Rarely a game week goes by without a contender dropping points in our leagues of focus these days. Top teams were stopped in their tracks during the weekend, some at the expense of others in days of shocks and surprises.

The weekend got underway in England in Villa Park, where Unai Emery’s side heap more misery on defending champions Manchester City, as it continues to dawn on Pep Guardiola and his charge that the blue ribbon will rip off the title come May.

There was no joy for their city rivals too as they were humbled in a 3-0 home defeat to Bournemouth while Brentford suffered a first home loss of the season to an in-form Forest, who strengthened their grip on fourth as a result.

Big wins for Arsenal, Newcastle United, and Liverpool at Crystal Palace, Ipswich Town, and Tottenham Hotspur respectively as Arne Slot’s charge stretched their lead after Chelsea was held the Goodison Park by Everton.

The big headline in Spain during the weekend is Diego Simeone’s first-ever away win over Barcelona, which came in his 18th attempt as second-half goals from Rodrigo de Paul and Alexander Sorloth sealed a come-from-behind win, canceling out Pedri’s first-half goal.

Athletic Bilbao also wins from behind in Las Palmas while there was also a big win for Real Madrid, who moved level on points with their city rivals at the top of the standings thanks to an enthralling 4-2 success over Sevilla.

Napoli and Atalanta both had to work hard for wins in their respective games, while the same was the case for Milan, Lazio and Juventus, as they all won by a goal margin. Inter host Como on Monday night while Udinese kickoff away in Fiorentina in the first game on the same day.

In the Bundesliga, RB Leipzig was the big casualty of the weekend as they faltered in a 5-1 hammering in the hands of league leaders Bayern Munich, while there were wins for defending champions Bayer Leverkusen as well as Borussia Dortmund and Gladbach.

Mainz followed up their win over Bayern with another big upset away to Eintracht Frankfurt, who are now without a win in five after looking like genuine contenders before this horrendous run, which has produced four defeats.

There were no league actions in France but it wasn’t without contests. Teams compete in the round eight of the Coupe de France and top-flight teams like PSG, Marseille, Lyon, AS Monaco, and Rennes all book their ticket into the next round.

Here are the five standout performers from each of Europe's five divisions, with the Coupe replacing Ligue 1 for France.

Top Stars of the Weekend in Europe Top Five Leagues

English Premier League: Mohamed Salah of Liverpool

The Egyptian is leaving everyone in his wake in a contest for the best player in the world since the current season kicked off in August and the final Premier League kick-off on Sunday showed why he should be considered above anyone else.

Having watched Chelsea drop points to Everton in Merseyside earlier, Liverpool kicked off in London, knowing a win would see them stretch their lead at the summit to four yet with a game in hand, they got off to a promising start as goals from Luis Diaz and Alexis Mac Allister gave them a two-goal cushion before the deficit was halved by James Maddison.

However, Mohamed Salah got in on the party with his first goal involvement to restore the visitor’s two-goal lead before the interval, setting up Dominik Szoboszlai to make it 3-1.

In the process, the 32-year-old became the first player to reach double figures for both goals and assists in Europe's top five leagues this season.

The day, though, was only just kicking off for Salah, who scored a quick-fire double in the second half to help Liverpool to a 5-1 lead, overtaking Erling Haaland with his 15th Premier League goal of the campaign, making him the competition’s leading goalscorer.

Salah then set up Luis Diaz for Liverpool’s sixth and final goal of the game, overtaking Bukayo Saka for most league assists so far with his 11th and all together taking his goal involvement to 26, the most in top five league so far.

The former Chelsea man becomes the first player to reach double figures for both goals and assists before Christmas in Premier League history.

An incredible performance from the Liverpool talisman against top opposition in Tottenham Hotspur. Salah will hope to continue in this form during a congested festive season, as Liverpool seeks to hold onto an early advantage in their quest to win their season Premier League title.

Spanish LaLiga: Thierno Barry of Villarreal

Hat-trick hero Thierno is our La Liga star of the weekend as the Frenchman delivered a sensational performance for Yellow Submarines away to Leganes, the same side that won and kept a clean sheet away to Barcelona in the previous gameweek.

Still embroiled in the spirit of their famous win at the ground of the league leaders, Leganes took a sixth-minute lead following a well-worked play in attack. Seydouba Cisse fired past the goalkeeper following a cutback from Miguel de la Fuente.

Barry restored parity for the visitors ten minutes later, firing home from inside the area following Leganes’ failure to clear a delivery from a free-kick.

Leganes retook the lead three minutes after the half-hour mark, midfielder Dani Raba converted from the penalty spot after Logan Costa was penalized for a foul on the winger inside the penalty box.

Barry again showed great resilience to restore parity for the second time in the game, sending the goalkeeper the wrong way from the penalty spot, after Jeremy Pino won a foul in the area on the stroke of half-time.

The 22-year-old almost completed his hat trick a few minutes after the restart but was denied with a brilliant save by Leganes shot-stopper Marko Dmitrovic.

Barry though was not to be denied his first-ever LaLiga treble and his moment came five minutes after the hour mark, slamming home a shot from the center of the box to give the visitors the lead for the first time in the game.

Gerard Moreno and Pau Cabanes added two more goals for the visitors, who ran out 5-2 winners to mark a return to winning ways after a run of six games without one, while they also avenged a 2-1 home loss to The Cucumbers in their previous meeting in March 2020.

Thierno Barry has now scored seven and assisted two in 17 league games, making him the top scorer for Villarreal, the club he joined in a deal worth 12 million pounds from Basel in the summer.

He topples other standout stars like Kylian Mbappé and Miguel Gutierrez as our pick for the player of the weekend in LaLiga’s gameweek 18.

Italian Serie A: Paulo Dybala of AS Roma

The Argentine had been long away from the headlines for such spectacular performances he is known for but on Saturday, he reminded the spectators in the Stadio Olimpico just how much good he can still do even in his early 30s.

Slowly but to some degree, Roma are overcoming the storm under Claudio Ranieri as a 5-0 win over Parma on Sunday afternoon takes their growing form to four wins out of their last five.

Instrumental in the win, Paulo Dybala was directly involved in three of the goals, including taking a penalty he won for himself to break the deadlock eight minutes into the proceedings.

The former Juventus man made it 3-0 six minutes after the restart, firing into the room of the net from close range after a goal-bound shot came off striker Artem Dovbyk and into the path of the 31-year-old.

Dybala passed a chance to complete his hat-trick as he allowed fellow Argentine, Leandro Paredes to take a 74th-minute penalty, before rounding off a sensational outing with an unselfish play to set up Dovbyk for their easiest finish when he could have scored all by himself.

Dybala now has 127 Serie A goals, overtaking Gonzalo Higuain to third in the all-time list for most goals by Argentines in the league’s history.

Having started the season sluggishly with two goals and one assist in his first 18 games, the show put on by Dybala on Sunday, gives the directors at Roma a lot to ponder, if indeed he could still offer them a lot more, or they should go on with an end to their association talks.

Ranieri will definitely want him around if such a performance is more consistent. Dybala is the standout star of the Serie A weekend, beating Atalanta’s brace hero Charles de Ketelaere to our nomination.

German Bundesliga: Patrik Schick of Bayer Leverkusen

On a weekend where it rained goals in the German topflight, the Czechia striker of Bayer Leverkusen was the standout, scoring four of the defending champions’ five goals in the thrashing of Freiburg on Saturday evening.

It looked like the visitors stood a chance to upset Xabi Alonso’s charge with the score still level with half-time approaching, but Schick had other ideas, from a Florian Wirtz through pass, the striker planted a deadly chip over the head of Freiburg goalkeeper and into the back of the net for 1-0 in the first minute of stoppage time.

Wirtz doubled the lead five minutes after the restart but the lead was halved moments later through Vincenzo Griffo. Wirtz and Schick combined again to restore the two-goal cushion 67 minutes in, with the latter getting his brace in the process, heading home a cross from the right.

Schick completed his hat-trick four minutes after his second, Wirtz again the architect, laying off the ball for his teammate, sealing his own hat-trick of assists as a result.

The evening got better for Schick, who headed home a corner from Exequiel Palacios for his fourth and his 13th of the season across all club competitions, three minutes before coming off to an ovation in the BayArena.

With his fourth of the game, Schick achieves his 64th Bundesliga goal and overtakes Jan Koller as the highest-scoring Czech in the competition’s history.

Schick finishes ahead of his teammate Florian Wirtz as our pick in German but may have been a different story had the German scored from the penalty spot earlier in the contest, which may have taken his own contribution to five.

Coupe de France: Luis Henrique of Olympic Marseille

The Brazilian starred with an impressive display away at 10-man Saint Etienne, where he had a hand in three of Marseille’s four goals in a 4-0 win away from home.

Henrique assisted Mason Greenwood for the opener 22 minutes into the clash at the Stade Geoffroy-Guichard, a minute after the host was reduced to 10 men following a red card to Malian striker Ibrahim Sissoko.

The 23-year-old got his second assist four minutes after the half-hour, as Adrien Rabiot headed home his corner to double the visitors’ lead, before getting on the scoresheet himself midway through the second half, sending his strike into the bottom left corner to take the game beyond the host.

Pierre-Emile Hojbjerg added the fourth from a Jonathan Rowe assist as Marseille sealed an impressive win, extending their unbeaten run to five while the star of the show, Luis Henrique takes his goal contribution to 13 in 16 games across all competitions for the club.

Ultimate Player of the weekend

Patrik Schick