but felt like they were due some good fortune in light of the "injuries and other things" they've had to deal with in recent weeks. One of those "other things" was obviously Mohamed Salah's quite remarkable attempt to undermine the Dutchman's authority after the 3-3 draw with Leeds United last Saturday week.

Such a shocking show of insubordination would have probably sparked civil war under a more combustible coach, but Slot is as cool as they come and the Dutchman deserves immense credit for following up a hard-fought win at Inter in the Champions League with a morale-boosting win over Brighton, during which he looked like the bigger man by not only welcoming Salah back into his squad, but also bringing him on when the unfortunate Joe Gomez went off injured in the first half.

The Egyptian even contributed an assist for Hugo Ekitike's killer second goal before bidding farewell to all four corners of Anfield ahead of his flight to Morocco to link up with his national team for their Africa Cup of Nations campaign. Whether the winger returns to Merseyside after the tournament concludes is not yet clear, as it was hard to believe Slot when he said that there is no longer any issue to resolve with his star player. However, the manager has undeniably done well to take a significant amount of the tension out of the situation - even if it's only for a few weeks...

Just over a month ago, there was talk of Arsenal running away with this season's Premier League. They'd won five games in a row while defending champions Liverpool had gone into freefall and Manchester City were leaking goals at an alarming rate.

However, Arsenal have dropped points three times since their comfortable 2-0 victory at Burnley at the start of November, and they should have done so again on Saturday after a dire display against Wolves at the Emirates, with the hosts needing two own goals to overcome the weakest team in the league.

Of course, Mikel Arteta's men are unlikely to play as poorly in many more games this season, while winning ugly is undoubtedly the mark of champions. However, the very fortuitous win over Wolves made it painfully clear to Arsenal's long-suffering supporters that there won't be too many easy games either - not for a team that is so incredibly desperate to win the title after three consecutive runners-up finishes.

The north Londoners remain favourites to finally end their major trophy drought this season but, with City resurgent, it's going to be a long and nerve-racking ride for Gooners. 

A little under two years ago, Newcastle's players celebrated a 3-0 win over Sunderland at the Stadium of Light with a team photo in front of their fans. On Sunday, it was the Black Cats' turn, after a well-deserved 1-0 win over their most hated rivals.

Newcastle striker Nick Woltemade decided the Tyne-Wear derby in the home side's favour, by unintentionally planting a cross from Nordi Mukiele past his own goalkeeper shortly after half-time. However, it would be wrong to single out the German after what was an atrocious team performance from Eddie Howe's troops. Indeed, midfielder Bruno Guimaraes admitted after Newcastle's first league loss to Sunderland since 2016, "The whole message in the changing room was: 'Do it for the fans' and we didn't.

"It's so embarrassing for me and frustrating because we know we have a better team than them. It's clear for me. But we didn't perform like a better team - it makes me feel angry." And rightly so, because Newcastle's supposedly 'better team' are now four points and five spots below seventh-placed Sunderland in the Premier League table.

Cole Palmer got back among the goals for Chelsea, Phil Foden maintained his fine form in Manchester City's win at Crystal Palace, while Jude Bellingham set up a goal for Real Madrid in their crucial victory over Alaves. However, the most impressive performance delivered by an English attacking midfielder over the weekend came courtesy of Morgan Rogers, who once again showed why he's Thomas Tuchel's preferred No.10 by scoring  twice as Aston Villa came from behind to beat West Ham 3-2 at the London Stadium.

Unai Emery's men have now won nine games in a row in all competitions and sit third in the Premier League, just three points behind leaders Arsenal, meaning talk of a title challenge no longer seems quite so unrealistic. Certainly, with Rogers in such scintillating form (eight goal involvements in 16 matches), anything seems possible for Villa.

"I'm scoring quite a few lately," the 23-year-old told Match of the Day. "I want to score as much as possible and help the team and, at the moment, we're on a great run, so let's see where that takes us."

It was quite the birthday weekend for Raphinha. On Sunday, he turned 29 and his wife, Natalia Rodrigues, surprised him with a brand new camper van (owning a motorhome was apparently a lifelong dream for the Brazilian). Raphinha was also celebrating the day before, though, as he reached the 60-goal mark for Barcelona by netting both goals in the Catalans' 2-0 win over Osasuna at Camp Nou.

It was a seventh La Liga victory in a row for Hansi Flick's men, and the coach was quick to pay tribute to "a key element of the team" that has unsurprisingly made a huge difference since his return from a hamstring problem last month. Indeed, Alejandro Balde pointed out that Raphinha's mere presence on the pitch is a huge boost for Barca.

"Having Raphinha with us is a huge pleasure, especially for the young players, because he always offers a lot of advice," the left-back explained. "I'm really happy for him, too, as he's come back in excellent form after his injury."

Bundesliga leaders Bayern Munich had 24 shots, 85 percent possession and an xG of 4.5, but still needed an 87th-minute strike from the ever-reliable Harry Kane just to nick a 2-2 draw at home to basement boys Mainz on Sunday. However, if you were thinking (or hoping!) that the Bavarians dropping points in such surprising circumstances might breathe new life into the German title race, you'd be wrong, as nobody took advantage of Vincent Kompany's men having a rare off-day.

Third-placed Borussia Dortmund were held to a 1-1 draw at Freiburg, with Lucas Holer cancelling out Ramy Bensebaini's first-half opener, after Jobe Bellingham had been sent off for a professional foul on Philipp Treu early in the second half following a poor pass from BVB goalkeeper Gregor Kobel.

"If the red card doesn't happen, the game looks different," Kobel admitted to DAZN Germany. "We allowed little until then, had the game under control and were very dominant. It was certainly a misunderstanding. I initially had the feeling that Jobe had a lot of space. In the end, I have to play a better pass so that he doesn't commit this foul. I take that on myself. We were under a lot of pressure after that."

Still, at least they held on to pick up a point. Second-placed RB Leipzig, meanwhile, slumped to a 3-1 loss at Union Berlin on the Friday. Consequently, Ole Werner's side are now nine points behind Bayern - just like Dortmund - meaning a second successive title looks like an inevitability for the 34-time champions of Germany.

Christian Chivu was initially reluctant to get drawn into discussing the Serie A title race after his Inter side took advantage of both AC Milan and Napoli dropping points to go top of the table with a 2-1 win at Genoa on Sunday evening.

"I like to talk about the game and what I saw on the pitch," he told DAZN Italia before revealing that his attention had already switched from the league to the Supercoppa Italia, with the Nerazzurri set to face Bologna in Riyadh on Friday. However, Chivu couldn't resist taking a shot at those who had cast doubt on Inter's Scudetto prospects during a poor start to the season that saw them lose two of their first three games.

“A few months ago, they had us finishing eighth or 10th because we looked 'finished'," he said. "But we're working hard to show our value."

In fairness, Inter do still have plenty of work to do, as they've lost a worrying amount of big games this season, with three of their four league losses coming against Milan, Napoli and Juventus. However, Chivu is aware that they have an issue with "consistency" and if he manages to resolve it, there's every chance that his first season at San Siro will end in Serie A success. 

This time last year, Fiorentina were in the thick of a title race. Now, they're rooted to the bottom of Serie A and seemingly destined for relegation.

As we outlined in our deep dive into a very sorry situation at the Stadio Artemio Franchi, Fiorentina simply had to pick up their first win of the season in Sunday's relegation battle with fellow strugglers Verona. However, the Viola were beaten 2-1 in Florence, with Nigerian striker Gift Orban scoring a 93rd-minute winner for the visitors.

Consequently, when Paolo Vanoli and his players went to acknowledge their supporters after the game, they were met with a torrent of abuse, as one of the most famous clubs in Serie A are now eight points from safety - and no team has ever avoided the drop after failing to win any of their opening 15 matches.

According to reports, the players have been ordered into an 'indefinite' training camp, while there's no guarantee that Vanoli, who only took over on November 7, will still be in charge by the time Fiorentina play Lausanne in the Conference League on Thursday.

Paris Saint-Germain appear to be paying the price for participating in the Club World Cup, as Luis Enrique's side have performed only in patches this season - which is why they're in the very unusual position of playing catch-up in Ligue 1. However, while several stars have yet to recapture their treble-winning form due to niggling injury issues, the club's amazing academy is helping to sustain PSG's pursuit of more silverware in 2025-26.

On Saturday, 17-year-old sensation Ibrahim Mbaye set up a couple of goals in the crucial 3-2 win at Metz - and one of those assists was for Quentin Ndjantou.

"I'm very proud," the 18-year-old attacker said after opening his PSG account in his first Ligue 1 start. "I'd like to thank my team-mates, including Ibrahim Mbaye - he repaid the favour (after Ndjantou teed up Mbaye for a goal in last week's 5-0 rout of Rennes)! I'm very happy today, we won the match, there's nothing better.

"Today we showed character, despite the many attacks from Metz. We were very good and very strong together. It's a team victory."

There were absolutely beautiful scenes at full-time in the Scottish League Cup final at Hampden Park, as St Mirren and their supporters celebrated lifting the trophy for just the second time in their history after a stunning 3-1 win over defending champions Celtic.

Australian midfielder Keanu Baccus said the shock success was "up there with playing at the World Cup", winger Conor McMenamin enthused "we'll go down in history", while midfielder Killian Phillips predicted "a few sore heads in the morning".

For Celtic, though, this was a sobering Sunday on which all of their problems were laid bare. There has been trouble in 'Paradise' ever since the Bhoys were dumped out of the Champions League play-offs by Kairat Almaty, with the supporters making it very clear that they blamed the board for the failure, given the lack of investment in Brendan Rodgers' squad.

Martin O'Neill had gone some way towards lifting some of the doom and gloom around Parkhead during an outstanding spell as interim boss following Rodgers' dismissal after a rotten run of results. However, all of the Irishman's good work has been immediately undone, with new manager Wilfried Nancy losing his first three games in charge, against Hearts, Roma and now, most embarrassingly of all, St Mirren.

"It's just been a tough week," defender Liam Scales told BBC Scotland. "The manager's message to us is clear: we've just got to go again and keep working on things. In time it will come. But I think the fans deserve an apology for the performances and results. We know it's not good enough."