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. Wolverhampton Wanderers
Arsenal recaptured top spot in the Premier League last weekend, thanks to Kai Havertz last-gasp winner at Brentford, and Manchester City’s draw with Liverpool. And by virtue of playing first this weekend, the Gunners have the chance to extend their current one point lead in the standings when they welcome Wolves to the Emirates on Saturday.
Arsenal were in full flow during the week, sailing in to the Champions League knockout stages thanks to a 6-0 win over French club Lens, with the goals coming from six different goal scorers. As one friend of ours on Twitter pointed out, everybody ate!
Wolves will have spent the week resting up after a number of VAR decisions went against them in Monday night’s 3-2 defeat at Fulham. Gary O’Neil’s side will therefore return to London with fresh impetus, and perhaps a sense of injustice, as they look to secure what would be their third away win of the season. The club currently sit twelve in the table and can already boast impressive victories over big six clubs Man City and Spurs.
For a full preview of the Premier League weekend, including more insight on this game – click here.
🇮🇹 Serie A: Napoli vs. Inter
One week after their involvement in the Derby d’Italia – a 1-1 draw with Juventus – Serie A leaders Inter face another daunting away trip. This Sunday, they travel south to take on defending league champions Napoli.
In midweek, the Nerazzurri were in Lisbon for a Champions League clash with Benfica, where they took their current unbeaten run to 11 games. Something that didn’t look like happening when Benfica’s João Mário scored a first-half hat-trick! But goals from Arnautović, Frattesi, and Alexis Sánchez saw them fight back to claim a 3-3 draw, ensuring they still have the chance to top their group, to go along with the place in the Round of 16 that’s already been secured.
Napoli were also involved in a high scoring game in Europe’s elite competition. But despite taking the lead as early as the fourth minute, away at Real Madrid, they were eventually beaten 4-2, and therefore still need something from their final group game later in the month. That was returning coach, Walter Mazzarri’s second competitive game, since he signed on to replace Rudi Garcia, who himself had only been in post since the start of the season.
Anywhere else, that would suggest turmoil, but in Napoli’s case – their title defence hasn’t actually gone that badly. They start the weekend in fourth, eight points down on Inter, and have only lost three of their 13 league games. Mazzarri’s second stint begun with a 2-1 win at Atalanta last weekend, a game in which the ever-reliable Giovanni Di Lorenzo and star winger Khvicha Kvaratskhelia, in particular, performed well.
🇪🇸 LaLiga: Barcelona vs. Atlético Madrid
On a day full of top level games, Sunday sees reigning LaLiga champions Barcelona host Atlético Madrid at the Estadi Olímpic Lluís Companys. These two Spanish giants are locked together on 31 points, four points down on current leaders Real Madrid, and surprise package Girona.
The two were also both involved in Champions League action during the week – Barça coming from behind to secure their Round of 16 spot with a 2-1 win against Porto, and Atlético doing the same with a more convincing 3-1 victory at Dutch champions Feyenoord.
The similarities between their respective seasons are also manifest in the individual star players at both – former-Barcelona player Antoine Griezmann has been on fire for Atlético, scoring 13 goals in all competitions, and João Félix, on loan from Atlético, has begun to find some form for Barcelona, scoring in the week, and averaging a FotMob rating of 7.32 in the league so far.
In recent times, Barcelona have had the upper hand in this fixture, winning the last three meetings with an aggregate scoreline of six goals to two.
🇩🇪 Bundesliga: Bayer Leverkusen vs. Borussia Dortmund
Also on Sunday, there’s a big-name clash in Germany’s top flight. Here, Bayer Leverkusen face Champions League heroes Borussia Dortmund, in a game between first and fourth, as things stand.
Bayern play struggling Union Berlin – on Saturday, meaning Xabi Alonso’s Leverkusen side might need a result to reclaim that top spot by the end of round 13. But they’ll be up against it – Dortmund looked inspired in the week, when they went to Milan, claimed a 3-1 win and sealed their place in the knockout stages of the Champions League. They were also 4-2 winners last weekend, taking the imaginary title of the best Borussia, having beaten Mönchengladbach in that game.
Dortmund have lost only twice in the league this season but they sit 10 points down on the unbeaten Leverkusen. In a notoriously high scoring league, Dortmund are averaging 2.1 goals per game, and they’re being spread around the side too, with Donyell Malen, Julian Brandt, and Niclas Füllkrug tied on four goals each.
Only Bayern have outgunned Leverkusen’s 37 goals in 12 games but it appears that, in his first full season, Xabi Alonso’s coaching philosophy is coming to the fore. No one passes the the ball more than Leverkusen, who average over 600 passes per match. And that is something that has resulted in 45 big chances being created, and some headline grabbing performances from a pair of marauding wing-backs – Alex Grimaldo is the club’s joint top scorer with seven goals and four assists, while his right sided counter part, Jeremie Frimpong, has four goals and five assists.
There should be goalmouth action in this one!
🇫🇷 Ligue 1: Nantes vs. Nice
Going back in time, Saturday night’s headliner in Ligue 1 is worthy of inclusion here, seeing as unbeaten Nice have the opportunity to move above PSG at the top of the table – should they win away at Nantes.
The INEOS side have been inspired under 34-year-old Italian coach Francesco Farioli, who took over ahead of this, his first season with a club in one of Europe’s top leagues. Farioli’s team have been compact, and highly efficient, picking up eight wins from their 13 matches, and scoring 14 goals from a xG figure of 17.9.
But here comes the really interesting stat: Nice have conceded just FOUR times all season. That’s one every 300 minutes played, give or take, and presuming most games under current guidelines edge closer to 100 minutes in duration, rather than the old school 90. Needless to say, but that is the best record of anyone in the big five leagues, and all the more impressive when you consider one of their centre-backs is Dante, the 40-year-old former Brazil international.
Nantes, for their part, currently sit in mid-table having recorded four wins thus far, and just one in their last five. They are, however, scoring at a better rate than their opponents going in to this match up – at a rate of 1.3 goals per game to Nice’s 1.1. That has just not translated in to results.
Plus two hidden gems from a little deeper in your match feed…
🇩🇪 2. Bundesliga: St. Pauli vs. Hamburg
Football rivalries don’t come much fiercer than the Hamburg Derby, the battle between St. Pauli and Hamburg, set to take place on Friday evening. Two sides from juxtaposing sides of the city divided, traditionally, by everything from politics to football. And this particular derby falls at a time when both are fighting to get out of Germany’s second tier and sat first and second in the league.
St. Pauli are the home side on this occasion and having not played at the top level since 2011, they appear to be extra motivated to get out of this division. After consecutive fifth placed finishes that saw them miss out on even a play-off spot, they have started the season with a 14-game unbeaten run. In fact, in all competitions, and going back to the previous campaign, they’re unbeaten in 21 matches.
They’re not the most prolific scorers, and they’ve drawn nearly as many games as they’ve won in that run, but they are built on a solid foundation. They’ve conceded just 11 goals this season. That’s the best record in the division by far.
But you’ve guessed it, St. Pauli’s last defeat, and the last time they did ship a few goals came in the last derby – with Hamburg claiming a dramatic 4-3 win at the tail end of last season. Hamburg went on to suffer a cruel defeat in the promotion/relegation play-off having also missed out on the title on the final day of the regular season. So they too, have reasons to want to claim promotion this season, and they’ve gone about that with a very solid start to the campaign. Their recent defeat to third placed Holstein Kiel was their only loss in their last eight, so they come in to the derby in good nick.
🏆 FA Cup: Wrexham vs. Yeovil Town
This one should come with a *SPOILER ALERT*, as Sunday’s FA Cup clash between world famous Wrexham and Yeovil Town might just make the next series of the Welsh club’s popular documentary series. This is Round 2 of the World’s oldest national cup competition, so the round before the big boys of the Premier League and Championship enter, and therefore an opportunity for one of these sides to slice out a piece of history for themselves.
Wrexham, as most people know, went all the way to the fourth round last season, where they took Sheffield United to a fiery replay. That was before their promotion back to the English Football League, a privilege that means they’ve only had to play one game to reach this stage of the competition this season.
And anyone with decent knowledge of the FA Cup will know that Yeovil Town are the non-league side who’ve claimed the most knockout wins against EFL sides in the long history of the competition. And the Somerset side will also be out for revenge. When the sides last met, the 3-0 win for Wrexham was the result that sealed their long awaited promotion. But it was also the result that relegated Yeovil, back to regional football for the first time since the 1990s, a club that had been as high as the Championship as recently as 2014.
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Cover Image from IMAGO