It's now clearly the case that Ajax are far too good for the Dutch league and only the incredible form of AZ is standing in the way of them claiming the Eredivisie title well before the end of the season. Here they completely and utterly dominated Utrecht, with Donny van de Beek and Lisandro Martinez running the show from midfield. It seems a matter of time before the title is in the bag, to allow them to focus on another Champions League run.
A week is definitely a long time in football, and after the sacking of Niko Kovac Bayern have won twice, defeating Olympiakos in the Champions League before handing Borussia Dortmund a sound beating in the Bundesliga. Robert Lewandowski's superhuman form continues, with his 16th league goal in 11 matches, while a resurgent Thomas Muller also had an excellent display, providing two assists.
The fact that it was no surprise that Leicester defeated Arsenal says much about the trajectories of both sides this season. Jamie Vardy once again put them to the sword and James Maddison sealed the win for Brendan Rodgers' side. They look the real deal and it will take a huge effort from other top four challengers to displace them now, with a nine-point gap separating them and fifth.
Cagliari have been a lot of fun to watch this season and against Fiorentina they struck a lovely collection of goals, with Radja Nainggolan blasting another bombastic goal into the net to match his other goal-of-the-season contender earlier in the campaign. Fiorentina were shellshocked and despite dominating possession in the match, the hosts were just much more ruthless in the final third.
It was a much-needed win for Torino to edge themselves clear of the relegation zone and put bottom Brescia in serious trouble. A pair of Andrea Belotti penalties set the tone and a double from Alex Berenguer sealed what proved to be a confident, comfortable win.
