The best action to follow this weekend
Saturday
And just like that, all the major European leagues are back to relative normality with the 2021/22 season now truly under way.
??????? In England, the Premier League gives us six games today, including Liverpool at home to Burnley, Leeds United vs. Everton and after last week’s defeat at Spurs, the chance for Manchester City to kickstart their campaign against Norwich City.
?? Barcelona enjoyed a fine win over Real Sociedad in their first La Liga outing of the post-Messi era and tonight, they make the trip to the Basque Country to play the other big side from the region, Athletic Club. This will be a re-run of the Copa del Rey final that Barça won so convincingly back in April.
?? Serie A finally joins the party this weekend, and we get a decent game to kick things off with the new-look defending champions Inter at home to Genoa. It will be interesting to see how the side settle after the loss of their Scudetto winning coach and leading players.
Elsewhere, another side more used to losing star players but adept at continuing to impress without them – Atalanta go to Torino. And Lazio begin their campaign at newly promoted Empoli.
?? If anything, Lille’s start as defending champions in France was more disastrous than Manchester City’s in England, with them going down 4-0 at home to Nice last weekend. Today though, there’s a chance to right those wrongs on the road at the ever unpredictable Saint Etienne.
?? That leaves us with just the big games in Germany left to highlight. Borussia Dortmund need to recover from their midweek loss to Bayern in the Supercup when they visit Freiburg and there’s also the clash between the sides regularly competing for European football, Bayer Leverkusen against Borussia Mönchengladbach.
In the first of those games, don’t forget to keep an eye out for the Norwegian destroyer.
Sunday
?? Tomorrow, the majority of Serie A’s heavyweights play their opening games.
For Juventus, that means a trip to Udinese. Napoli face Venezia, one of the untested promoted teams who’ve been winning all sorts of friends with their kits and social media presence. And José Mourinho will be looking forward to seeing how his new Roma side fare at home to another of the league’s most historic clubs, Fiorentina.
?? In La Liga, the Madrid sides dominate the agenda with reigning champions Atlético playing Elche at home and Carlo Ancelotti’s Real Madrid going to Levante.
Madrid fans will be hoping Karim Benzema can carry on where he left off last week against Alavés.
??????? Sunday throws up some real treats in the Premier League with three games of significance. Manchester United start us off at Southampton whilst kicking off at the time, Nuno Espírito Santo takes Spurs to former club Wolves in an early test of his management.
And then, to round off the day there’s the all-London clash between Arsenal and European Champions, Chelsea.
?? Finally, Bayern München entertain FC Köln in the Bundesliga. It’s been a mixed start to the season for the champions, rescuing a draw against Gladbach in their opening league game before winning the Super Cup against arch-rivals Borussia Dortmund. And then suffering a day of intense rumours with Robert Lewandowski supposedly looking for a new challenge.
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