Malaga coach Manuel Pellegrini is happy with his side's strong start but insists that they will be truly measured in when they play Barcelona and Real Madrid.

Club owner Sheik Abdullah bin Nasser Al-Thani invested heavily over the summer, spending €58 million to bring in many new talents such as Ruud van Nisterooy, Santi Cazorla, Jeremy Toulalan and Joaquin to bolster the squad.

We have a rare midweek slate of matches in La Liga this week, with the highlight being league leaders Valencia hosting Barcelona on Wednesday. That match is just one of 10 midweek matches spread across three days.

A dramatic 4-3 opening day win against Racing Santander, thanks to two goals in the last five minutes, has been followed by successive 1-0 wins against Atletico Madrid and Sporting Gijon as Unai Emery's side moved to the top of the table.

For the first time in quite a while, neither Real Madrid nor Barcelona placed among the five biggest spenders of the summer according to Transfermarkt.

Madrid shelled out just 55 million euros, and a large chunk of that was reserved for Fabio Coentrao. Nuri Sahin, Jose Callejon and Raphael Varane arrived for modest fees, while Hamit Altintop was acquired on a free.

For the first time in quite a while, neither Real Madrid nor Barcelona placed among the five biggest spenders of the summer according to Transfermarkt.

Madrid shelled out just 55 million euros, and a large chunk of that was reserved for Fabio Coentrao. Nuri Sahin, Jose Callejon and Raphael Varane arrived for modest fees, while Hamit Altintop was acquired on a free.

Malaga have formally confirmed the signing of Villarreal midfielder Santi Cazorla for a reported 21 million euros.

Cazorla has signed a five-year contract, with the midfielder's release clause set at 45 million euros by his new club.

Cazorla is the ninth signing of the summer for the ambitious club, who are coached by Cazorla's former boss at Villarreal, Manuel Pellegrini.

An emotional Joaquín has said farewell to Valencia after agreeing to join Liga rivals Málaga for a fee of around 5 million euros.

"The two entities have closed an agreement so that the player from Puerto de Santa Maria can become the seventh incorporation for next season," Malaga said on their website.

Valencia just sold Joaquin. for next to nothing. *&%$

Me this morning. When I read the news.

Make no mistake, his influence and importance in the team has certainly dwindled of late, what with a great crop of players making a step up, But REALLY, Valencia is drowning in a quick-sand-filled pit of debt, we had to halt development of the Nou Mestalla, we need cash.

Manchester United will begin its Premier League title defense on the road at West Brom.

The Red Devils and the other 19 teams in the Premier League found out their 2011-2012 paths as the league released its schedule for the upcoming season on Friday.

United's schedule doesn't get any easier after its season opener, as the club faces Tottenham, Arsenal and Chelsea within the first five weeks.

25 or 7 ?
25% vs 7 times. That pretty much sums up the whole uncertainty around this game. Statistically, Lyon only have a 25% chance to qualify after the draw (1-1) conceded at home, three weeks ago. But this small percentage is opposed to the record of confrontations between the two teams, largely in favor of OL : 7 games against Real, 0 loss.

PARIS, France — Lyon gave themselves the perfect morale boost for next Tuesday's Champions League home clash with Real Madrid on Friday as they eased to a 4-0 victory over Nancy. However, while goals from Yoann Gourcuff, Jeremy Pied, Miralem Pjanic and the outstanding Jimmy Briand saw them move into provisional second in the league [.

The last we saw of Raymond Domenech, he was immersed in a witness protection program masquerading as some sort of poker crash course. Now that the money's dried up from that little venture, he's back for more cash with his very first exclusive post-World Cup meltdown interview to be released amidst pomp and several forms of circumstance tomorrow.