Champions are almost known... (already)

Championships are not won in the first week of April, but all five of Europe’s big leagues took decisive turns over the weekend.

Manchester United came from two goals down to win, 4-2, at West Ham on Saturday and became the odds-on favorite to recapture the Premier League title in England.

Barcelona, winning on the road at Villarreal, took full advantage of Real Madrid’s first home defeat in any competition this season.

Borussia Dortmund moved resolutely toward the Bundesliga crown. Lille, attacking in style, is now clear in France. And the battle of the two Milans was so emphatically won, 3-0, by A.C. Milan that Inter’s five-year hold on the Italian title looks to be on its last legs.

Barring some unprecedented mishaps, the champions’ colors are already set.

“It starts with the manager,” Manchester’s veteran winger, Ryan Giggs, said of Alex Ferguson after the Reds’ second-half comeback. “He was calm. He made changes. He said we were playing some good stuff and we could win this. We never give up, no matter the score.”

Giggs has spent his entire 21-season career getting to know the driving force of Ferguson. He might have been mildly surprised when Ferguson indicated in the locker room at halftime that he was taking off his left back and putting in an extra attacker, so Giggs was required to play the defensive role.

Those familiar with Ferguson’s firebrand nature could read the script. The team is down, the two penalty-kick goals that put them there were undeserved, but we’re better than them. “So play,” Ferguson instructed his team. “Just go out and play.”

The old boy is mellowing. Fergie is 69, and the young Ferguson always told players, “Go for their bloody throats.” These days, temporarily barred from the sideline because of his criticisms of referees, he gets a word with his players only at halftime.

That was enough on Saturday. The extra forward at halftime, Javier Hernández, and then the addition of another attacker, Dimitar Berbatov, early in the second half created time and space for Wayne Rooney to score three goals.

Rooney spoiled it all later; he is likely to be charged with bringing the sport into disrepute because of a foul-mouthed rant he made into a TV microphone.

Sometimes, the winners never acquire grace. José Mourinho lost his extraordinary record of not losing a home game in nine years when his team, Real Madrid, succumbed in a 1-0 loss against Sporting Gijon at the Bernabéu on Saturday.

Mourinho is the coach who called himself the Special One. His last league home defeat was with Porto, in February 2002. He never lost on home soil with Chelsea, never lost with Inter, and Real had won every match in Madrid during his tenure until Saturday.

The goal that ended all that was, coincidentally, scored by Miguel de las Cuevas, a former Atlético Madrid striker. A fine goal it was, with de las Cuevas cutting in from the left and with a sudden, flick-knife shot, scoring off the inside of the post from 12 yards.

Real Madrid, without Cristiano Ronaldo, Karim Benzema, Xabi Alonso and Marcelo, tried to reclaim the match, and Sporting’s defense at times led a charmed resilience. And Mourinho blamed the gods. “Luck,” he said, “is part of football; our opponents had it all, and we had none.”

Hours after Real Madrid lost, Barcelona triumphed in one of the toughest places to win, Villarreal’s El Madrigal stadium. Barça, too, has injuries and suspensions. It started Saturday without the key figure in each line of its team — Carles Puyol in defense, Xavi Hernández in midfield, Lionel Messi in attack.

It had other absentees: Éric Abidal, Pedro, Maxwell. And the perceived wisdom at the start of this season was that Barça’s reserves were less experienced than Real Madrid’s.

“What makes the difference is desire,” Barcelona’s coach, Josep Guardiola, said before the match. “People talk about tactics and fitness, but what matters most is the desire to be champion.”

Barcelona’s goal Saturday was scored by a defender, Gerard Piqué. Its defense was held together by three immaculate saves by Victor Valdés. But as Guardiola envisaged, his team did not make excuses of fatigue and distraction after last week’s national team duties. It had the desire to dominate a pure team like Villarreal, to the extent of 70 percent ball possession.

A champion wins when it must. Many had prophesied that Inter’s squad would still be the best in Italy, but A.C. Milan stunned Inter by scoring in the opening minute through Alexandre Pato. He scored again in the second half, and his pace was responsible for the red card shown to Inter’s Cristian Chivu when he chopped down Pato shortly after halftime.

The sending off was indicative of Inter’s inability to cope. “We stayed calm, we played good football, and we didn’t let Inter score,” Milan Coach Massimo Allegri said.

His job, taking over with finances trimmed back by the owner Silvio Berlusconi, is on a good path. The opposing coach, Leonardo, was a fine A.C. Milan player, and briefly its coach until Berlusconi lost faith in him.

Allegri was careful not to claim the Serie A title, and Leonardo insisted it was not yet lost. But the championship is in Milan’s sights after many years in its neighbor’s shadow.

Now - Barca shows off its skills

The hurt may be greater than it was in the 4-1 trouncing here last season, because this was a tie that might have taken a different course. Arsène Wenger's side, with the score at 1-1, held a 3-2 aggregate lead when Robin van Persie was sent off in the 56th minute for a second booking. The referee Massimo Busacca was sure he had played on intentionally and had a rare shot at Barcelona's goal instead of simply failing to hear the whistle.

Patronising though the appraisal will sound, Arsenal were far closer to Barcelona. There is, despite that, an obligation to emphasise that they posed so little threat that there was not a single shot on target for Víctor Valdés to save. In the circumstances, Wenger has to settle for notable evidence that Arsenal do have a durability now that will be valuable in the bid for the Premier League title.

While prospects look appealing on that front, nothing came easily for the side in this fixture. The young goalkeeper Wojciech Szczesny lasted 19 minutes and had to go off after a seemingly mild shot by Daniel Alves bent back a finger, later confirmed as dislocated. His replacement was Manuel Almunia. The Spaniard's presence took to six the number of Arsenal players on the pitch who had been in the starting line-up here last season.

Circumstances beyond the control of Wenger have made some of the changes inevitable, but Arsenal's unsettling search for a first trophy in six years also contributes to the restlessness. Some of his verdicts are being vindicated. The defensive midfielder Denílson has been downgraded to the Carling and FA Cups. He started at the Camp Nou last season but did not leave the bench in this match, even though the current defensive midfielder Alex Song was injured.

Abou Diaby took up some of those chores although he is not a specialist in that work. It was still a comparatively subdued first half, putting aside the fouls that led to four of the Arsenal line-up being cautioned. There was just a moment to spare for real distinction, then, as Messi struck in the third minute of stoppage time before the interval. Cesc Fábregas attempted a flick and gave possession to Andrés Iniesta. The through pass put Messi clear and he dinked the ball over Almunia, who was attempting to dive at his feet, before thumping it gleefully into the net.

For all that gusto, Barcelona were, by their own measure, judicious. Pep Guardiola, left with more regard for Wenger's squad after the 2-1 defeat in London, had rested some of his men in the weekend victory over Real Zaragoza. Energy was particularly significant against Arsenal, who had decided to hold a high line at the Camp Nou rather than back off and leave the opposition with simple possession.

It was Guardiola's men who looked better-equipped to set up a goal. If there is one area of reconstruction in which Wenger is starting to take a tentative pride it is in a defence that has a good record and the manager is entitled to note this achievement. Given the context, the relapse into folly for the opener must have been all the more distressing.

Samir Nasri's persistence earned a corner on the left. The midfielder flighted it over and Diaby's run seemed to distract the defence so severely that Sergio Busquets, a midfielder employed at centre-half because of injury and suspension, headed into his own net. Arsenal, though, suffered, too, when the second booking followed for Van Persie, who claimed he did not hear the referee's whistle above the noise in the crowd.

Even so, Wenger's men, with their lead in the tie, were more at peace for a time than Barcelona. Guardiola's side and the home support all knew that a goal was essential to take the game to extra time. Almunia was outstanding in the face of an unfettered Barcelona, particularly with one save from Villa, but the resistance could not continue. Barcelona quickly scored twice to assume the lead on aggregate. After 69 minutes, Iniesta and Villa combined in a perfect move, before Xavi put the ball past Almunia. Two minutes later, Koscielny fouled Pedro and Messi converted the penalty.

This campaign has hurt Arsenal on other occasions as well and Wenger will have not have forgotten the defeats in the group phase that led to their facing this daunting fixture.

Arsenal strikes back

Arsenal struck twice in five minutes late in the match to snatch an unlikely 2-1 win over Barcelona in the first leg of their Champions League last-16 clash at The Emirates on Wednesday.

Barcelona dominated possession with wonderful passing, working tirelessly to harass the home side in their short spells on the ball, and deservedly led through a David Villa goal after 26 minutes.

They could have had three or four more but Arsenal levelled out of the blue through Robin van Persie in the 78th minute.

That would have been kind on Arsenal, beaten 6-3 on aggregate by the Spaniards in last season's quarter-finals, but they got a huge bonus seven minutes from time when substitute Andrei Arshavin swept in the second after a superb counter-attack.

When Arsenal did begin to see some of the ball after the break Barca gave them another lesson, this time in the art of closing down, as they showed that like all great teams they know how to work hard and defend when they have to.

The game seemed to be heading only one way until the ball broke to Van Persie wide on the left with little apparent danger but, from a tight angle he lashed a shot goalwards and it sneaked inside the near post of a flat-footed Valdes.

The goal lifted the crowd and Arsenal responded with a Barca-style counter-attack that ended with Samir Nasri squaring for substitute Arshavin to sweep in the winner

The second leg at the Nou Camp Stadium is on March 8.