Barcelona sizzles, PSG simmers and Spurs struggle: The story of Europe's top leagues this season

Just as Europe's top soccer leagues are really hitting their stride, here comes a longer-than-usual break — three weeks! — for international matches.

A few early-season, post-World Cup themes are already developing, however, around the continent.

The Associated Press takes a look at them here:

It was the transfer saga of the summer: Would Argentina striker Julián Álvarez get his wish and secure a move to Barcelona from Atletico Madrid?

It never happened, leaving Barca without a world-class striker in its squad while bidding to retain the La Liga and win the Champion League for the first time in more than a decade.

You’d never know.

With 31 goals in seven straight league wins — that’s an average of 4.3 goals per match — Barcelona has the hottest attack in Europe, with Raphinha scoring 12 of the goals including back-to-back hat tricks.

The Brazil international typically plays as a winger but has been deployed in a central role following the departures of Robert Lewandowski ( out of contract ) and Ferran Torres ( sold to Paris Saint-Germain ), and is thriving.

Julian who?

Making the start of the season all the sweeter for Barca is some early troubles for the returning José Mourinho at fierce rival Real Madrid, which has lost twice and is already six points off the pace.

Mourinho has been box office, as usual, and has already been criticizing referees and complaining of “strange” things happening to Madrid, a sign that Barca's fast start might be getting to him.

Manchester City and Tottenham each spent more than $400 million on new players in another summer transfer window dominated by the Premier League.

The clubs have gone in opposite directions.

While City has made an ominous start to the post-Pep Guardiola era with five straight victories to top the nascent Premier League standings, Tottenham is in last place, has yet to win and only recorded its first goals this past weekend.

After back-to-back 17th-place finishes in England's 20-team top flight, it has somehow got even worse for Tottenham despite its biggest ever summer spend and no European competitions for distraction.

New players, new coach — Roberto De Zerbi was only hired in late March and saved the team from relegation — but the same old cultural problems?

Similar could be said of Manchester United, once the giant of English soccer and now a faded force with just one win from its first five games — and that was against a promoted team.

The European champions might be up to their usual tricks.

PSG has become the master at pacing its season, knowing full well it's the second half of the campaign that really matters.

It means PSG's slow start in the French league — the team has two wins from five games and is languishing in sixth place — should be nothing to worry about, given its experience in reeling in any fast starters. In this case, it's Monaco with 13 points from a possible 15.

Many players in its star-studded squad had long World Cup campaigns. None more so than Torres, who scored the winning goal for Spain in the final, then moved to PSG, and has scored seven times in six matches — including some big late goals and a Champions League hat trick.

In what seems an unusually open race for the men’s Ballon d’Or award, could the decisive votes be won this month outside the official eligibility period?

Rules set by the organizers, French sports outlets France Football and L’Equipe, set a deadline of July 19 — the day of the World Cup final — as the last day for players to be judged.

The criteria: Individual performances, decisive and impressive character; collective performances and titles won; class and fair play.

Games played this season should not technically factor into the votes by a global panel of 100 journalists.

Still, when Harry Kane keeps breaking scoring records at Bayern Munich, could this tilt the balance ahead of the voting deadline this month for the Oct. 26 ceremony in London?

Lobbying is already underway, with Kane and Kylian Mbappé being made more available than usual for interviews with international media.

The price for a historically good season at an unheralded, low-budget club seems to be a hangover in the next season after major changes.

Lens, Heart of Midlothian and Thun were media darlings last season making bold runs at their first league titles for many decades. Only Switzerland’s Thun ended up with the trophy.

The almost inevitable offseason result at all three was coaches and star players leaving for bigger and wealthier clubs. Lens already has fired the new coach, Dino Toppmöller, within weeks of replacing Pierre Sage who was lured to Crystal Palace.

The standings Monday reveal the challenges: Lens is 15th in 18-team Ligue 1 and Thun is ninth in the 12-team Swiss Super League. Hearts, at least, is third in the 12-team Scottish Premiership.

In Europe, Thun and Hearts each was ousted in July in Champions League qualifying rounds though will start in the third-tier Conference League next month.

Instant help is at hand for clubs that have made slow starts or didn't get all their business done in the transfer market.

Karim Benzema can be signed right now. So can Paul Pogba, who once joined Man United for a world-record transfer fee. Or Jadon Sancho, Anthony Martial, Mauro Icardi.

Players that are free agents or whose contracts were terminated can join a new club at any time outside a formal transfer window.

They will not be cheap but they are available.

See AP’s full soccer coverage here

Bayern's Harry Kane celebrates after scoring his side's fourth goal during the Bundesliga soccer match between Bayern Munich and 1. FC Union Berlin in Munich, Germany, Friday, Sept. 18, 2026. (AP Photo/Matthias Schrader)

Real Madrid head coach Jose Mourinho gestures while sitting on the bench during the Spanish La Liga soccer match between Real Madrid and Rayo Vallecano in Madrid, Spain, Saturday, Sept. 12, 2026. (AP Photo/Manu Fernandez)

PSG's Ferran Torres celebrates with PSG's Achraf Hakimi after scoring during the Champions League opening phase soccer match between PSG and Slovan Bratislava in Paris, Wednesday, Sept. 9, 2026. (AP Photo/Thibault Camus)

Barcelona's Raphinha, right, celebrates with Lamine Yamal after scoring his side's second goal the Spanish La Liga soccer match between Sevilla and Barcelona in Seville, Spain, Saturday, Sept. 19, 2026. (AP Photo/Jose Breton)

The main Kremlin party retained its majority in Russia’s parliament, election officials said Monday, after a carefully orchestrated balloting that excluded most opposition candidates and helped the government maintain its tight grip on power.

Results from over 95% of the polling stations gave the Kremlin’s United Russia party just under 58% of the vote for the 225 seats apportioned by parties, according to the Central Election Commission. Another 225 lawmakers were chosen in single-ballot races, and the results showed United Russia candidates leading in 208 of those races.

Central Election Commission chair Ella Pamfilova said the preliminary results indicated that United Russia would get 355 seats out of 450, a record high for the party, if confirmed.

It was the first parliamentary election since President Vladimir Putin launched the full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022, and the first to include residents of four regions of that country that were seized and illegally annexed by Moscow later that year. Voting also was held in Crimea, which was illegally annexed by Russia in 2014. Kyiv denounced the voting in those regions as illegal.

The Kremlin tightened its crackdown on opposition ahead of the election, including barring Russia’s only liberal, anti-war party from the ballot and allowing it to compete only in single-ballot races.

Along with United Russia, several other parties that almost always vote for Kremlin initiatives also won seats in the State Duma, the lower house of parliament. A handful of seats will go to several candidates who ran without a party affiliation in single-ballot races, according to preliminary results.

The Kremlin has sought the parliamentary election to showcase popular support for the war, and strove to avoid political risks by stamping out any dissent.

A massive state media campaign and tight control over the election in the absence of genuine opposition left little doubt that Kremlin will keep tight control of Russian politics as economic costs rise and Ukrainian drone attacks increase deep inside the country.

Voters cast two separate ballots over three days, from Friday to Sunday, filling half of the Duma’s 450 seats by selecting political parties listed on the ballot. The rest were contested in single-seat constituencies, with voters choosing individual candidates.

Electronic balloting was available in many regions and encouraged by authorities. Critics said it made it easier for the government to control the outcome of the vote.

Pamfilova said turnout was just over 59% — the highest in a parliamentary election in over a decade. The final results will be announced Friday. she said.

The liberal Yabloko party, the only registered political entity that dared to publicly criticize the war, was removed from the ballot last month by Russia’s Supreme Court, and only has a few dozen candidates in the single-constituency races. Additionally, some anti-war politicians were imprisoned or forced to flee abroad ahead of the campaign.

Yabloko and the Communist Party, which has criticized some aspects of government policy but carefully avoided any criticism of Putin, said many of their observers were turned away from polling stations.

Russia didn’t invite observers from the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe, with the Russian Foreign Ministry accusing the body of “double standards” for its criticism of Russia. OSCE Parliamentary Assembly President Pere Joan Pons said that the decision was a breach of Russia’s commitments as a member state of the organization.

At one polling station in the Russian-held part of the Donetsk region, voters dropped their ballots in a box as an armed Russian soldier stood nearby and watched.

The election took place against the backdrop of incessant Ukrainian drone attacks. On Sunday, Russia's Defense Ministry reported that its air defenses downed a total of 1,110 Ukrainian drones overnight across Russia, as well as over the annexed Crimea and the Black Sea.

Moscow Mayor Sergei Sobyanin said hundreds of drones targeted the Russian capital, and described it as “the largest ever” attack on the city. The Moscow Oil Refinery was hit, he said, and so was another building.

Three people were killed in the wider Moscow region, local Gov. Andrei Vorobyov said. A total of 38 others were injured and received medical treatment, according to Russia's Health Ministry.

Ukraine’s long-range drone strikes over the summer pounded oil refineries, triggering a widespread fuel crisis, and set ablaze sprawling warehouses of online retailers Wildberries and Ozon, bringing the war home for millions of Russians like never before.

Ella Pamfilova, the head of Russian Central Election Commission, speaks during a news conference following parliamentary elections, in Moscow, Russia, Monday, Sept. 21, 2026. (AP Photo/Pavel Bednyakov)

Ella Pamfilova, the head of Russian Central Election Commission, 2nd left, and other members of the Commission attend a news conference following parliamentary elections, in Moscow, Russia, Monday, Sept. 21, 2026. (AP Photo/Pavel Bednyakov)

Vladimir Yakushev, a secretary of the General Council of the United Russia party, speaks during a news conference following parliamentary elections, in Moscow, Russia, Monday, Sept. 21, 2026. (AP Photo/Alexander Zemlianichenko)

Vladimir Yakushev, a secretary of the General Council of the United Russia party, speaks during a news conference following parliamentary elections, in Moscow, Russia, Monday, Sept. 21, 2026. (AP Photo/Alexander Zemlianichenko)

A voter fills-in a ballot during Russia's parliamentary election in Donetsk, in the Russian-controlled part of the Donetsk region, Ukraine, Friday, Sept. 18, 2026. (AP Photo)