Images: European football weekend roundup

Rooney continued his striking form in the English Premier League as Manchester United thumped past Fulham 3-0 to go two points clear at the top.

The England international's first goal came just 30 seconds into the second half and it punctured Fulham's resistance and his second with six minutes remaining settled a few jitters.

To cap his afternoon Rooney's raking pass instigated a move that ended with Dimitar Berbatov adding a third goal as United, bidding for a fourth consecutive title, moved to 66 points with eight games remaining, two ahead of Chelsea and Arsenal.

Didier Drogba scored twice to lift Chelsea to a 4-1 victory over West Ham United on Saturday.

Two weeks after a shock 4-2 defeat by Manchester City at Stamford Bridge, Chelsea rediscovered their form and with Florent Malouda enjoying one of his best games for the club ended up handsome winners.

Drogba's double and one for Malouda killed off relegation-threatened West Ham who were level at halftime after former Chelsea man Scott Parker cancelled out Alex's header.

Nicklas Bendtner, fresh from a Champions League hat-trick against Porto in midweek, punished Hull keeper Boaz Myhill's mistake in the third minute of stoppage time to earn Arsenal a 2-1 victory at 10-man Hull.

Bendtner was a laughing stock after missing a host of chances during his team's 3-1 victory over Burnley last week, but he made it for lost chances with a spuerb show in EPL.

Arsenal manager Arsene Wenger said Bendtner showed lot of character to come up with such a performance. "You are always judged on the performance of the day. Against Burnley, he (Bendtner) maybe deserved the critics, but the best way to answer them is to come up with a better performance," he said.

Argentina pair Gonzalo Higuain and Lionel Messi scored hat-tricks for Real Madrid and Barcelona respectively as both won easily at the weekend.

Higuain took his league tally to 19 after Cristiano Ronaldo's free kick had set Real Madrid on the way to a 4-1 win at relegation-threatened Real Valladolid.

Messi earlier scored three sublime goals to fire Barca to a 3-0 win over third-placed Valencia.

Real and Barca both have 65 points from 26 matches, with Manuel Pellegrini's side, dumped out of the Champions League by Olympique Lyon in midweek, ahead on goal difference.

David Beckham suffered a suspected ruptured Achilles tendon as AC Milan beat Chievo 1-0 to reduce the gap between themselves and Serie A leaders Inter Milan to a point.

Substitute Clarence Seedorf fired in a thunderous strike in stoppage time as Milan bounced back from their midweek Champions League exit at the hands of Manchester United.

But their win was dampened by the injury to Beckham who faces a race to get fit in time to play for England at the World Cup in June.

Jose Mourinho's Inter lost 3-1 to Catania on Friday.

Bayern Munich reclaimed the top spot thanks to Dutch winger Arjen Robben, who scored twice in seven minutes late in the game to hand them a 2-1 victory over Freiburg.

Bayern are on 56 points from 26 matches.

Second-placed Schalke 04 had briefly overtaken Bayern following their 2-1 win over VfB Stuttgart and remain hot on their heels, just two points behind.

Bayer Leverkusen outclassed Hamburg SV 4-2 with two goals from the league's top scorer Stefan Kiessling to remain in title contention, in third place on 53 points.

Girondins Bordeaux held on to their narrow lead in Ligue 1 but did little to reassure their fans with a goal-less draw at Monaco.

Champions Bordeaux, who have won just one of their last six league matches, have 53 points from 27 games and stayed ahead of second-placed Montpellier on goal difference.

Montpellier, who have played one more match than Bordeaux, fought back from a goal down to salvage a 1-1 home draw with Auxerre, who are third, one point off the pace.