The 2018/19 season continued to pick up pace across the European leagues this weekend. Here are our picks for winners and losers from all the action.
Winners:
Ousmane Dembélé
Ousmane Dembélé continued to prove that he indeed has a future at Barcelona as he scored the decisive goal for the club, to beat Real Valladolid 1-0. There was extensive talk of the club reportedly being willing to let him go this summer, if they could recoup the money they paid for him last year. The Catalans forked out a massive £97m to Borussia Dortmund for his signature, as they reacted to the unexpected departure of Neymar to PSG.
Dembélé failed to have a significant impact in his first season at the Camp Nou. His situation was apparently aggravated by the arrival of Philippe Coutinho in January and then Malcom in the summer. The 21-year old French World Cup winner has however had a telling influence on the Blaugrana’s positive start to the season. He scored the winning goal against in Sevilla two weeks ago, and he proved his value once again as the match winner against Valladolid.
Fiorentina
Fiorentina only started their Serie A season this weekend, after their first match against Sampdoria was postponed last week. It was a storming start for Stefano Pioli’s men, as they ran riot to beat Chievo 6-1. 23-year old Marco Benassi scored twice and the other goals came from Gerson, Federico Chiesa and Giovanni Simeone.
Dijon
Ligue 1 side Dijon have confounded early season predictions with a barnstorming start to the new campaign. They humiliated Patrick Vieira’s Nice 0-4 on their own turf, a result that left them level with PSG at the top of the standings. They have now won three out of three games, scored eight goals and conceded only once.
Losers:
Monaco
The season continued to deteriorate for Monaco, who lost 2-1 to Bordeaux in an interesting match at the Stade Matmut-Atlantique. Leonardo Jardim oversaw a 3-1 win for his side in their opening game against Nantes, but they were then held to a 0-0 draw by Lille last weekend. Things only got worse for Les Monagésques, as Bordeaux scored a 90th-minute winner against them. Monaco are now ninth on the Ligue 1 rankings, and already five points behind the leaders.
Tiémoué Bakayoko
As Monaco continued to struggle, so did one of their former players, Tiémoué Bakayoko. The midfielder made his debut for AC Milan following a loan move from Chelsea, where he spent one largely underwhelming year. Things didn’t seem to get any better for Bakayoko though, as he struggled to impose himself on a Milan team that ended up on the wrong side of a 3-2 score-line against Napoli. Manager Gennaro Gattuso highlighted his performance after the game, which might not be very good for his morale.