At last! This week the Pichichis got down to business and between them they managed 30 goals in the league, almost as many as the last two weeks put together. The man of the moment was Raúl, who proved that announcements of his demise were premature by scoring no less than five goals in three days between club and country. He started off on Wednesday with two for Spain against Ukraine which kept alive the hopes of Iñaki Sáez's boys of qualifying directly for Euro 2004. And then on Saturday he captained Real Madrid to a crushing 7-2 win over Valladolid, scoring the first hat-trick of the season in spectacular style. And some people had already written him off as finished!

Talking of Real Madrid, Ronaldo and Figo also got their names on the scoresheet in the match to make it four players now in the chart. They were not the only ones to hit a big score though, and Athletic Bilbao kick-started their season with a four goal thrashing of Mallorca. New manager Ernesto Valverde finally decided to give Urzaiz a start and he paid him back with two headed goals in the first half, and Etxeberría got in on the act with two more later on. Deportivo's Pandiani was also given his first start in the league this season and scored another to make it three in a row, and Villarreal's Víctor also got his third goal of the season at Espanyol. (15.09.03)