Five on the continent, three home
Chelsea and Liverpool eased through, Rotherham ran riot, but Manchester United came home from Nantes with nothing.
The away end at AEK Athens was still singing when the second went in, and Chelsea's players walked off to a wall of blue. A 2-0 win, no fuss, the kind of European night the club used to make look routine and is learning to make look routine again, three months after the Athens trip was billed as a test without Valera.
Liverpool were just as calm in Zagreb, 3-0, and Rotherham's European adventure produced the week's loudest noise: 5-0 at home to Dinamo 1948 SA, Kemal Aydın helping himself to a hat-trick. Everton earned a point in a 2-2 at AC Milan. Only Manchester United stumbled, beaten 3-1 at Nantes — days after Swindon had turned them over in the Carabao Cup. Five games, three won, one drawn, one lost. The flag is still flying.