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European Roundup: Bale joins Madrid, Messi hits hat-trick
Tottenham Hotspur winger Gareth Bale joined Real Madrid for a record 100 million euros while Lionel Messi showed the talent he will be up against in La Liga when the Argentine hit a hat-trick in Barcelona's 3-2 win over Valencia.
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Barcelona and Real are among four teams with a perfect record in Spain while it is tight in Serie A, with five clubs sharing top honours, including champions Juventus.
In the Premier League, it was not a good weekend for champions Manchester United or a Spurs team without Bale. Both lost 1-0 to Liverpool and Arsenal respectively.
England
Liverpool and Arsenal scored 1-0 wins over bitter rivals Manchester United and Tottenham Hotspur respectively in the Premier League on Sunday.
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Daniel Sturridge scored after four minutes at Anfield on the day the club celebrated the 100th birthday of renowned former manager Bill Shankly, a result that sent them to the top of the table with three wins from three matches.
Arsenal prevailed over big-spending north London rivals Spurs shortly before Bale's move to Real Madrid for 100 million euros ($131.86 million) was confirmed.
Olivier Giroud netted for the Gunners, and like Sturridge has scored three goals in three appearances this season.
Chelsea, who lost the Super Cup to Bayern Munich on Friday, lie second, two points behind Liverpool, while Manchester City, 2-0 winners over Hull City on Saturday, Arsenal, Stoke and Spurs lie on six points. Champions United have four.
Spain
Lionel Messi struck the third first-half hat-trick of his career as Barcelona extended their winning start to their title defence with an entertaining 3-2 win at Valencia.
Hours before sealing the transfer of Bale from Tottenham Hotspur, Real Madrid made it three wins from three by beating Athletic Bilbao 3-1 at the Bernabeu and Atletico Madrid joined the two giants on nine points with a 2-1 success at Real Sociedad.
Promoted Villarreal's impressive 3-0 victory at Osasuna means they also have a perfect record and suggested the team known as "yellow submarine" are unlikely to surrender their top flight status again this term.
At the age of only 26, World Player of the Year Messi is now the sixth highest scorer in La Liga history with 220 goals, surpassing Quini's 219 and closing in on the record of 251 held by Telmo Zarra.
Italy
Five teams -- Napoli, AS Roma, Inter Milan, Fiorentina and champions Juventus -- maintained their perfect start to the season and are level on six points at the top of Serie A.
Arturo Vidal scored twice and Carlos Tevez added another goal as Juventus completed an impressive 4-1 win over 10-man Lazio.
Napoli also made it two victories from two games, overcoming Chievo 4-2 in Verona with two goals from in-form Slovakian Marek Hamsik and Gonzalo Higuain's first Serie A strike.
Three goals in 10 minutes, including splendid efforts from Miralem Pjanic and Adem Ljajic, spurred Roma to a 3-0 win over Hellas Verona.
Inter were also 3-0 winners at Catania and while a rampant Fiorentina demolished Genoa 5-2, with Giuseppe Rossi and Mario Gomez both on target twice.
Germany
Henrikh Mkhitaryan scored his first two goals for Borussia Dortmund since his 27.5 million euro move to give them a 2-1 win at Eintracht Frankfurt which maintained their 100 percent Bundesliga record.
The Armenian's goals were both excellently taken as he side-footed the first past Kevin Trapp and then rifled in a 25-metre effort from the edge of the penalty area early in the second half.
VfB Stuttgart, beaten in their first three Bundesliga outings, burst into life with a 6-2 win over Hoffenhaim in the other game, inspired by a hat-trick from striker Vedad Ibisevic.
Dortmund's win left them top of the Bundesliga as the only team with 12 points from their first four games. Defending champions Bayern Munich, who drew with Freiburg on Tuesday, are two points behind in second with Hanover, Bayer Leverkusen and Mainz 05 on nine each.
France
Emmanuel Riviere came off the bench to score his fifth goal in four games as big-spending Monaco underlined their title ambitions by climbing to the top of Ligue 1 with a 2-1 victory at Olympique Marseille.
Riviere secured the win in the 79th minute as unbeaten Monaco, who have splashed out around 170 million euros to build a star-studded squad, leapfrogged Marseille to the top of the standings with 10 points from four games.
Marseille are second with nine points, ahead of St Etienne on goal difference. St Etienne defeated Girondins Bordeaux 2-1 at home.
Champions Paris St Germain are fourth, one point behind, after beating promoted-side Guingamp thanks to two injury-time goals by Adrien Rabiot and Zlatan Ibrahimovic.
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