By IAN HOLLIDAY
The La Liga season hasn't started yet, but title holders Barcelona are showing some signs that they may not be as dominant in 2011-12 as they have been in recent years. Exhibit A was the club's 4-1 loss to Mexican side Chivas de Guadalajara in a friendly on Aug. 3, but this weekend's performance against Real Madrid in a match that actually mattered could arguably provide greater cause for concern to fans the Catalan club.
Barca controlled its usual 60 percent of the possession in a 2-2 draw against the Merengues in the first leg of the Spanish Super Cup Sunday at the Santiago Bernabeu, but the visitors took only four shots and scored on the only two of them that were actually on target. Compare that to the hosts' 17 shots, eight of which were on frame. The Catalans' efficiency was impressive, especially compared to that of their Clasico rivals, but creating scoring opportunities can be as important as finishing them, and Barca did little to demonstrate that it will be able to dominate the league in the former in this season.
Elsewhere in Europe, the English Premier League began its 2011-12 season this weekend with many of the big clubs settling for one point rather than the full three. Week one tables are meaningless, but as of Sunday night, there are only three teams in the Premier League that won their first games. They are Bolton, Wolves, and Manchester United. Chelsea, Arsenal and Liverpool were all held to draws, and Tottenham's match against Everton was postponed due to rioting in the London neighborhood. Manchester City hosts Swansea City Monday night.
For other European leagues, this weekend was not the first, but the latest in the 2011-12 season. Defending French champions Lille continued their cold start to the season, slouching to a 1-0 defeat at home to Montpellier on Sunday. Last year's German champs Borussia Dortmund also fell over the weekend, losing by the same scoreline away to Hoffenheim.
Here is a rundown of all the weekend scores from Europe's top leagues:
ENGLAND
Manchester United remains the team to beat in the Premier League until one of its many challengers can rise up and display the kind of consistency needed to hoist the trophy, but the Red Devils' task got a little bit more difficult over the weekend with the loss of three of four starting defenders. Rafael Da Silva will be out 10 weeks with a dislocated shoulder suffered in training last week, and Rio Ferdinand is expected to miss six weeks after leaving Sunday's 2-1 win over West Brom with a hamstring injury. Those injuries, coupled with the calf injury that saw Nemanja Vidic exit Sunday's match as well, could create an early-season opportunity for challengers like Chelsea, which was unlucky not to be awarded a penalty when Frank Lampard went down in the 57th minute of its match against Stoke Sunday.
Stoke City 0, Chelsea 0
West Bromwich Albion 1, Manchester United 2
Blackburn 1, Wolverhampton Wanderers 2
Fulham 0, Aston Villa 0
Liverpool 1, Sunderland 1
Queens Park Rangers 0, Bolton 4
Tottenham v. Everton (postponed)
Wigan Athletic 1, Norwich City 1
Newcastle United 0, Arsenal 0
Monday: Manchester City V. Swansea City
SPAIN
There were plenty of intriguing storylines going into Wednesday's second leg of the Spanish Super Cup at Camp Nou even before the hosts finalized their signing of Cesc Fabregas Monday. Now, a match that had already promised to feature all of the usual excitement of a Spanish Clasico, plus the intrigue of a resurgent Real Madrid and a seemingly off-its-game Barcelona, will have the added dimension of a potential debut for the former Arsenal captain with a trophy on the line.
SPANISH SUPER CUP
Real Madrid 2, Barcelona 2
GERMANY
After each being held scoreless en route to opening match defeats last weekend, both Bayern Munich and Bayer Leverkusen got off the mat this week with 1-0 wins, though neither was particularly impressive. Leverkusen needed an 85th minute winner from Michal Kadlec to see off Werder Bremen, while Bayern needed an even later goal from Luiz Gustavo on practically the last kick of the game to defeat Wolfsburg. The slow start for both sides sees them looking up the table at the two clubs that have remained perfect through the first two weeks of the young season: Mainz, which defeated SC Freiburg 2-1 on Saturday, and Steve Cherundolo's Hannover 96, which beat Timothy Chandler's Nurnberg by the same score.
VfL Wolfsburg 0, Bayern Munich 1
Hoffenheim 1, Borussia Dortmund 0
Schalke 04 5, Cologne 1
Nurnberg 1, Hannover 96 2
Hamburg 2, Hertha Berlin 2
SC Freiburg 1, Mainz 05 2
Borussia Moenchengladbach 1, Stuttgart 1
Kaiserslautern 1, FC Augsburg 1
Bayer Leverkusen 1, Werder Bremen 0
FRANCE
Winning seven consecutive Ligue 1 titles between the 2001-02 and 2007-08 seasons created an expectation of success among Lyon players, coaches and fans. For that reason, the last three years have been something of a disappointment at the Stade de Gerland, where the home side nearly suffered a disasterous defeat to newly promoted AC Ajaccio on Saturday. Despite controlling nearly 70 percent of the possession and taking 25 shots, eight of them on goal, Lyon found itself trailing in the 59th minute on a goal from Frederic Sammaritano. It took until the 83rd minute for the home side to finally break through, with Lisandro Lopez doing the honors.
Lyon 1, AC Ajaccio 1
St. Etienne 1, AS Nancy Lorraine 0
Lorient 1, Bordeaux 1
Sochaux 1, Caen 2
Toulouse 2, Dijon 0
Stade Rennes 1, Paris St. Germain 1
Valenciennes 0, Brest 0
AJ Auxerre 2, Marseille 2
Evian Thonon 1, Nice 0
Lille 0, Montpellier 1
What did you think of this weekend's results? Who do you see winning the Spanish Super Cup? Think any club can take the Premier League title away from Man United?
