Another weekend of football lies ahead of us – check our preview for week 7!
Weekly Football Preview – Week 7
Last weekend was full of eventful, high scoring matches all across Europe with some big important wins for certain teams, and now we’re back with another weekend of exciting fixtures!
The weekend started with some surprise results on the Friday though, with Bayern being held to a draw by Leverkusen and PSG losing at home to Nice. There were comeback wins for Liverpool and Manchester City in England on Saturday, but Manchester United’s troubles continued as they fell to a home defeat at the hands of Brighton. Elsewhere, there were wins for Dortmund and Juventus as well as high-scoring big wins for Barcelona and Inter Milan over Betis and AC Milan respectively. Arsenal just managed to win at Everton on Sunday and there was another big win in Serie A, this time for AS Roma who put seven goals past Empoli. This past week saw the start of European competitions with action in the CL, EL and ECL during the midweek.
There is no Friday night Football from the PL this week, so attention switches to the Championship with Birmingham facing QPR. Ligue 1 leaders Monaco take on third place Nice in another Friday highlight. Overall this weekend there are important matches across Europe but perhaps less high profile clashes. The two Manchester teams both play on Saturday, as do Bayern and Dortmund in Germany. AC Milan will look to get back to winning ways against Verona and Barcelona are also in action on Saturday. The better matches in England take place on Sunday with Arsenal facing Tottenham, Chelsea hosting Aston Villa and Liverpool clashing with West Ham whilst in France, PSG do battle with Marseille. The late game in Spain on Sunday is the heated clash between Atletico Madrid and Real Madrid.
Friday’s top action
Following the completion of the first round of fixtures from European competitions, we move straight onto another round of domestic football. The match of the night on Friday comes from France where leaders Monaco welcome third place Nice. The visiting team managed to beat PSG last weekend so Monaco will certainly need to take them seriously here. Bundesliga action sees Stuttgart face Darmstadt and in Spain it is Alaves versus Athletic Bilbao on Friday. There are two Serie A matches from Italy, Salernitana versus Frosinone and Lecce against Genoa. Birmingham City play the Friday night match live on TV from the Championship against QPR.
Saturday’s English football
There is no early kick off this week from the PL, so we have to wait until 4 pm for the action to start. There are three matches scheduled for this slot with Crystal Palace at home to Fulham, Luton against Wolves and Manchester City will look to extend their 100% record at home to Nottingham Forest. Later in the afternoon, Brentford take on Everton before the late match sees winless and point-less Burnley host Manchester United.
Saturday Highlights from around Europe
The two Ligue 1 matches this Saturday are Nantes against Lorient and Brest against Lyon, with only Brest out of those four teams being in the top half of the table. There are five Bundesliga matches in the 15:30 time slot, amongst the teams in action are Bayern Munich, RB Leipzig and Dortmund. The late match is Werder Bremen against FC Köln. The first match from Serie A on Saturday is AC Milan against Verona. The home team will be hoping to make up for the heavy defeat they suffered at the hands of rivals Inter Milan last week and will hope to get the better of Verona.
Later in the day, second placed Juventus take on a struggling Sassuolo side before the final match of the day which sees two teams in the wrong half of the table play each other, Lazio and Monza. Sevilla finally got their first win on the board last week and they will be hoping to back that up with another against Osasuna on Saturday. Barcelona take on Celta Vigo later in the day and the late game sees bottom of the table Almeria host fifth placed Valencia.
Sunday’s English Football
There are a number of excellent clashes on Sunday starting with the North London derby between Arsenal and Tottenham. Both teams managed narrow wins last weekend but the pressure will be far higher in this fixture. Arsenal know they can’t afford to drop points in their pursuit of Manchester City, but Tottenham look like a far tougher proposition than they were last season. At the same time, there is a south coast derby between high flying Brighton and Bournemouth and struggling big spending Chelsea host Aston Villa. Another interesting clash is Liverpool versus West Ham with both teams having very good starts to their seasons. The final match of the day is Sheffield United against Newcastle.
Best events from around Europe
Action in Ligue 1 starts with Metz versus Strasbourg in the 13:00 game and ends with one of the highlights of the season, Paris SG against Marseille. Both these two French giants have got off to slow starts this season with only two wins from their first five matches so they will both be hoping to get the better of their opponent here. There are two Bundesliga matches on Sunday with Bayer Leverkusen looking to maintain their excellent start to the season against newcomers Heidenheim before Eintracht Frankfurt take on Freiburg. Inter have an early start on Sunday in Serie A as they travel to Empoli before the likes of Atalanta, Fiorentina and Napoli are all in action.
The last game of the day is Torino vs AS Roma in the evening. Without a doubt the highlight of the weekend in Spain is the Madrid derby with Atletico hosting Real in the last game on Sunday evening. Real Madrid maintained their 100% record by managing to come back from a goal down against Real Sociedad last Sunday whereas Atletico lost heavily at Valencia and are already eight points behind their rivals.
Rest of the week
Monday is a relatively quiet day with one match from the Championship, Coventry versus Huddersfield, and one from Portugal, Sporting versus Rio Ave, along with a match from the Turkish Super Lig being the only significant fixtures. With no European Cup action next week there is time to fit in a number of fixtures from various leagues and cup competitions. The EFL League cup offers up a multitude of matches including Manchester United versus Crystal Palace and Newcastle against Manchester City. There is a round of La Liga matches as well as Serie A and Turkish Super Lig.
Saturday 23/09
Manchester City vs Nottingham Forest
Last year’s champions Manchester City are the only team in the English top division to still have a 100% percent league record and they will be expecting that to continue against these opponents. That being said, they did go behind to West Ham last weekend and also in the CL in midweek. With so many games in a short period of time, even a squad as impressive as Manchester City is experiencing some injury worries, Bernardo Silva being the latest player to suffer a problem. The fact that the leaders face Newcastle in midweek in the EFL Cup means they might use this match to rotate players a little but no matter which team they put out, they will be expecting to extend their record of 12 consecutive wins at home.
Nottingham Forest have a poor record against Manchester City, having lost their last three visits to the northwest without even managing to register a single goal. Monday’s draw against Burnley will not have filled them with too much confidence, although the goal scored by Callum Hudson-Odoi was a high-quality one. They have scored in each of their last seven away games, but their win at Chelsea last time out was their first away win in the league since the start of January.
Last season Manchester City thumped Nottingham Forest 6-0 and they have won five of the last ten meetings. Nottingham have won two with the last being a 3-0 win in the FA cup in 2009.
Burnley vs Manchester United
Burnley dominated the Championship last season on their way to promotion to the PL, but are finding life in the top division much trickier so far. They only have one point from four matches at this early stage in the season, a point which they won last weekend with their draw against Nottingham Forest. Vincent Kompany has a tough job on his hands to keep this team in the division, and this fixture is another big challenge against a team that really needs a result
Manchester United’s season has started very poorly and they find themselves down in thirteenth place in the league. Things didn’t go much better in their first CL game as they lost in Munich against Bayern on Wednesday night. Their focus must now switch back to the league and this is a game they simply must win as they only have two wins from their first five matches and performances have been very very poor. Their injury list continues to grow with the likes of Varane, Shaw, Wan-Bissaka and Mount all still unavailable. With Antony and Sancho also missing for other reasons and worrying performance levels, Erik Ten Hag must do all he can to leave Turf Moor with all three points.
The home team have only won one of the last ten meetings with United winning seven.
Dortmund vs Wolfsburg
Dortmund suffered a midweek CL defeat to PSG and this followed on from some lacklustre league performances, so despite them being unbeaten so far there is a little bit of unrest amongst supporters. This is an important match for their manager as he knows he will need a better performance and result here and the fact they are playing that home will certainly give him and his players encouragement. They are unbeaten in Dortmund for over a year now, including a big win over Wolfsburg last season.
Wolfsburg have not won at Dortmund since 2012, with eight losses in that sequence, so this is traditionally a difficult trip for them. Both of their last two visits have seen them concede six goals so they will be looking for improvements all around the pitch. Last week they managed a good result though, a win over Union Berlin that will certainly have given manager Niko Kovac encouragement.
Dortmund have won nine of the last ten meetings between these two teams and usually by a big score. The aggregate over those ten matches is 27-4.
AC Milan vs Verona
AC Milan will be hoping to get back to winning ways after the thrashing they received last weekend when they lost 5-1 to local rivals Inter Milan. The fact that they were unable to convert all their chances into goals in the CL against Newcastle will not have helped matters either. Despite that, it’s not all doom and gloom as prior to that result against Inter they won the previous three Serie A matches, a very solid start. Olivier Giroud will hope to find his scoring boots again as he scored four goals in the opening four appearances in the league.
Verona will travel to Milan hoping to avoid being on the end of a heavy defeat but they won’t have a great deal of confidence if they look at their history in this fixture. They have never beaten Milan away from home in over a century of fixtures, an astonishing record. Verona managed a draw against Bologna but fell to defeat against Sassuolo in their last two matches so their form is far from the best either. Prior to that though, they did manage seven points from four matches but this is a match they will go into more with hope than expectation.
Sunday 24/09
Arsenal vs Tottenham
The North London derby is a match that supporters of both clubs thoroughly look forward to every season and this year Tottenham will be hoping that they can be closer challengers to Arsenal in the league than last season. Arsenal managed a comfortable win over PSV in midweek and head into this match in fourth spot in the league with four wins from five matches. The relentless nature of Manchester City means that they can’t afford to drop any points if they intend to challenge for the title again and this match against a team on equal points as them will be a big challenge. Declan Rice has settled into his new surroundings very well and there has been praise for Kai Havertz from his manager recently so things look positive overall.
Tottenham have the ‘advantage’ of not having any European football this season so their focus will be on league success. A top four finish will be their target and they have made a very positive start to their season although last week they did labour to a win over Sheffield United. James Maddison is proving to be an excellent signing and he will look to make an impact once again this week.
Arsenal won both meetings last season and have four wins from the last ten fixtures. Tottenham also have four wins, although one of those was a friendly encounter.
PSG vs Marseille
The match of the weekend in Ligue 1 undoubtedly comes from the capital as last year’s Champions PSG take on south coast team Marseille. This is one of the biggest rivalries in French football and this match will be no different. PSG recorded a morale boosting win in the CL with a relatively straightforward 2-0 win over Dortmund but last weekend they lost at home to Nice in a five-goal thriller. So far this season they have not been up to their usual standards and only have two wins from five matches. There has been significant turnover in their squad with a number of star players leaving and others arriving as the owners attempt a different approach in the hope of achieving the success they crave.
Marseille are undefeated in the league this season but three of their five matches have ended in draws, including last week at home to Toulouse. This is without a doubt their toughest league fixture so far and they don’t have the best record against the Parisians in recent times. The fact they are playing Europa League Football on Thursdays is also a disappointment and it remains to be seen how they cope with this change, as some teams seem to struggle with this.
Last season PSG won both league matches but Marseille knocked them out of the cup and PSG have won seven of the last ten meetings overall.
Atletico Madrid vs Real Madrid
One of the most eagerly anticipated matches from La Liga is the derby clash between the two Madrid teams and this season’s first clash takes place at the Metropolitano Stadium as Atletico welcome their illustrious rivals. It hasn’t been the best start for Atletico this season so they would love a win against their neighbours to really kick start their season. Their midweek draw in Italy against Lazio will be seen as a decent, if not an amazing result, but now the focus must switch back to league matters. The home team will be looking for revenge for the loss inflicted by Real in this fixture last season.
Real Madrid are top of the league with a perfect record of five wins from five matches but they know that this will be their biggest test so far. Last weekend they had to come from a goal down to get the better of Real Sociedad and they laboured to a narrow 1-0 win over Union Berlin in the CL in midweek. With only three goals conceded so far in the league, a solid defence has been key to their success and they will be aiming to keep Atletico at bay in the hope that one of their many star attacking players can find an opportunity to score.
The last meeting between these two ended in a draw, as have many of the recent encounters. Real Madrid have won four of the last ten with Atletico only managing one win. This is traditionally a low scoring match with eight of the last ten seeing less than three goals scored.
