It wasn’t a great weekend to be Joe Hart. Despite Torino scoring 3 of their own, he found himself on the wrong side of a 5-3 loss in Naples. Hart handed Dries Mertens his second hat-trick in as many games - and then another goal after that. The last player to put four past Hart was Zlatan Ibrahimovic in Sweden’s 4-2 win over England in 2012.
Craig Pawson managed to do the impossible this weekend - the referee angered Claudio Ranieri to the point of actually having people step in to separate the manager from him. Pawson had not covered himself in glory earlier in the week when he’d taken charge of the Crystal Palace vs Manchester United game. After sending Jamie Vardy off for a reckless challenge, Pawson went on to dish out another 6 yellows to the reigning champions, with 4 of them in the 4 minutes leading up to half-time.
While he may have had some help with a certain Argentinian, Luis Suárez netted another brace against cross-town rivals Espanyol. Suárez has now scored 37 goals in his 35 La Liga appearances in 2016 - at least 5 more than any other player has managed.
18-year-old French goalkeeper Anthony Maisonnial made an unexpected debut this weekend. Second choice Saint-Etienne keeper, Jessy Moulin, was sent off just 10 minutes in for committing a foul on Lorient forward Benjamin Moukandjo. The teenager went on to make 7 saves and was named man of the match.
Knowing that Zlatan Ibrahimovic could karate kick any of his teammates at any time, Jesse Lingard shows the appropriate amount of fear and awe in celebration. The big Swede has now scored 11 goals in the Premier League this season - the rest of Manchester United have collectively managed 13.
Having not scored a league goal since February 2015, Danny Latza netted a hat-trick against HSV in a 3-1 win this weekend. In fact, the defensive midfielder managed to score more goals on his own than any team in the Bundesliga did this weekend.
Despite hitting the woodwork twice at the London Stadium, Hull were unable to capitalise on any of their chances. After shipping 5 to Arsenal, West Ham have now managed to keep consecutive clean sheets at home for the first time since March.
Walter Mazzarri may want to continue with his incognito look - at least when away from Vicarage Road. His side have lost each of their last 4 games on the road, shipping 12 goals and scoring just twice. In fact, Watford have managed just 3 goals in their last 7 games away from home.
Mario Balotelli scored both of Nice’s goals this weekend in a 2-1 win over Dijon to ensure his side will be top for Christmas. The Italian has netted 8 goals in his 8 Ligue 1 appearances this season. Since his debut in 2007, he has only scored more than 8 goals in a single campaign 4 times.
Things started brightly for Arsenal this weekend, with Theo Walcott opening the scoring at the Etihad just 5 minutes into the game. But things unravelled in the second half for the Gunners as they failed to create anything of note and allowed City to score twice. It was the first time the North London side have lost consecutive away games in the league since April 2014. For his part in their loss, Mesut Özil had 0 shots, 0 dribbles, 1 key pass and 0 accurate crosses.
