In this weekend preview we summarise the best five games to follow on your match feed. And make a couple of suggestions for matches that you may otherwise miss.
🏴 Premier League: Arsenal vs. Tottenham Hotspur
Sunday is one of those days in the European football calendar where the powers that be have colluded to give us a day packed full of Clásicos and big Derby games. And in the Premier League, that means we’ve got the North London Derby between Arsenal and Tottenham Hotspur.
Both sides come in to the game unbeaten and on the same number of points – each having won four, drawn one. Spurs have looked transformed under the man-management of Ange Postecoglou. And despite the loss of talisman Harry Kane in the transfer window, only Brighton and Manchester City have managed to score more than the 13 goals they’ve got to their name (City have 14, Brighton 15), and no one has created more big chances (13).
And its down to that goal difference that Spurs come in to this game against their bitterest rivals second in the table, to Arsenal’s fourth. The Gunners have actually been better defensively, conceding at a rate of 0.8 goals per game but they haven’t been at their most fluent at the other end of the pitch – their wins, other the match against Manchester United have all been won by a single goal margin. That said, they did cut through Dutch side PSV Eindhoven with ease in Wednesday’s Champions League opener, as the club celebrated their return to Europe’s elite competition with a 4-0 win.
It is early days, but this particular North London Derby could be one of the games of the season. Both teams will obviously want the win, but after Mikel Arteta’s side did the double over them last season (with an aggregate score of 5-1 over the two games), Spurs in particular, have a score to settle.
🇫🇷 Ligue 1: PSG vs. Marseille
Once the dust settles on Sunday’s packed Premier League schedule, there’s still the biggest games of the weekend in Ligue 1 and LaLiga to contend with. Kicking off first is Le Classique, the battle between Northern and Southern supremacy in France, between Paris Saint-Germain, darlings of the capital, and the port city outsiders of Marseille.
Five rounds in to the new season, l’OM are one of four unbeaten sides, alongside leaders Monaco and Nice (who play each other on Friday night), and Rennes. They have only won twice though, with frustrating draws against Nantes and Toulouse halting their progress in recent weeks. Their only competitive defeat came in a Champions League play-off – which saw them move in to the Europa League, where they opened with an entertaining 3-3 draw, at Ajax, on Thursday. They fell behind three times in that game, but Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang looked inspired, scoring his second brace of the season.
PSG, for their part, won their midweek game, beating Borussia Dortmund 2-0 in a Champions League group of death that also includes Milan and Newcastle United. That went someway to banishing memories of last weekend’s 3-2 defeat at home to Nice, a game where they were outplayed, and outshot for the first time this season.
After another summer of unwanted speculation, Kylian Mbappé has settled back down to business in his customary fashion, scoring seven league goals already, and adding to that tally in midweek.
PSG are unbeaten against their rivals in five league matches but Marseille will look to last season’s win in their Coupe de France meeting for encouragement ahead of this one.
🇪🇸 LaLiga: Atlético Madrid vs. Real Madrid
Kicking off a little later but overlapping Le Classique, and essentially giving TV viewers a decision to make, is the Madrid Derby on Sunday evening (you can, of course, set FotMob alerts for one while watching the other!).
Madrid have a perfect record in LaLiga, winning all five of their games and conceding just three goals in the process, and they top the table. Granted, they’ve needed late goals from Jude Bellingham, or comebacks provided by players like Joselu in some of those victories, but Carlo Ancelotti’s side have started strong nevertheless. And it was a similar story on Wednesday night when German side Union Berlin held out for 94 minutes at the Bernabéu only for Bellingham to score with Madrid’s 32nd and final shot of the night. They’re not exactly winning ugly, but in terms of title contenders very much earning their luck, their form fits the bill.
For Atlético, the start of the Champions League saw them making the headlines, as well, but for the wrong reasons as Lazio goalkeeper Ivan Provedel scored a blistering late header to deny the Spanish side all three points from their game at the Stadio Olimpico.
In the league, Diego Simeone has been searching for consistency – the club’s last two results being a 7-0 win at high-flying Rayo Vallecano followed up by a 3-0 defeat at an equally in-form Valencia team last weekend. Los Colchoneros have scored 2.5 goals per match though, more than their City rivals, but that’s translated in to a points tally seven fewer than the league leaders.
Recent derbies have favoured Real, with Atlético having won just one of their last 12 competitive meetings but it would be wrong to write them off at this stage.
🇮🇹 Serie A: Empoli vs. Inter
Inter Milan lead the way in Serie A where they are the only side with a 100% record after four rounds. And confidence will be sky high after last weekend’s 5-1 demolition of Milan in their own big derby game. Their record of 13 goals for, and just one against, should give you a clear picture of how they’ve started the campaign.
Okay, so they needed a late Lautaro Martínez goal to draw 1-1 at Real Sociedad in the Champions League during the week but the point stands, Simone Inzaghi’s side have been performing well!
And now, also on Sunday, they face Empoli, the only side who’ve lost all four of their league games. They’ve not even scored a goal so far, creating chances worth just 2.3 xG all season. The loss of highly rated goalkeeper Guglielmo Vicario to Tottenham Hotspur looks to have been highly significant with those that remain conceding goals at a rate of three per game. They were beaten 7-0 by Roma and the usually conservative José Mourinho last weekend so one worries for them again this weekend.
But this is football, and there’s no such thing as an away banker. Is there?
🇩🇪 Bundesliga: Bayern München vs. Bochum
In Germany, Bayern München will look to follow their midweek victory over Manchester United by getting back to winning ways in the Bundesliga. Last weekend, they were held to a 2-2 draw by form side Bayer Leverkusen, with Leon Goretzka’s 86th minute goal cancelled out by a stoppage time penalty, converted by Leverkusen’s Exequiel Palacios.
That was the champions’ first dropped points of the new season after comfortable wins in their first three fixtures. But coach Thomas Tuchel will be happy with his side – Harry Kane already has four Bundesliga goals to his name and other summer signings such as Kim Min-jae have settled seamlessly in to his preferred starting XI. On Saturday, they host the winless Bochum at the Allianz Arena, a side who’ve not kept a clean sheet in their last 15 matches.
To give their opponents some credit, though, Bochum have drawn their last three – a run that includes a derby against Dortmund, and a home clash with Eintracht Frankfurt.
Plus two hidden gems from a little deeper in your match feed…
🇳🇱 Eredivisie: Ajax vs. Feyenoord
This week, these gems aren’t particularly hidden as we’ve selected games from the Benelux countries, with both Netherlands and Belgium also choosing Sunday to stage their biggest rivalries.
In the Eredivisie, that means a clash between Ajax, of Amsterdam, and defending champions Feyenoord, from Rotterdam. If you’ve not been following us on social media, you may have missed the fact that Ajax have suffered their worst start to a league season since 1965, and last weekend’s defeat to FC Twente included a blow that coach Maurice Steijn would have felt keenly, as his son, Sem Steijn, was amongst the scorers for the opposition.
Feyenoord’s title defence started slowly – they lost the Super Cup to PSV then drew both of their opening league fixtures. However, they’ve been flying since then with 6-1, 5-1, and 6-1 wins in their last three games. And then, in midweek, they beat Celtic on Matchday 1 in the Champions League. And they’ll be more than happy to take advantage of their rival’s poor spell should this one go to form.
🇧🇪 Pro League: Anderlecht vs. Club Brugge
In Belgium, it’s second meets third as the leagues’ two traditional giants go head-to-head. Admittedly, Anderlecht haven’t won a title since 2017 but they remain the most successful team in the country despite Club Brugge’s recent dominance – the Bruges based club have lifted the trophy in four of the six seasons played since then.
But there are positive signs for Anderlecht going in to this one. It’s them who currently sit higher in the table having won four of their opening seven games and they’ve gone six games unbeaten since defeat to Union over the opening weekend. That’s already a huge step up from their 11th place finish last season.
Club Brugge have played a game less and only sit one point below their rivals so this should be a tight contest. And especially when you consider that they haven’t lost to Anderlecht in any of their last eight meetings. But what impact will Thursday’s 1-1 Conference League draw with Beşiktaş have on the travelling side? We’ll fins out on Sunday afternoon.
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Cover Image from IMAGO