Van Basten on the brink: Eredivisie reviews

Roda 0-1 Sparta
Heerenveen 3-1 NAC
AZ 3-1 Willem II
Heracles 1-1 NEC
Utrecht 3-1 Den Haag
Vitesse 4-1 Ajax
Feyenoord 0-0 Groningen
De Graafschap 2-2 Twente
Volendam 3-5 PSV

How much longer will Marco van Basten last at Ajax? That's the big question emerging from the Eredivisie this weekend after Ajax came well and truly unstuck in Arnhem. Vitesse aren't a special side, but the time and space they created as they overran an abject Ajax defence was alarming to say the least. With van Basten on the sidelines wearing the expression of someone whose cat has just been run over, the Arnhem side stuck four goals away and, really, it could have been twice that many. Lasse Nilsson sprang the offside trap in the seventh minute to open the scoring and, though Luis Suarez - probably the only Amsterdammer to emerge with reputation intact - quickly equalised, the pattern was set. The defence was pulled to bits and Nilsson had a second in the first half to go with Dalibor Stevanovic's goal for a 3-1 half time lead. Despite dominating possession for the remainder of the game, Vitesse only had Ricky van Wolfswinkel's excellently worked goal to show for it in the second half. Ajax are at a very low ebb and it would not be a surprise if van Basten walked.

A change of coach worked wonders for PSV and they're now within a point of Ajax after a barmy game in Volendam. The hosts have improved markedly, but so have the Eindhoven side. Even so, eight goals and two red cards were something of a surprise. Ola Toivonen is in sparkling form and he opened the scoring on seven minutes with a stunning free-kick and Jeremie Bréchet doubled the lead 20 minutes later. Back came Volendam, first through Gerson, punishing some sloppy defending, and then via the penalty spot and Paul de Lange, Toivonen seeing yellow for a push in conceding the spot kick. Either side of the break, Edison Mendez got two from close range to restore the two goal cushion. Toivonen had been warned for use of an elbow in the first half and received a second yellow for the same offence to reduce PSV to ten. Jack Tuyp was then dismissed for Volendam to even things up again, an ugly, two-footed lunge from behind on Ibrahim Afellay. Otman Bakkal waltzed past the Volendam defence for PSV's fifth and Rowin van Zaanen profted from a horrendous mistake from Carlos Salcido to pinch a consolation goal late on.

Red cards too elsewhere. At the De Kuip, an error-strewn game with bags of chances ended 0-0 with Feyenoord probably being the happier with it seeing as they played the entire second half a man down after Norichio Nieveld's dismissal just before the break. Den Haag had taken a lead at Utrecht through Csaba Horváth before Robert Zwinkels was sent off just before half-time. Unlike Feyenoord, they couldn't hold out and Utrecht picked them off. Gregoor van Dijk's penalty got them going and further goals from Ali Boussaboun and Sander Keller sealed the win. Roda were reduced to ten men 12 minutes from time when Eric Addo saw red for a bad tackle on Rydell Popeon who then punished them further with a free-kick to give Sparta a much-needed 1-0 win.

Twente had to come from behind to draw with De Graafschap. Blaise N'Kufo had given the Enschede side the lead, but goals from Stephan Keller and Luuk de Jong gave the relegation battlers a lifeline. De Jong turned villain late on when, seven minutes from time, he handled in the box and N'Kufo lashed home from 12 yards. De Jong almost snatched it at the end, but Sander Boschker tipped his header round the post to claim a point for Steve McClaren's men. Though Twente are well worth their second place, let's not kid ourselves that they're title challengers. Two dropped points mean that AZ are now eleven points clear. Willem II did take a lead on 18 minutes through Said Boutchar, but that only seemed to make the champions-elect angry. Seven minutes later, Moussa Dembele had levelled it up and further goals from Maarten Martens and, inevitably, Mounir El Hamdaoui with Demy de Zeeuw instrumental throughout made it eleven straight wins for Louis van Gaal's men.

Elsewhere, Heerenveen got back on track with a comfortable 3-1 win over NAC and Vojtěch Schulmeister's late goal gave Heracles a share of the points with NEC meaning that NAC remain a point ahead of the Nijmegen side in the race for UEFA Cup play-off spots.