Any doubts as to whether Ronaldinho is playing as well as last season were dispelled in one moment of magic in Barcelona's match against Villarreal on Saturday evening. El Gaucho had already got his 50th league goal from the penalty spot earlier in the game, and when Xavi's pass found him with his back to goal there didn't seem to be much danger. But he unleashed a glorious overhead kick which caught Barbosa completely off his guard to take his league tally to ten, moving ahead of his closest rivals at the top of the Pichichi table.

It was a high scoring week all round though, with Spanish sides netting fifteen in Europe, and a season high 32 goals in the league at the weekend. Van Nistelrooy stays top of our chart in all competitions with an easy goal against Lyon in the Champions League, although Morientes is the competition's top scorer after getting his sixth (including one in the preliminary round) against Olympiakos. Angulo and Iniesta were also on target as their respective sides won their ties. Good results for Espanyol and Sevilla in the UEFA cup as well, Luis García scoring a hat-trick and Pandiani getting two as the Catalans won 6-2 against Waregem, their biggest haul in any official competition in 50 years, and Luis Fabiano was on the scoresheet as the Andalusians beat Braga 2-0.

Luis Fabiano got two more at the weekend to leap up into our table, although Sevilla are still behind Barcelona, for whom Gudjohnsen and Iniesta (again) were on target as well as the aforementioned Ronaldinho. Raúl scored a vital goal against his old pal Cañizares to give Real Madrid an important win at Valencia, and Diego Milito put Zaragoza ahead against Celta before Baiano equalised. Pandiani continued his midweek form with a last minute point saver at Betis, and Valdo scored again as Osasuna got their season under way at last with a 4-1 win against Depor. Finally Zigic moves back into our ranking with a brace as Racing won a seven goal thriller by the odd goal against Recreativo, statisticians showing that the Cantabrians would only have two points without him! (27.11.06)