Five talking points from the weekend

In Graeme Souness’s analysis on Sky Sports of Arsenal’s defeat yesterday to Manchester United he described the Gunners as bordering on being a joke. Everyone knows this one, it’s the one about Arsenal mounting a decent title challenge throughout the season with the punchline being that they always, eventually, mess it up at the most opportune moment. The race for the Premier League isn’t over yet but after this loss you can almost guarantee Arsenal won’t be in contention come early May.

More than one publication decided that Pep Guardiola's admiration for Leonardo Bonucci ("one of my favourite ever players," said Guardiola) was surprising. Surprising? Really? Bonucci has been a player of the highest order for some time now. He defends like a mixture of Baresi and Bruce; he passes like a La Masia graduate; and he reads the game as if it were a kid's ABC book. On Sunday he was at it again, capping an impressive performance – he had more touches than any other Juventus player and was key to their clean sheet – with a well-taken goal in the win over Internazionale. "He is under contract and is happy to stay," said the Juventus general director, Giuseppe Marotta, afterwards but will not stop clubs from trying to tempt him. Especially Guardiola.

“Whatever happens, we won’t be saying goodbye to La Liga” said Zinedine Zidane before the derby but afterwards he admitted: “La Liga is over”. And it is indeed for Los Blancos because the 12-point gap between Barça and Real may not be their biggest problem. At the Santiago Bernabéu there were boos for James Rodríguez, calls for the chairman to resign and Cristiano Ronaldo decided to spice up the situation by saying: “If everyone was at my level, we would be first" (he tried to fix it afterwards). The so-called Zidane effect is definitely gone, if it ever existed, and the Champions League is their last chance to save the season.

It was always going to take something special for PSG to lose in Ligue 1 this season and that’s exactly what happened on Sunday. Missing key creative influences Ángel di María and Marco Veratti, as well as suspended right back Serge Aurier, PSG were uncharacteristically flat, lacking control and void of ideas. Lyon, on the other hand, were magnificent. Full of confidence and clearly inspired by the electric atmosphere at their new stadium, Lyon harassed PSG all night, constantly looking dangerous on the counterattack. Lyon have now won four of their last five and look a good bet for Champions League qualification. For PSG, the loss may be something of a blessing in disguise, allowing them to turn their attention to the Champions League without the pressure of a domestic record.

Tactical fouls have become commonplace in today’s game and the biggest talking point from the Bundesliga this weekend is whether or not Sebastian Rudy’s foul on Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang deserved to see red. Rudy himself claimed it was a tactical foul to stop the breaking Dortmund striker and prevent a counterattacking chance. However, the foul was from behind; Rudy made no attempt to play the ball; it was reckless in that he could have injured Aubameyang; and that the slide tackle could be seen as excessive force. Those combined factors mean Rudy doesn’t have a case to argue the sending off.