Top three can't stop winning: Eredivisie reviews

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

It's a definite case of a top three and then everybody else in the Netherlands now. Those three just keep on winning and are pulling inexorably away at the top of the tree. Twente battled past Vitesse despite being way below par and had Bryan Ruiz, back from World Cup heartbreak with Costa Rica, to thank for the win as he showed great strength to hold off a couple of late defenders and stab in a late winner. The chasers both won big, but it's still Twente who have the points advantage. Goal difference advantage definitely goes to Ajax who thumped in another five at home to Heerenveen. All six goals went in during the first half. How AZ are missing Demy de Zeeuw and he struck twice in the opening quarter, Marko Pantelic got the third and Luis Suarez got his customary penalty. Goran Popov scored a cracker for the Friesians, but Ismail Aissati added a fifth before the break. Both sides merely went through the motions after the break. PSV could only hit four after Heracles keeper Martin Pieckenhagen was sent off half way through the first half. The Almelo side held out until just before half-time, but Ibrahim Afellay blazed one home from the edge of the box and it was just about all over. All that remained was to find out by how many. Balázs Dzsudzsák, Ola Toivonen and Jagos Vukovic gave us the answer.

Feyenoord and Utrecht failed to muster a goal between them and fall further away from the pace; indeed they've been caught by AZ who came from behind to beat Roda. Jeremain Lens put the champions ahead, but Pa-Modou Kah and Jeanvion Yulu-Matondo helped Roda to a 2-1 lead ten minutes into the second half. Rasmus Elm equalised twenty minutes from the end and two more goals in the next ten minutes secured the points, Lens with a second and Jonathas wrapping it up shortly before a stray elbow saw him sent off.

The main action is down at the bottom. A third win for Waalwijk cuts the gap back to the rest to three points. Two points more than that is good enough for tenth as it all squashes up together. RKC took advantage of Groningen losing Luciano to an eleventh minute red card and Charlison Benshop struck twice as they won 3-1. NAC and NEC shared six goals with the Nijmegeners leading twice and yet still needing a late Saidi Ntibazonkiza goal - his second of the game - to secure a point, though they remain second bottom. Den Haag had Ahmed Anni sent off late in the first half, but did go in front in Tilburg through Karim Soltani. They couldn't hold on though and Willem II equalised through Frank Demouge. The big winners were VVV Venlo whose five goal thumping of Sparta sees them go from bottom three to tenth. It was four by half-time, Sandro Calabro getting two of them, as they recorded just their second win of the campaign.