An injury to Lionel Messi overshadowed Barcelona's return to the Primera Division summit. 

Barca sealed a 2-1 win over Las Palmas and replaced rivals Real Madrid after they were held to a goalless draw at the Bernabeu by 10-man Malaga.

But the loss of Messi, who took an early blow during a collision with Pedro Bigas and is now expected to be out for up to eight weeks with knee ligament damage, makes it a bittersweet day.

Luis Suarez's double was enough to secure the points for Barca at the Nou Camp, with Jonathan Viera's deflected goal late on reducing the margin.

Messi received a blow to the knee in a tangle with Pedro Bigas just three minutes into the match and although he initially tried to continue he was withdrawn six minutes later and taken to hospital.

Tests revealed a torn ligament in his left knee, and Barcelona announced the Argentina international would be out for between seven and eight weeks.

That means Messi could miss the Clasico against Real Madrid on 22 November, while he is certain to sit out Barca's Champions League fixtures with Bayern Leverkusen and BATE Borisov, league games with Sevilla, Rayo Vallecano, Eibar, Getafe and Villarreal, plus Argentina's World Cup qualifiers against Ecuador, Paraguay, Colombia and Brazil.

"I'm always sad when one of my players gets injured and even more when it's Messi," Luis Enrique said.
"But we need to accept the challenge and understand that this is part of football and get through it.

"We will not change our style of play without Messi, although there are many moments in games in which Messi liberates us and finds solutions for us, so we'll have to strengthen in other areas and the team will have to step up without him."

Real will wonder how they failed to put away Malaga, having had 31 attempts on goal and two strikes disallowed, one from Cristiano Ronaldo in the eighth minute and one from Isco in stoppage time.

The door appeared to open for them when Nordin Amrabat was dismissed with 13 minutes still to play, but Rafael Benitez's side could not beat visiting goalkeeper Carlos Kameni.

Hernandez: I don't mind how I score

Manchester United striker Javier Hernandez's attitude is that of a goalscorer - as long as he keeps finding the back of the net he will be happy.

The 'Little Pea' scored the winner at Everton on Saturday after getting on the end of a Patrice Evra cross but his goal brought up a curious record for the Mexican striker - he has yet to score for United from outside the box.

Hernandez has netted 24 goals already in his burgeoning career at Old Trafford but none of them have come from long range and this has led to comparisons with one of United's most famous goal poacher - Ruud van Nistelrooy.

However, the 23-year-old is not concerned about being labelled as a one-dimensional penalty-box predator.

When Hernandez was asked by Inside United whether he thinks he can score from outside the box this season, he replied: "You never know!"

"I think part of the reason I haven't done that yet is because of the instructions I receive from Sir Alex.

"My job is play very high, right on the last man. To be honest, I don't mind how I score goals - whether or not you score from one metre or from the halfway line, it counts the same. A goal is a goal."

ManUtd.com notes that it took Van Nistelrooy 138 matches to score from outside the area and it was in a 3-1 victory at Charlton in 2005.

Meanwhile, Sir Alex Ferguson's side now face Otelul Galati in midweek hoping to take another step towards the UEFA Champions League knockout stages before hosting Sunderland at Old Trafford next weekend.

AVB denies lashing out at Chelsea

Andre Villas-Boas has vowed never to rant and rave at his Chelsea players, no matter how poorly they had performed.

Blue boss Villas-Boas on Monday denied reading the riot act to his squad after watching them ripped apart by Arsenal on Saturday.

The 34-year-old held an inquest into Chelsea's 5-3 Barclays Premier League defeat at Stamford Bridge 24 hours later but rubbished reports which suggested he lost his cool.

"It's not my leadership style," said Villas-Boas, who is far less of a dictator than many of his contemporaries.

"Mine's a two-way leadership where the players are incentivised to give an opinion.

"It'll always be a two-way process for me where the most important words and actions are from my players.

"After a defeat like this, a player's own reflection is the most important thing.

"Because of what these players have won, they will do that."

Defender Branislav Ivanovic confirmed he and his team-mates had all taken a good look in the mirror since Saturday.

"Every one of us has to look in the mirror and be honest about how we played defensively," he said.

"We know how we made mistakes and how we plan to do things better.

"We have to be fully concentrated for the whole game and be strong for 90 minutes.

"When you're talking about the defence, you never talk about personal mistakes. In football, that can happen.

"We're talking about our game defensively. The whole team defends, the whole team attacks.

"In some moments, we lost some concentration. We weren't fully concentrated and things happened that we didn't want to happen, and that changed the game psychologically.

"This could be one of the most important things in our season after this game.

"A great reaction of the group would be good to show how we are strong."

Chelsea's first chance to repair the damage done by Saturday's defeat comes in Tuesday night's Champions League game at Genk, where victory could seal a last-16 spot.

The Blues will be expected to sweep aside the Belgian champions, who they thrashed 5-0 two weeks ago.

Villas-Boas, who visited the Cristal Arena with Porto last season, said: "I have experience of playing here and it's a stadium of great intensity.

"We had a difficult time here last year.

"It was our first knockout game in the Europa League and we got a tremendous result, but it was not easy."

Genk boss Mario Been said: "We will take on the game differently than the first leg.

"We showed way too much respect for our opponents. We played backward instead of forward.

"At home, in front of a capacity crowd we will have our chances, I'm sure.

"The only thing we have to do is to cash in on at least one of them. And we do have the quality to do that."

Cheik Tioté on Manchester United radar

Newcastle’s defensive midfielder Cheik Tioté is currently attracting interest from Manchester United, with Sir Alex Ferguson personally travelling to watch the Ivory Coast international during the Magpies’ 1-0 win over Wigan in the ninth matchday on October 22.
According to reports, the Premier League champions are preparing a bid for the 25-year-old ahead of the transfer window reopening in January.

Under contract until June 2017 with Newcastle, Tioté has been impressive since moving to England from Dutch side FC Twente last year.

However, the player says he is happy at St James' Park, and keen on helping his side grab a spot for European competition next year.

“I have a long contract at Newcastle, and I'm happy here,” he told the Sunday Sun over the weekend. “I need to stay focused because we are in a very good position in the Premier League at the moment (third position). Every player wants to play in European competition and I am no different.

Newcastle can get into Europe, but we need to stay focused as of now and keep working together,” he added. During the summer Tioté was linked with a move to Chelsea, but it failed to pull off. He will be joining the Elephants for the Nelson Mandela Challenge against South Africa scheduled for November 12 at the Nelson Mandela Bay Stadium in Port Elizabeth.

'Silent Stan' speaks up for Glazers

Arsenal shareholder Stan Kroenke has told Manchester United fans to lay off the Glazers and start thanking them for the success they have delivered instead.


Malcom Glazer and his family have come under intense criticism from United supporters since they completed their leveraged takeover of the Old Trafford club in 2005.

The American family, who also own NFL club the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, have been criticised for the way that they have financed their purchase of the club with loans partly secured against the club's assets.

Ticket prices at Old Trafford have soared since the Americans took over - a move which has caused the birth of a widespread protest movement against the family, who they want to see out of the club.

In Kroenke, however, the Glazers have a big fan. The American businessman, who became Arsenal's majority shareholder in May this year, thinks there is a big difference in how sports clubs are run either side of the Atlantic.

The 64-year-old maintains he has no plans to secure loans against Arsenal in the way that Glazer has done at United, but admits he is baffled at the way United fans have taken a severe dislike towards his compatriot given that United have lifted four league titles since they took over six years ago while also boosting revenue at the club.

Kroenke said: "Since they took over they have won and they have increased revenues by a huge amount. If I was a fan of that club, I would go there and go 'Wow!' because how could you do it any better?

"We have a whole different philosophy I think in the States, maybe, but I think it's time maybe for everybody to think a little bit.

"I think they ought to think about who invests in these clubs.

"He (Glazer) took money out of the club. So what? (LA Lakers owner) Jerry Buss takes money out of his club. A lot of owners in the US do. No-one ever says anything about it.

"Did the Lakers win anything? Well, yeah. They did. How big's their revenue? Pretty darn good."

Kroenke has been criticised for his lack of public appearances at Arsenal since he took over the club in May.

The American, branded in some quarters as 'Silent Stan' has made a point of boosting his profile in London recently, however. Kroenke addressed the club's AGM last week, watched his first Arsenal match of the season last weekend - when the Gunners beat Chelsea 5-3 at Stamford Bridge - and he also visited the club's training ground on Monday.

There, Kroenke addressed the first team in the company of Arsene Wenger before re-iterating his support for the Gunners boss to the media.

As well as being a big fan of the Frenchman, Kroenke is also an admirer of the self-sustaining financial model the north London club have chosen while the likes of Manchester City have instead chosen to throw hundreds of millions of pounds at their club.

In what could be construed as a dig at City, Kroenke admitted making a club's survival dependent on one person or one company is not his idea of how to run a successful business.

He said: "I think you can have people who spend a lot, they will do it for a little while and they might have some success, but then the person everyone is relying on maybe gets tired of it or has a financial reversal.

"What you are doing is that you are putting the focus on one person, one resource and is that really in the interests of a long-term situation for a great club that many people identify with and rely on?

"I would be much more proud if all our leagues were developed with the idea that you are competing on the basis of intellect and work and effort instead of just simply 'I am going to throw dollars against the wall'.

"I am proud of the fact that Arsenal has had this sustainable business model."

Kroenke, who also owns NBA side Denver Nuggets, NHL club Colorado Avalanche and St. Louis Rams of the NFL, will watch the Gunners take on Marseille at the Emirates Stadium before heading back to his Missouri home.

Before leaving his media briefing, Kroenke was keen to make one more point clear - his unwavering support for Wenger - a man whose future was called in to doubt after the club's shaky start to the season.

"Arsene Wenger is an unbelievable manager. I think he's a tremendous person. He is as good as there is," Kroenke added.

"You lose some games, you have some tough loses. It happens. You can't judge a manager on one game or on one stretch of games. You judge him over time. That's how the really good ones are judged."