The best action to follow this weekend
Saturday
🏴 There’s a front-heavy look about the match feed in your app this weekend and the English Premier League provides its fair share of that with eight games lined up for Saturday.
And they start with one of the league’s classic rivalries – the Merseyside Derby between Everton and Liverpool. A game that the Toffees have not won at their Goodison Park home since way back in 2010.
There was, of course, the win at Anfield during the COVID disrupted 2020/21 season but other than that, this Derby has been rather one sided in recent years. This season, Liverpool started slow but now look to be at the races after home wins over Bournemouth and Newcastle in the past week. Everton are one of the three sides left in the division yet to win a game but they have drawn their last two, with Anthony Gordon on target in both.
There’s another Derby later in the day as West meets East in London. A win over West Ham could be just the result to kick-start what’s been a surprisingly slow start to the season for Thomas Tuchel’s Chelsea. But the same could be said for David Moye’s goal shy Hammers – they’ve found the net just twice and have the 19th worst record, in the league, in terms of big chances created.
Also on Saturday’s slate – we’ll see how unbeaten Spurs fare against Fulham, another London side who’ve been strong at home but weaker on their travels. And then there’s Manchester City against the bang out-of-form Aston Villa. Has Steven Gerrard got a plan to stop Erling Haaland’s run of hat-tricks? Or otherwise stem the flow of goals from the rest of Pep Guardiola’s side?
🏴 North of Hadrian’s Wall (one for the UK history fans), there’s another huge derby as the two sides of Glasgow meet at Celtic Park. As usual, Celtic and Rangers sit first and second in the Scottish Premiership, even at this early stage in the campaign, and both remain unbeaten after five rounds.
Ange Postecoglou’s defending champions have racked up an amazing 21 goals and conceded just once so far and come in to this game off the back of last weekend’s 9-0 win at Dundee United. That was a game in which two of their strikers (Furuhashi and Abada) both scored hat-tricks. For their part, Rangers are unbeaten in eight across all competitions and eased past Queen of the South in a midweek League Cup tie.
These meetings are never short of drama and a result for either side will set them up nicely for their rather ‘challenging’ looking fixtures in the Champions League – Celtic play Real Madrid on Tuesday whilst Rangers travel to Ajax on Wednesday!
🇮🇹 Not to be outdone, Serie A offers up Italy’s biggest game for our entertainment on Saturday: The Derby della Madonnina.
And whilst injury will deny us a re-match between Milan’s Zlatan Ibrahimović and Inter’s Romelu Lukaku, there’s still plenty to look forward to as the sides on either side of the San Siro corridors clash out on the pitch. Milan pipped Inter to the title back in May and although the defending champions are unbeaten four rounds in to the new season, it’s Inter who are currently one point better off.
After getting lucky in their opening day win over Lecce, they’ve beaten Spezia and Cremonese convincingly but did suffer a heavy defeat against Lazio. Milan have had a tougher run on paper – winning their two home games but drawing at both Atalanta and Sassuolo.
Recent results between the two clubs have been really mixed but Milan may well still be smarting from the defeat that Inter handed out in their most recent meeting – the semi-final of last season’s Coppa Italia. Inter not only denied Milan a chance of the double but went on to lift the Cup themselves after victory over Juventus.
🇩🇪 We don’t just have world famous derby games to look forward to this weekend, the fixtures Gods have also provided some early season top of the table clashes, in both the Bundesliga and LaLiga.
In Germany, that means we get the spectacle of free-scoring Bayern (at least when they don’t come up against Gladbach’s Yann Sommer) versus Union Berlin, who are enjoying an unprecedented start to what is just their third top flight campaign. Union will have home advantage for this one and will be confident of getting something against the 10-time reigning champions, having already hit three past city rivals Hertha, beaten Leipzig, and smashed Schalke for six last weekend. Not that we would ever dare write off Julian Nagelsmann’s Bayern side before a ball is kicked!
Also on Saturday – third placed Freiburg take on Leverkusen – the side who finished third last season but have started so poorly. That said, they did end their run of three defeats with a solid 3-0 win at Mainz in Round 4.
🇪🇸 They’ve played a game less in LaLiga but after three rounds only Real Madrid and Real Betis – their opponents on Saturday – can boast a 100% record. The two sides who sit at the top of the Spanish table will put that to the test at the Santiago Bernabéu where the ongoing redevelopment project has progressed sufficiently to allow Madrid to play their first home game of the season.
Another of the day’s most intriguing match-ups comes as Barcelona travel to Sevilla, a clash between two of the league’s best sides, who’ve also been linked through their various dealings during the summer transfer window. The two club’s administrative staff will be sick of the sight of each other.
Sunday
After the fanfare surrounding Saturday’s stellar line-up of games has subsided, your match feed might be looking a little quieter come Sunday morning. You can blame UEFA for that(!) with the group stages in the Champions League, Europa League and Europa Conference League all starting in the upcoming week.
🏴 That’s not to say there isn’t the odd high quality fixture – not least in the Premier League where giants Manchester United and Arsenal clash at Old Trafford. Erik ten Hag’s side have certainly steadied the ship with back-to-back wins against Liverpool, Southampton and then Leicester, on Thursday night. And they could feature their new big money signing, Antony, for the first time against the Gunners.
The Londoners are the Premier League leaders going in to the weekend having been the only side to win all five of their opening games. This could be a match that gives us a real indication as to where both clubs stand following their respective squad overhauls in the summer.
The day’s only other game in England’s top flight comes as Brighton & Hove Albion take on Leicester, the side who remain winless and rooted to the bottom of the table.
🇮🇹 Back in Serie A, the highest ranked side in action on Sunday are José Mourinho’s joint-leaders Roma. Unbeaten, and with their big signing Paulo Dybala seemingly finding his form after two goals against Monza, they visit Udinese. The Pozzo-backed club have proved tough to beat so far this season with their only defeat coming after they’d twice found the net against Milan (they eventually lost 4-2).
🇪🇸 There are four games scheduled in LaLiga, with two of those featuring unbeaten sides. In fact, both Athletic Club and Villarreal have identical records following two wins and a draw, and they’ve both found the net five times, while conceding nothing at the other end. Athletic Club will test that impressive record with a home game against Espanyol and Unai Emery’s Villarreal welcome Elche to the Cerámica.
🇫🇷 With PSG in action at Nantes on Saturday night, our attention will be on various other contenders (albeit outsiders) in Ligue 1 this weekend. Lens – who currently boast the same record as the superstar Parisians and have scored 11 goals in their last three fixtures will look to continue that form when they play away at Stade Reims.
And elsewhere, two sides who made the European places last season but have so far failed to meet expectations in the new campaign are set to meet on the Riviera. Nice and Monaco may start their respective groups in the Europa Conference League, and Europa League in the coming week, but both will be looking for just their second win of the domestic season in what is France’s headline game on Sunday night.
🇳🇴 Not to be outdone by goings on elsewhere in Europe over the weekend, we’ll leave you with the big Eliteserien Derby that’s taking place in Norway’s capital of Oslo. Fifth placed Vålerenga face traditional rivals Lillestrøm, who hail from a region that borders the city. LSK currently lie third and were the early pacesetters in the league back in Spring – a period in which they beat Vålerenga 2-0 in the previous fixture between the two. A outside chance of the title is still on the cards for them, but much depends on the result between the top two – Molde and Bodø/Glimt – who play each other on Saturday night.
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Cover Image from IMAGO