Many people say that David Villa is the most on-form striker in Europe right now, and he tops the chart this week after scoring two in the Champions League against Shakhtar and one in the league at the weekend. The league Pichichi is currently between two other players, though Diego Milito getting two for the high scoring Zaragoza on Saturday and Kanouté replying with a brace on Sunday (the first was supposedly a cracker, although only the 40,000 or so in the ground saw it as television cameras were totally banned).

A change of fortunes between the two big clubs this week, with Real Madrid winning 1-4 at Steaua Bucharest and Barcelona losing 1-0 to Chelsea in the Champions League, and the Merengues beating their arch rivals 2-0 in the league on Sunday. Raúl and Van Nistelrooy were on target in both games, with Barça failing to score in two games in a row for the first time since, well, who knows? As they say, the "crisis" in Spain has once again jumped on board the Madrid-Barcelona air shuttle.

Disappointment for Spanish clubs in the UEFA cup, with only Espanyol getting on the scoresheet and Sevilla and Osasuna drawing blanks. Celta had a rest day, but Baiano kept in touch with the leading group with the only goal for the Galicians at Bilbao on Sunday. Elsewhere Sinama-Pongolle and Arizmendi enter our table for the first time as both got their third goals at the weekend. (23.10.06)