Little-known Alaves stun Barca

Madrid, Newly promoted Alaves stunned Spanish champions Barcelona by winning 2-1 at the Camp Nou as boss Luis Enrique paid a heavy price for starting Lionel Messi and Luis Suarez on the bench. Barca now trail Real Madrid by three points at the top of the table after Cristiano Ronaldo took just five minutes to score on his return from a two-month injury layoff in a 5-2 rout of Osasuna at the Bernabeu.
Enrique made seven changes from their last outing — a 1-0 win at Athletic Bilbao two weeks ago — with Messi recovering from a groin problem and Suarez rested following his exertions in World Cup qualifying with Uruguay. “It wasn’t a good day from the start, we weren’t precise enough,” said Enrique.
“On the day we weren’t fluid in attack, we were fragile in defence. They had three shots on goal and scored two goals.”
His wholesale changes backfired as Barca failed to unlock Alaves’s mass ranks of defence before the break and went behind when Deyverson turned Kiko Femenia’s cross past Jasper Cillessen on his Barca debut.
Neymar was the only one of Barca’s star “MSN” front three to start on his first appearance of the season after leading Brazil to Olympics gold and should have levelled moments later when he failed to hit the target with a free header inside the area. The Brazilian provided the assist as Jeremy Mathieu headed home Barca’s equaliser from a corner a minute after the break and the French defender somehow blasted wide with the goal gaping moments later.
Messi was summoned on the hour mark, but there was another shock to come for the hosts when Ibai Gomez took advantage of some awful Barca defending to put Alaves back in front. Andres Iniesta and Suarez were also called upon as the “MSN” were reunited for the first time in four months, but even they couldn’t break the Alaves resistance.
Chelsea held by Swansea
Diego Costa scored twice but could not prevent Chelsea losing their 100 percent Premier League record in a controversial 2-2 draw at Swansea on Sunday. The result left Manchester City two points clear of them at the top of the table. The fiery Spain striker scored in the 17th minute as Antonio Conte’s team took control of the game before conceding twice in quick succession. In the 59th minute goalkeeper Thibaut Courtois gave away a penalty by fouling Gylfi Sigurdsson after a Swansea counter-attack and the Iceland international got up to convert it. Then Gary Cahill was dispossessed by Leroy Fer and apparently fouled, but Fer was allowed to go on and score. Nine minutes from the end, Costa, who also received his third yellow card in four games, equalised with an overhead scissors kick that might have been penalised for dangerous play.