28 September 2004	Tuesday	12 Shaban 1425

LONDON, Sept 27: Round up of the weekend's action in the major European Leagues:

ENGLAND

The Premier League's 'Big Three' all claimed 1-0 away wins. Champions Arsenal retained their two-point lead on 19 points with success at Manchester City courtesy of a rare Ashley Cole goal while Chelsea stayed second after Didier Drogba's 81st-minute strike beat Middlesbrough.

Manchester United climbed to fifth on 12 points after Ruud van Nistelrooy's first-half penalty ended Tottenham Hotspur's unbeaten start to the season. Surprise package Everton maintained their fine start to the season, in third place, when they won 1-0 at Portsmouth courtesy of Tim Cahill's headed winner.

ITALY

Serie A's leading clubs struggled with leaders Juventus, Inter Milan and AS Roma all failing to win. Roma's embarrassing 3-1 defeat at nine-man Bologna, which left them 13th in the standings, prompted German coach Rudi Voeller to resign after less than a month in the job.

Juve could only manage a 1-1 draw at home to Palermo while Inter Milan's sluggish start continued as they needed two goals from substitute Obafemi Martins to secure a 2-2 draw with Parma. Lecce are still unbeaten after a 3-1 win over 10-man Cagliari thanks to second half goals from Marco Cassetti, Guillermo Giacomazzi and Sasa Bjelanovic.

GERMANY

A last-minute goal from Argentine striker Diego Klimowicz gave VfL Wolfsburg a 2-1 home win over Kaiserslautern to keep the surprise early pacesetters top of the Bundesliga. Martin Petrov had put Wolfsburg ahead after 13 minutes, Carsten Janker equalising in the 82nd.

Klimowicz's winner took Wolfsburg to 15 points, one ahead of VfB Stuttgart who beat Bayer Leverkusen 3-0 with first-half goals from defenders Philipp Lahm and Martin Stranzl and a late penalty by Silvio Meissner.

A late hat trick in 19 second-half minutes by substitute Miroslav Klose helped Werder Bremen to a 4-1 win at VfL Bochum that kept the champions third, three points off the pace. Bayern Munich moved up to fourth on 11 points with a 3-1 home win over SC Freiburg.

SPAIN

Champions Valencia continued their impressive start to the season with an emphatic 2-0 victory over 10-man Racing Santander on Sunday but there was more misery for Real Madrid.

A stroke of luck put Valencia on course for a fourth win in five games as Vicente's 26th minute free kick took a wicked deflection to wrong-foot keeper Dudu Aouate. Vicente created Valencia's second with Fiore rifling home from five metres. Valencia are top on goal difference from Barcelona who were impressive 3-1 winners at Real Mallorca.

Samuel Eto'o scored twice for Barca while Swede Henrik Larsson was also on target for the unbeaten Catalans. A change of coach could not spark a change of fortune for Real Madrid as they lost again, 2-1 at Athletic Bilbao. It was the home side's first win in five games.

Real boss Mariano Garcia Remon looked on as goals from Ismael Urzaiz and Santi Ezquerro put Bilbao 2-0 up at halftime and though Raul pulled one back the visitors never really looked capable of forcing a draw.

FRANCE

The table-topping showdown between Olympique Lyon and Monaco failed to sparkle and ended goal less. Visiting Monaco, who had Uruguay midfielder Diego Perez sent off after an hour, were the happier and stay top on 17 points. -Reuters