Kylian Mbappe can't be stopped while Bayern Munich's back-ups keep winning run going - but what's Thomas Frank's plan at Tottenham? Winners and losers of the weekend's football

Mohamed Salah's 250th goal for Liverpool was one of the easiest he's ever scored, with Emiliano Martinez presenting the Egyptian with both the ball and an unguarded net. However, it was still a hugely significant strike for both Salah and his side, as it arrived at a time of great difficulty for both. Having lost six of their previous seven games in all competitions, Liverpool desperately needed a win over Aston Villa on Saturday - so scoring first was huge for the home side.

Salah, of course, had netted in his previous outing, against Brentford, and his spectacular finish in London was far more impressive than his open goal on Merseyside. However, the Egyptian's overall display at the Gtech Community Stadium had been atrocious. At Anfield, he looked far more like his old self - and that's what pleased the under-pressure Arne Slot most of all.

"If you score 250 goals, it's already unbelievable – let alone for one club. You don't see this that much in football anymore," the Dutchman said in his post-match press conference. "But I think apart from the goal he scored tonight, he had a very good performance. Because when we had to play long, we played mainly long towards him and he could hold the ball, so because of that the rest of the team could come to him and we could keep playing.

"And what I also liked was that he didn't only do his offensive work really well, but he helped the team out defensively as well."

The challenge now, of course, is for Salah to prove that he's well and truly back when Liverpool face Real Madrid and Manchester City in the coming days...

Gian Piero Gasperini rightly pointed out that there were plenty of positives for Roma to take out of their performance in Sunday's 1-0 loss at AC Milan. The visitors had squandered the opportunity to go top of Serie A, but they had played well for the most part, with even Rossoneri coach Massimiliano Allegri admitting that Roma had been the better side before Strahinja Pavlovic turned in Rafal Leao's cut-back just before the break. Unfortunately for Roma, though, the game couldn't have finished in a more negative fashion.

The Giallorossi had been awarded a penalty with just 10 minutes remaining at San Siro - which felt like a guaranteed goal, as Paulo Dybala had scored all 18 of his previous spot-kicks for the club he joined from Juventus in 2022. Dybala didn't just miss, though, he also hurt himself in the process - much like Kevin De Bruyne for Napoli a couple of weeks ago. 

It's not yet known how long Dybala will be out of action, but Gasperini doesn't expect to see the gifted but injury-prone attacker back in action before the next international break. "This is the biggest loss of the night," Gasperini admitted in his post-match interview with DAZN.

Real Madrid's freescoring French forward Kylian Mbappe was quick to dismiss comparisons with the great Cristiano Ronaldo after taking his tally for the current campaign to a ridiculous 18 goals in 14 appearances in all competitions with a brace in Saturday's 4-0 rout of Valencia.

"Everyone knows that Cristiano is the reference in Madrid, the number one," Mbappe said of his childhood idol. "I've been here for a year-and-a-half and he was here for nine years. I can't compare myself to what he did; my path is different."

It's clear, though, that Mbappe is already well on his way to achieving a similar level of reverence at Santiago Bernabeu. Last season's European Golden Shoe winner has taken his game to another level since the summer arrival of Xabi Alonso as coach, and the really exciting thing for Los Blancos is that the fit-again Jude Bellingham is also thriving under the new boss.

The Englishman backed up an outstanding performance in the Clasico with another stellar display against Valencia, which he capped with a sublime strike from the edge of the area to make it three goals in his last three games for Madrid. This could have easily been a season of transition at the Bernabeu but, with Mbappe and Bellingham in this kind of form, Alonso's Liga leaders actually look capable of sweeping all before them.

Of course, it's not all sunshine and roses in the Spanish capital right now, as Vinicius Jr continues to cut a frustrated figure. The Brazilian's latest hissy fit, after being taken off in El Clasico, dominated the headlines in the lead-up to the Valencia game, but Alonso attempted to draw a line under the matter in his pre-match press conference and said that there was no need to punish Vinicius for his petulance. Consequently, Vinicius - who publicly apologised to everyone but Alonso for his on-field outburst against Barcelona - retained his place in the starting line-up on Saturday.

He began brightly, too, causing Valencia all sorts of problems down the left flank. However, when Madrid won their second penalty of the evening shortly before half-time - Mbappe had converted their first - Vinicius wasted the chance to register his first goal involvement since October 4, with his weak spot-kick easily saved by Julen Agirrezabala. Unsurprisingly, his influence on the game waned thereafter, before being once again replaced by Rodrygo with 12 minutes to go.

Thankfully, there was no classless show of insolence on this occasion, but the onus very much remains on Vinicius to prove himself as important to this Madrid team as he clearly thinks he is, because if he doesn't, he’s going to have to get used to being subbed on a regular basis.

How good are Bayern Munich? We'll have a much better idea after they face Paris Saint-Germain in the Champions League on Tuesday. However, what we can already say with great certainty is that the Bavarians could not be in better shape going into that mouth-watering match-up at Parc des Princes.

Coach Vincent Kompany dropped star forwards Harry Kane, Luis Diaz and Michael Olise to the bench for Saturday's Bundesliga clash with Bayer Leverkusen at the Allianz Arena and Bayern still ran out easy 3-0 winners, with Serge Gnabry and Nicolas Jackson both on target as the hosts extended their record-breaking winning start to the season to 15 games.

As Gnabry said afterwards, "It's a great sign from the coach to pick players who haven't been so fortunate. For them to then perform like this is great. It makes us much stronger as a unit when you come out with a result like this against such an opponent."

Indeed, the worry was before the season began that Bayern might lack strength in depth but, on the evidence of what we've seen so far, they might well be a match for the mighty PSG...

Paul Pogba was meant to make his Monaco debut in Saturday's Ligue 1 clash with Paris FC. However, the former France midfielder picked up an ankle injury in training that ruled him out of the game at the Stade Louis II.

"He has a grade two sprain," coach Sebastien Pocognoli told reporters over the weekend. "That is all that I can tell you for now. There will be another test next week. It is a medium sprain. His availability could vary between a matter of a few days or one or two weeks. We'll be able to confirm that next week. We'll see."

The hope is that Pogba will make his long-awaited return to action before the end of the month - but it would obviously be foolish to take anything for granted when it comes to the injury-plagued midfielder. Indeed, it seems to have been forgotten that Pogba was struggling physically long before he was banned for 18 months for failing an anti-doping test, meaning the World Cup winner's comeback was never solely about shaking off some 'ring-rust' after more than two years out of the game.

The bigger challenge was proving that, at 32, his body was still capable of handling the rigours of professional football. In that context, this latest setback does not bode well at all...  

Had Tottenham beaten Chelsea at home on Saturday, they'd be second in the Premier League table and supremely confident of maintaining their unbeaten start to their Champions League campaign when they host Copenhagen on Tuesday. However, the atmosphere in north London has turned rather tense. Spurs were booed off the pitch after an absolutely atrocious showing in their 1-0 loss to Chelsea and, worse still, Thomas Frank was blanked by both Micky van de Ven and Djed Spence as he attempted to get them to acknowledge the fans immediately after the game.

Frank attempted to play down the significance of their insubordination, describing it as one of the "small issues" he's dealing with at the moment. "Everyone is frustrated," he said. "We do things in a different way, so I don't think it is a big problem."

However, it was a dreadful look for the Dane, as it suggests he's having just as much difficulty winning over the players as the supporters with a tactical approach that is presently yielding a worrying amount of dismal displays. 

It would be wrong to read too much into Luciano Spalletti's first outing as Juventus coach. And it's not as if he did anything radically different to his predecessor, Igor Tudor, who was sacked last week after a run of eight games without a win in all competitions. However, the Gazzetta dello Sport certainly had a point when they claimed, "It's a different Juve" after Saturday night's 2-1 win at Cremonese.

The Bianconeri didn't suddenly shed what striker Dusan Vlahovic called their "bad habits", as they sat too deep in the closing stages while Jamie Vardy's late goal set up a nervy finish. However, there was undeniably a dynamism about Juve that simply wasn't there during the final few months of Tudor's tenure - and Spalletti was clearly the main reason why.

Deploying Filip Kostic and Andrea Cambiaso as his wing-backs paid off spectacularly, with both men on target, while Teun Koopmeiners had one of his better games for the Old Lady in an unfamiliar deep-lying playmaker role within the back three.

Spalletti acknowledged afterwards that there are still "many areas that require improvement, and quickly", with Juve set to face Sporting CP in a must-win Champions League clash on Tuesday before hosting Torino in the Derby della Mole this weekend. But the former Napoli coach needed to make a winning start after his disastrous spell in charge of the national team - and he did exactly that in Cremona.  

After losing El Clasico, Barcelona had to beat Elche on Sunday to prevent Real Madrid extending their advantage at the top of La Liga. The Blaugrana achieved their objective thanks in no small part to Lamine Yamal, who opened the scoring in a 3-1 win at Montjuic, and the in-form Fermin Lopez.

However, the overall performance was far from impressive, with Elche actually having more possession of the ball - which pointed to a concerning dependence on Pedri, who was suspended after his red card against Real last weekend. Flick insisted that Barca can cope without their gifted playmaker, but admitted that it's something they need to work on, particularly as Pedri’s game time will need to be carefully managed - just like that of Yamal.

"Pedri is an excellent player and we want him in every game, but without him, we have to cope,” the German admitted. “But we can improve in many things, and we will. It's not easy, though, as we have many players who have not been able to play in the last few games. We lack quality."

And the worry is that Barca's lack of adequate cover in some key positions may well cost them come the end of the season.

There was never any doubt that Wolves would sack Vitor Pereira after Saturday's abject 3-0 loss at Fulham. It was a must-win game for the Portuguese, who had rowed with his own club's fans after the devastating 3-2 loss at home to Burnley the weekend before.

Still, it was hard not to feel a degree of sympathy for Pereira. He was unquestionably guilty of some strange selections this season. but it should not be forgotten that, after saving Wolves from relegation last season, he saw two of his best players, Matheus Cunha and Rayan Ait-Nouri, sold during the summer.

Of course, such sales have long been part of the business model at Molineux. but this summer's replacements have proven sub-standard at best, meaning Pereira was always going to be up against it. Hardly surprising, then, that many disgruntled supporters are now questioning the club's owners, Fosun International, who were already under pressure as it was due to season ticket price hikes and uncertainty over a proposed new stadium.

It's absolutely imperative that they get their next managerial appointment right. With Wolves bottom of the table with just two points from 10 games, the entire Fosun project arguably depends upon it, and if they were to re-hire Pereira's predecessor, Gary O'Neil - which is reportedly a possibility - it wouldn't restore much faith in those calling the shots at Molineux.