The stories everyone is talking about, and what each one changes for the next match.
In one Saturday evening in Mexico, Santos put five past Querétaro, América scored five at León and Cruz Azul hit Juárez for five. Three teams scoring five in the same Liga MX round had not happened since round 7 of the Apertura 2005, TUDN and Récord reported on Monday.
Our take Liga MX is a three-goal league now
Nikita Zadorov has taken nine penalties in eight games, more than any player in the NHL, and on Saturday Marco Sturm sat him out of Boston's 4-1 win in Los Angeles. On Monday in Dallas the defenseman told The Boston Globe he felt "disappointed" and "disgusted", while his agent, Dan Milstein, had already answered a fan who said Zadorov "wouldn't be treated like this in Toronto" with four words: "No he would not…"
Our take Boston proved they can win without him
With four minutes left of Saturday's 0-0 against Athletic Club, a fan in the Tribuna shouted "Aguirre, ¡saca delanteros!" and Javier Aguirre turned round and answered "¡No hay!", COPE Valencia reported. It was his first home game in charge, and it left Valencia with no win, 2 goals and 2 points from five LaLiga games at Mestalla this season.
Our take The numbers back Aguirre: Valencia lack finishers
Kirill Kaprizov's power-play shot at 3:06 of the second period beat Columbus 2-1 on Sunday and made him the fastest player to 10 goals in Wild history, three games quicker than Brian Rolston's 12 in 2006-07. On Tuesday he brings the NHL goal lead to Edmonton, where Connor McDavid has 23 points in eight games, NHL.com reported.
Our take Kaprizov's goals will slow. McDavid's assists won't
Rafael Leão came off the bench in Ankara on Saturday and lasted 16 minutes: in the 77th his foot slipped on the Eryaman pitch and he went off holding his groin. Galatasaray say it is a strain of the groin muscle, and Monday's tests decide whether he travels to Lille, where both teams start Wednesday's game with 0 points.
Our take Without Leão, Lille is a game not to lose
Michael Olise scored one and set up another as Bayern beat RB Leipzig 6-1 on Saturday, and he cannot play on Wednesday against Arsenal. He is suspended after his second yellow card in Stavanger, Max Eberl does not think Jamal Musiala will be ready, and Manuel Neuer is a doubt with what Eberl called a bit of fluid in the foot.
Our take Without Olise, Arsenal arrive as the better side
Partizan scored 92, 92 and 86 in their first three EuroLeague games, then 76, 55 and 65 in three straight defeats. Now Tonye Jekiri, their second most productive player, will miss Thursday's Belgrade derby against Crvena Zvezda with a strain from the Fenerbahçe game, the club confirmed on Sunday.
Our take Partizan's gap is 25 points, not one centre
Four months after giving José Mourinho a contract to 2029, Florentino Pérez has already told people close to him who would replace him, according to Sergio Valentín: "Se trata de Didier Deschamps." SPORT picked up the report on Saturday and gave an example of what "not working" could mean: no positive result in the Clásico at Camp Nou on 25 October.
Our take The table will decide this before Pérez does
Napoli had 29 shots in Venice on Saturday, 10 of them on target, and lost 1-0 to a side that had lost all six of its games and was playing its first match under Davide Nicola. It leaves Massimiliano Allegri on 10 points from seven Serie A games, which Tuttosport calls Napoli's worst start in 17 years: the only worse one since was 2009-10, when Roberto Donadoni had 7 and was sacked.
Our take We said three minutes. Venezia make it a pattern
On Saturday night İsmail Kartal told reporters he has no problem with any player and that Marco Asensio and the club would explain everything "from A to Z" on Sunday. Before midnight, a different explanation arrived. A Spor reporter Erdem Akbaş, as carried by Fotomaç late on Saturday, says injections on Asensio's knee have not worked and the Spaniard will have surgery abroad, out for at least two months.
Our take A knee would prove Kartal right, and cost him the derby
Alex Laferriere scored 31 seconds into Saturday's game against Boston, and the Kings did not score again: the Bruins won 4-1 at Crypto.com Arena, the last two goals into an empty net. Los Angeles are 0-4-2, the only NHL team without a win, and Frank Seravalli's report that they want Connor Hellebuyck is still not confirmed by either club.
Our take A goalie won't fix four goals in four games
Manuel Pellegrini left La Cartuja on Saturday night saying Lamine Yamal had provoked the red card that decided Betis's 5-2 defeat by Barcelona. About two hours later the player sent off, Facundo Bernal, apologised on social media and took the blame himself: "No suelo reaccionar así y debí controlarme en esa jugada" (I don't usually react like that and I should have controlled myself).
Our take Barça would have won this 11 v 11
Ousmane Dembélé sent his 72nd-minute penalty wide of the left post at Strasbourg on Saturday, the third spot-kick Paris Saint-Germain have missed in eight days. Foot Mercato counts nine misses in PSG's last 19 penalties, our own count from ESPN's match logs agrees, and Luis Enrique admitted afterwards: "C'est vrai qu'on n'a pas de spécialiste" (it's true we don't have a specialist).
Our take PSG need one name, not nine
Maciej Ryszczuk says he told Iga Swiatek three times to stop her Wuhan semi-final, and she played on with pain in her quad until Maja Chwalinska had won 7-5, 6-1. The defeat leaves Swiatek about 545 points behind Karolina Muchova for the last WTA Finals place, more than the 500 a Ningbo title is worth.
Our take Tokyo, not Ningbo, decides Swiatek's season
Santiago Hezze rose at a short corner three minutes before half-time on Thursday, and that header was enough to leave the Vélodrome whistling. Marseille lost 1-0 to Olympiacos, their sixth defeat in eight official games, and Bruno Genesio became the first OM coach with that record after eight matches since Mario Zatelli in 1964-65, according to the Stats du Foot account cited by Football Club de Marseille.
Our take Six defeats in eight is a pattern
Gladbach's captain was meant to be the man who led them out of the bottom of the table, and on Friday his coach had to explain that the injury is a new one. "Tim hat einen weiteren Muskelfaserriss, an anderer Stelle," Alexander Blessin said: another muscle tear, in a different place, so Tim Kleindienst is out for several weeks, gladbachlive reports, two days before the bottom two meet at Borussia-Park.
Our take Hoffenheim score enough to win here
Kings goalies have stopped 112 of the 132 shots they have faced this season, and Los Angeles are still looking for a first win after five games. According to Frank Seravalli of Sportsnet, they are also looking at Connor Hellebuyck, and "the Kings have received affirmation that Hellebuyck apparently would accept a trade to LA".
Our take LA's goalie gap is worth seven goals
Two days after the heaviest Champions League defeat in Fenerbahçe's history, the trouble has moved from Villa Park to the dressing room, according to Türkiye Gazetesi. The paper reports that İsmail Kartal has fallen out with Marco Asensio, Romelu Lukaku, N'Golo Kanté and Mason Greenwood over how the team plays and who plays, and that captain Milan Škriniar's comments after defeats have irritated him.
Our take Tonight's team sheet is the real test
For 13 years Dimitris Itoudis sat next to Željko Obradović on the Panathinaikos bench; on Friday night he walked into the Telekom Center and took away his old boss's perfect start. Hapoel Tel Aviv won 91-81, the first EuroLeague defeat of the season for Panathinaikos, and Obradović said it plainly: "Η Χάποελ άξιζε να κερδίσει", Hapoel deserved to win.
Our take The minus 10 hurts more than the defeat
Manuel Pellegrini has Betis third in LaLiga with 19 points, and in Chile the calls for him to take the national team are getting louder. On Friday, the day before unbeaten Barcelona visit La Cartuja, he asked for interim coach Nicolás Córdova to be left to work, while former Ecuador coach Sebastián Beccacece told Radio Agricultura: "Ojalá que Manuel Pellegrini pueda venir."
Our take Chile can wait. Betis can't
For the fourth match in a row in Shanghai, Rafael Jódar lost the first set and won the match: 4-6, 6-4, 6-3 against Casper Ruud in two hours and 20 minutes. At 20, he is the youngest semi-finalist in the tournament's history, and the 200 extra points lift him to ninth in the Race to Turin, which, with Jannik Sinner out for the season, is a qualifying place as things stand.
Our take The Turin place is now Jódar's to lose
Dwayne Bacon took six three-pointers at the Unipol Forum on Thursday and made all six, and Olimpia Milano's season slid a little further. Dubai won 101-97, Milan's fourth EuroLeague defeat in a row and their fifth in six games, and coach Peppe Poeta admitted the record "is not what we wanted".
Our take Poeta's problem is defence, not a bad run
Atalanta had just won their Conference League opener 3-1 and Maurizio Sarri wanted to talk about the calendar. "Siamo sottoposti a un calendario assurdo con tutte le conseguenze del caso," he told Sky Sport Italia after Giacomo Raspadori, who had scored a penalty, went off injured, Tuttosport reports.
Our take A fair complaint that doubles as an alibi
The man who looked after Lionel Messi's body at Barcelona has a simple rule for Lamine Yamal: never ask him. "It is the coaches' mistake, asking whether to change a player, because a player will never want to come off," Juanjo Brau told Cadena SER's El Larguero on Thursday night, after Hansi Flick admitted Lamine did not want to be substituted.
Our take Barça's issue is who decides, not fatigue