Man City maintain lead over United, Real top in Spain

Manchester City maintained their five-point advantage over city rivals United in England where Arsenal prevailed in an eight-goal feast at Chelsea. Real Madrid went top in Spain while in Germany Bayern Munich hammered Bavarian neighbours Nuremberg. ENGLAND Manchester City beat Wolves to maintain their five-point lead at the top of the Premier League as Manchester United bounced back from their derby mauling with a 1-0 win at Everton. City, riding high after their 6-1 demolition of United last weekend, overcame a a late fightback from Wolves after being reduced to 10 men to secure a 3-1 victory at Eastlands. Edin Dzeko, Aleksandar Kolarov and Adam Johnson scored the second-half goals for City, who had captain Vincent Kompany sent off for a foul that allowed Wolves' Stephen Hunt to score from the penalty spot. United banished the memory of last week's defeat by City with a hard-earned victory at Goodison Park that came courtesy of a first-half goal from Mexican international Javier Hernandez. At Stamford Bridge Arsenal captain Robin van Persie scored a brilliant hat-trick as the Gunners stunned third-placed Chelsea 5-3. SPAIN Levante finally lost their first game of the season, 2-0 away to Osasuna, to allow Real Madrid to stay top of La Liga a point ahead of Barcelona. First-half goals from Juan Martinez 'Nino' and Alvaro Cejudo were enough to deny Levante an eighth straight league victory. Real Madrid moved top thanks to a 1-0 away win at Real Sociedad with Gonzalo Higuain scoring the winner for his 10th league goal of the season. Real have a one-point lead on unbeaten arch-rivals Barcelona, for whom Lionel Messi starred with a first-half hat-trick in a 5-0 thumping of Mallorca. Levante remain third, two points behind Madrid after the defeat in Pamplona, their first in ten games. An amazing run of seven straight wins, starting with a 1-0 defeat over Madrid in mid-September, had taken them the small Valencia-based side to the top of the league. GERMANY League leaders Bayern Munich warmed up for Wednesday's visit of Napoli in the Champions League with a 4-0 hammering of Bavarian neighbours Nuremberg. It was Bayern's eighth straight home win as Germany stars Mario Gomez, twice, and Bastian Schweinsteiger, plus France playmaker Franck Ribery, all netted. But the victory may have come at a high cost as Schweinsteiger limped off in the 71st minute and is an injury doubt for Napoli. Schalke 04 take over second, four points behind Bayern, after they enjoyed a 2-1 win over Hoffenheim. Defending champions Dortmund drop to third in the table after they were held 1-1 at Stuttgart, where the kick-off was delayed by 15 minutes as the guests were caught in a motorway traffic jam en route. ITALY Juventus maintained top spot in Serie A and piled the misery on arch rivals Inter Milan with a 2-1 victory at the San Siro. Juve were completing a Milanese double this season having already beaten Milan 2-0. Goals from Mirko Vucinic and Claudio Marchisio either side of a deflected Maicon strike sealed the points for the Old Lady of Turin. For Inter they now have just two wins and five defeats in their eight league matches this season and are now languishing fourth from bottom. Udinese and Lazio kept up the pressure on leaders Juventus by recording victories over Palermo and Cagliari respectively on Sunday to leave them both just a point behind the Old Lady of Turin. NETHERLANDS Leaders AZ Alkmaar's impressive start to the season continued with a 1-0 win away to Heracles for their ninth win in 11 games. Adam Maher scored an 89th-minute goal to lift the 2009 champions up to 28 points, six clear of PSV Eindhoven, who drew 2-2 with third-placed FC Twente. FRANCE Paris Saint Germain, bidding for a first French title since 1994, bolstered those ambitions with a 4-2 win over 10-man Caen, a brace of penalties from Nene helping them to the win at the Parc des Princes to keep the pace-setters three points clear at the top of the table. Montpellier held on to second place by beating Nancy 2-0 with Lille and Lyon three ponits behind. PORTUGAL FC Porto and Benfica both notched up their eighth wins from ten games to maintain their joint lead at the top of the table on 23 points, with Porto having the edge on goal difference. Sporting Lisbon are three ponits adrift in third.