Gareth Bale, Lionel Messi hurt in Real Madrid and Barcelona blowouts

The La Liga title race has been re-invigorated by Zinedine Zidane’s appointment at Real Madrid, but he’s been faced with his first big issue at the helm. Gareth Bale has re-injured his calf, and he could be out for three weeks. Bale is currently in the form of his life, and scored the opening goal against Sporting Gijón this weekend.

Lionel Messi, meanwhile, tweaked his hamstring against Athletic Bilbao and was substituted at halftime. However, his injury isn’t serious. It looks highly unlikely that he’ll miss more than one game.

Ivan Rakitic’s finish was routine, but this is our goal of the day for Neymar’s assist. (r/soccer)

Stoke fans chanted nasty things at Aaron Ramsey and Arsène Wenger is mad. (ESPN FC)

Bayern’s Rafinha is going to miss their first competitive match back from break. (Bundesliga)

Bolton are broke, but got a delay on an order to liquidate. (Guardian)

Leicester have agreed to sign defender Daniel Amartey. (FC Copenhagen)

AC Milan are suing a former youth player for lying about his age. (Mirror)

Nicholas Thompson on Joe Cole, who’s still playing in League One just because he loves the game. (Vice)

Chris Etchingham on the possibility of a Balkan football league. (IBWM)

James Yorke on Everton’s complete lack of luck. (Stats Bomb)

Silly season has returned. Please don’t take anything in this section too seriously.

Jordan Morris looks likely to sign with Werder Bremen, not Seattle Sounders. (ESPN FC)

Southampton have rejected a bid from Liverpool for Shane Long. (Mirror)

Atleti want to bring Diego Costa back. (Fichajes)

Fulham want to keep Moussa Dembélé, but Spurs won’t go away. (Standard)

Steven Naismith has his medical scheduled at Norwich. (Guardian)

Wolfsburg won’t let Ricardo Rodríguez go to Real Madrid. (Marca)

Here’s a wrap up of all of Saturday’s EPL action.

Manchester United grabbed a big late win over Liverpool. (The Busby Babe)

Real Madrid had no problem smashing Sporting Gijón. (Managing Madrid)

Barcelona won too, aided by a fourth-minute red card. (Barca Blaugranes)

Juventus steamrolled Udinese. (Black and White and Read All Over)

EPL: Swansea City vs. Watford (3 p.m.) -- Potentially fun, potentially relegation-related.