League leaders or not, it remains a contentious point that much of Benfica’s talent has found its way out of the club. While there was a resignation amongst Benfiquistas that the team’s stars could not shine much longer exclusively in Benfica red, the extent of the departures has been distressing for many.

Granted, the concerns with financial matters did appear to force the hand of the club into a selling spree, and just the sales alone of Andre Gomes, Rodrigo, Markovic, Garay, Cardozo, Oblak and Enzo brought in over €100m to help the balance sheet.

Where the club is starting to get some criticism is regarding their handling of Portuguese talent, particularly that produced by their academy.

Winter transfer window activity in Portugal

Vitória Guimarães' flying winger Hernâni signed for Porto on the last day of the January transfer window for a reported €4 million fee. It was the highest fee paid by a Portuguese club in a relatively quiet window.

The two biggest pieces of business were carried out by Benfica. The long-announced sale of Enzo Pérez to Valencia went through, and Bernardo Silva's loan to Monaco was made a permanent move, two deals which earned Eagles a cool €40.75 million. 

Benfica and Sporting win ahead of Lisbon derby

After last week's thrills and spills and surprise results in the Primeira Liga, it was back to "business as usual" as the Big Three clocked up comfortable wins to leave the top of the table unchanged. 

Everyone at FC Porto will certainly be feeling a lot happier tonight than one week ago today, when defeat at Marítimo had left the Dragons facing the possibility of seeing Benfica open up a nine-point gap at the top of the table.

Benfica's subsequent loss to Paços de Ferreira kept the distance to six points, and the leaders - although back to winning ways with victory over Boavista on Saturday - next face a stern test of their ability to maintain a comfortable lead at the summit. Benfica travel to Sporting next Sunday with the Lions in tremendous form, having notched a sixth successive Liga victory at Arouca.

Benfica and Porto beaten, Sporting close gap

The Primeira Liga title race took a couple of unexpected twists this weekend. On Sunday evening Porto lost 1-0 away to Marítimo, apparently all but throwing away their chances of catching Benfica at the top of the table. 

But one day later the leaders and reigning champions missed the chance to build a formidable 9-point buffer at the top of the table as Jorge Jesus's men also went down by the same 1-0 scoreline at Paços de Ferreira. 

The big winners were Sporting, whose single-goal win at home to Académica gives the Lions hope of re-joining the title race. Are we in for a three-horse race?