The best action to follow this weekend
Saturday
🏴 It’s a busy day in the Premier League as Round 2 of the season begins off with a bank of seven games spread across the day. Villa and Everton start early as both sides look to bounce back from defeats on the opening weekend whilst Arsenal vs. Leicester City headlines the traditional three o’clock kickoffs.
Mikel Arteta’s pre-match speeches might be in the spotlight following the release of Amazon’s latest All or Nothing series but he won’t have to look far for motivation with Saturday’s opponents becoming something of a league rival in recent times. Arsenal were one of few sides to do the double over the Foxes in their famous title winning year – and they did the same last season, but Brendon Roger’s team have shown a knack for getting at the Gunners.
Manchester City also make a rare three o’clock appearance for their game with newly promoted Bournemouth. We’ll see whether Pep Guardiola and his new attacking spearhead, Erling Haaland, can pick up where they left off against West Ham – or whether Bournemouth can pull off another surprise after they calmly dispatched Villa last weekend!
In the late game, the already under-pressure Erik ten Haag takes Manchester United to Brentford where he’ll be hoping for a much needed morale boosting win. The Reds won both games against the Bees comfortably last season so the result here should be a good marker for where the current squad stands.
🇪🇸 The top flight season in Spain starts on Friday night, with Sevilla’s trip to Osasuna, but the weekend’s main talking point will no doubt be what kind of line-up La Liga’s officials will let Barcelona put out for the game against Rayo Vallecano on Saturday night.
Will Xavi be able to field all of his crazy new signings? Will we see the combined might of Robert Lewandowski, Raphinha and Ousmane Dembélé up front!? Whatever happens you can guarantee some significant drama between now and kick-off.
Elsewhere, Real Valladolid president Ronaldo Nazário – now listed as a Brazilian business professional on Wikipedia, rather than the footballing legend he is – will oversee their return to the big time as they take on Villarreal.
🇮🇹 Serie A also joins the 2022/23 party with the Italian league getting underway this weekend. Defending champions Milan get us started with a home game against Udinese before last season’s runners-up Inter play away at newly promoted Lecce.
For more on the new season and in particular – an in-depth look at the league’s big summer transfer stories, check out the first of our new regular column with Matteo Bonetti – here.
A third game of interest comes at another of the promoted clubs – the noisy AC Monza – owned by former Italian president and Milan owner, Silvio Berlusconi. They start their first ever Serie A campaign against Torino in an evening kick-off.
🇩🇪 The opening weekend of the Bundesliga produced so few shocks that RB Leipzig’s draw at Stuttgart probably constitutes something of a surprise. The Red Bull side, who finished fourth last season, now face FC Köln in the biggest draw among Saturday’s fixtures. The Billy Goats soundly beat promoted side Schalke in their first game, lodging 32 shots on goal, to Schalke’s five.
For their part, Schalke will look to improve on that as they face Borussia Mönchengladbach in the evening kick-off whilst Stuttgart face Werder Bremen, the other German giant that has returned to the top flight this season.
🇫🇷 Neymar and Lionel Messi were the stars of the show as PSG started their Ligue 1 title defence with a 5-0 thrashing of Clermont Foot. And it looks like new man in charge, Christophe Galtier will be able to call on the additional services of Kylian Mbappé for their first home game of the season – a meeting with Montpellier on Saturday night.
The side from the south coast should provide stiffer opposition though, and watch out for midfield talent Téji Savanier – he racked up a 9.3 FotMob rating in Montpellier’s win over Troyes last weekend.
🇧🇷 One league where we now deep in to the season is in Brazil – where at just over the halfway stage Palmeiras lead their arch-São Paulo rivals Corinthians by six points. And on Saturday night, the top two meet for the Paulista Derby, one of South America’s most heated games.
The table situation only adds fuel to the fire, as does the club’s contrasting results in the Copa Libertadores quarter-finals during midweek. Corinthians lost their all-Brazilian tie against Flamengo and where dealt a further blow when former international star player, Willian decided he’d like another crack at the Premier League rather than stay with the club that brought him back to Brazil in 2021.
Meanwhile Palmeiras won their quarter-final, on penalties, and will now be supremely confident of claiming a third straight continental title. Confidence that will no doubt boost their title charge back home as they look to win the Brasileiro for the first time since 2018.
Sunday
🇪🇸 The schedule in La Liga will give us an early look at two of the promoted sides on Sunday – plus freshly crowned UEFA Super Cup winners, Madrid! Girona, complete with their savvy loan signing, MLS golden boot – Taty Castellanos are back in the top flight after three seasons away but they face a tough start at Gennaro Gattuso’s Valencia.
But that’s nothing compared to Almería who kick-off with a home game against Real Madrid. This one pits the Segunda Champions against the defending Primera and European Champions and will certainly be a baptism of fire for Almería coach Rubi. The 52-year-old only took over with three games to go last season but he’s been entrusted with Almería’s first taste of La Liga football since 2015.
Madrid eased their way to a record-equalling fifth Super Cup triumph on Wednesday, defeating Eintracht Frankfurt 2-0 in Helsinki.
🇩🇪 In the Bundesliga, Bayern München play their first home game of the new campaign, with Wolfsburg the visitors to the Allianz Arena. Looking to improve on last season’s 12th placed finish, the Wolves started with a 2-2 draw against newly promoted Werder Bremen in Round 1, whilst you probably heard all about Bayern’s 6-1 thrashing of Europa League holders Frankfurt.
That result had all the pundits writing off the title race before it’s even begun. And any questions marks on how the side would cope in the post-Lewandowski era were wiped out by the performances of Sadio Mané, Jamal Musiala, Serge Gnabry and of course, the old war horse, Thomas Müller.
🏴 Back in the Premier League and Sunday provides the first high profile London Derby of the season, with Chelsea hosting Spurs at Stamford Bridge. On the opening weekend, Chelsea managed to end their recent hoodoo at Everton by coming away with a 1-0 win whilst Spurs simply took Southampton apart. Neither Son Heung-min or Harry Kane got on the scoresheet but Antonio Conte’s men still managed to put four past the Saints and racked up 18 shots in total.
Recent results between the two London sides have traditionally favoured Chelsea with the Blues doing the double over Spurs in the league and beating them in both legs of the Carabao Cup semi-final during the last campaign.
The day’s only other game is one that Nottingham Forest fans have been dreaming about since their relegation from the top flight back in 1999. West Ham are the first Premier League visitors to the City Ground, for what will no doubt be a raucous occasion, but it’s one that both sides will have targeted as an opportunity to pick up their first points of the new season.
🇮🇹 Sunday is traditionally the main day for Serie A but with this opening round of the season well spread across the next four days, there are actually only four games on the slate. And most eyes will be drawn to the matches involving the two sides from the capital.
Lazio get first dibs on the shared Stadio Olimpico for their fixture against Bologna, a team they exchanged contrasting 3-0 wins against in their games last season. But this will be a new look Lazio side with coach Maurizio Sarri bringing in eight new signings over the summer.
None of them are as high profile as José Mourinho’s transfer dealings at Roma – Paulo Dybala, Nemanja Matić and Georginio Wijnaldum all being highly recognisable newcomers but you can bet that both Roman clubs will be fighting to break in to the top four and return to the Champions League come the end of the season. For their part, Roma start the campaign at Salernitana, the side who pulled off a highly unlikely escape from relegation last time out, securing 18 points from their last 15 fixtures.
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Cover Image from IMAGO