ALL THE SPORTS with Ime Morison

The weekend was filled with great sporting spectacles as football leagues in Europe took centre stage. Our 'sportsman' Ime Morison would be reviewing all the weekend sports actions in our latest column ALL THE SPORTS.

MESSI ECLIPSE...?
World Player of the Year Lionel Messi has failed to score in a couple of games now for Barcelona following his return from a hamstring injury. He was recently out-shined in the El Classico by new acquisition Neymar jr., who scored and set-up Alexis Sanchez's superb second in their 2-1 win over bitter rivals Real Madrid. Neymar also provided the low cross that led to Barca's solitary goal in the weekend's Catalan Derby and is receiving rave review in the Catalunya Capital. Meanwhile Messi has failed to score in four successive La Liga matches, his longest goalless run since April 2011.
Barcelona's coach Tarta Martino had observed a 'dip' in Messi's performance level after the El Classico game;Messi, himself had commented that he is "not troubled" by his current goal drought...Could it be that the rise of £50million-signing Neymar is eclipsing the star of Messi at the Nou Camp...?

UNVIELING THE BALE
After the lack-lustre performance of El Classico, World-record signing Gareth Bale seems to have began the process of showing the world the stuffs he's made of. Though he scored on his debut, his progress in Madrid had been hampered by injury but Bale seemed to unveil the bale in mid-week when he scored two goals and assisted Karim Benzema, in his double and Cristiano Ronaldo, who scored a hatrick, in the 7-3 mauling of Sevilla. He continued his vein of form by providing two goals in the weekend win over Rayo Vallecano;with that Bale has scored two and provided four assists in his last two La Liga games. With such performances the €100 million-signing is beginning to show the value of his bale...

ROMA'S REBIRTH
Torino, at the weekend held high-flying Roma to a 1-1 draw to halt their 100% start in Serie A. Roma became the first team to win the opening 10 matches of the Serie A season when they beat Chievo 1-0 on thursday. Roma leads the Italian league with three points ahead of Napoli and defending champions, Juventus. Roma's rebirth this season is anchored on strong performances that has seen the Rome-based outfit score 25 goals and concede only two. The Rudi Garcia tinkered side had invested heavily in the summer and aims to return to Europe next season. If they can maintain this form all season, we could be seeing a complete turn around in fortune for Italy's Capital club.

ARSENAL'S ANSWER...

Arsenal and Arsene Wenger this weekend answered some of their doubters in the convincing 2-0 win over Liverpool. Questions were asked about the Gunners' credentials as title contenders after home defeats to Borrussia Dortmund in the Champions League and their exit from the Capital One cup at the hands of rivals Chelsea. But the London-based side responded in style and class to extend their lead on top of the EPL while Chelsea stumbled at Newcastle by losing 2-0. However, other big questions awaits the Gunners this week as they face Borrussia Dortmund in mid-week and a resurgent Manchester United at Old Trafford. Another positive answer would send a resounding message to both their rivals and doubters.

TALES ABOUT THE GOLDEN EAGLETS

The performances of Nigeria's Golden Eaglets at the FIFA U-17 World Cup in Qatar has had many tongues wagging. Most of the tales about this Manu Garba tutored-side, especially from foreign coaches, is that the boys are over-aged. Though the validity of their reservations cannot be ruled out entirely because of past occurrences, I must comment that this is one of the youngest Nigerian U-17 side for years and therefore would presume these over-age claims by foreigners as pure jealousy. These claims are arising because of the ease and maturity with which the Eaglets dismantle their opponents and at the same time scoring goals for fun. Had the Eaglets not performed well, these tales wouldn't have surfaced. Infact, they are only two more wins from becoming world champions again in this cadre and i'm hoping they win it. I also hope the NFF integrate this group into the senior national side - the Super Eagles. Talents like Iheanacho, Yahaya, Okon, Awoniyi, Success, etc should be well nurtured.

DOMINANT VETTEL

Serbastian Vettle cruised to victory in Abu Dhabi to record his seventh consecutive victory and underscore his dominance of Formula 1. The victory added to his overall magnificent performance this season with 11 wins that has helped him become F1 Drivers Champion for the fourth consecutive year. The 26-year-old remains in contention to equal both Micheal Schunacher's all- time record of 13 victories in one season and Alberto Ascari's of nine consecutive F1 grand prix wins, which have stood for 60 years. The combination of Vettel's skills and Red Bull's ingenuity in manufacturing pacy race cars have made the Australian a dominant force and that looks set to continue to the next future.

With that we will wrap it up for this week. Be a Sport Fan not a fanatic as you enjoy ALL THE SPORTS this week. Cheers!