It was a busy midweek with matches from Europe’s top leagues and cups. There was a full run of PL matches with a few La Liga matches and a full schedule of Copa del Rey, DFB Pokal Cup and Coppa Italia matches.
Our attention is now fully turned to what is likely to be another busy and hectic weekend with most competitions congested with matches before taking their mid-season winter break at Christmas and New Year. This rule is, of course, the English leagues, where the number of fixtures increases rather than calming down during the festive period. The fact that there has been a series of midweek English Premier League fixtures means there won’t be a Friday night game this time around, but we do have Premier Division games from Italy, France, Germany, Portugal, Spain and Turkey. The highlight of the day is definitely a clash between Atalanta and AC Milan of Serie A.
A Merseyside derby kicks off in England on Saturday with runaway leaders Liverpool heading to rivals Everton. Manchester City and Man Utd are both in action later today. In France, Monaco, Lyon and Nice all play on Saturday while Bayern, Dortmund and Leipzig as well as defending champions Leverkusen are in action in the Bundesliga. AS Roma will look to return to winning ways on Saturday evening while Barcelona and Real Madrid both face tough away matches in La Liga, traveling to Betis and Girona respectively. The highlight of the weekend in Türkiye is the battle between Besiktas and Fenerbahce on Saturday evening.
Two London derbies dominate proceedings on Sunday as Arsenal travel to Fulham and Tottenham host Chelsea, with four English Premier League matches played in total. Second-placed Ligue 1 side Marseille travel to struggling Saint-Etienne on Sunday evening, while the showpiece match of the Serie A round sees fifth-placed Lazio head to leaders Napoli in the final match of the day. The last of the big three in Spain, Atlético Madrid, will play Sunday evening against Sevilla, in mid-table.
On Monday there will be matches from different top divisions across Europe with West Ham taking on Wolves, Monza hosting Udinese and Getafe versus Espanyol being the highlights.
Atalanta vs AC Milan
Atalanta will look to continue their recent excellent run, with a very impressive start to the season. They find themselves just one point behind leaders Napoli and dreaming of their first ever Serie A title. There is of course a long way to go, but with the inconsistency of the teams below them, they will surely have feeling like I have a decent chance this season. Atalanta’s 2-0 victory over AS Roma on Monday night was their latest signal of intent as they continue to push on and they are unbeaten in their last thirteen matches in all competitions, with eight straight wins. Scoring has certainly not been a problem as they have already scored 36 league goals this season, the highest in the division. Even a point against AC Milan will allow them to overtake Naples at the top of the championship. Atalanta will certainly hope that striker Ademola Lookman’s form continues as he has scored five goals in his last six appearances.
AC Milan come into this match on a somewhat mediocre run having only managed three wins in their last six league matches, although only one of those was a defeat and that was against the leaders Naples. New manager Paulo Fonseca has struggled to build momentum since his arrival and they are currently four points off the European places, so he will know he must turn around his team’s fortunes. Away form has been of particular concern as they have only won two of their matches away from the San Siro so far this season. They will be hoping that goalkeeper Mike Maignan can maintain his excellent record against Atalanta, having only lost one game against the Bergamo side.
Atalanta have won three of the last ten meetings, AC Milan winning four and last season it was Atalanta who took four points from their opponents. The home side will go into this match as understandable favorites given how the season has gone so far.
Everton vs Liverpool
Despite the gap between these two teams in recent years, it is nevertheless one of the most anticipated derbies in football, the rivalry being so old that this will be the 245th edition of this clash. For Everton, this will be an even more special match as it is the last time they face their city rivals at Goodison Park, their home for over 130 years. Starting next season, they will move to a flashy new stadium, which they hope will allow them to compete with some of the biggest teams in the league. So it’s likely to be a memorable Saturday afternoon and fans will be encouraged by the fact that they were comfortable winners against Wolves last time out. A win against Liverpool would give Everton their first back-to-back wins since April and they will turn to Dominic Calvert-Lewin, who has scored in each of their last two matches against Liverpool at Goodison.
Liverpool have a good record in this game, winning four of the last five before the aforementioned defeat in April. In fact, Liverpool have only lost two of the last thirty head-to-head meetings with their closest rivals. In midweek, Liverpool dropped two points as they were held to a 3-3 draw by Newcastle. They will therefore be even more motivated to get back on the path to victory since their lead at the top of the standings has been reduced to seven points. Their defense has not been up to their usual standards, however, as they have conceded two or more goals in their last four away matches. Fans are perplexed as to why Liverpool have failed to agree a contract extension with Mo Salah, who is once again their star man and he both scored and assisted in the draw in midweek.
Everton’s victory last season was only the second in the last ten meetings, with Liverpool winning five, so recent history and form explains why the away team are such strong favourites.
Girona vs Real Madrid
Girona haven’t quite lived up to the standards set last season, but they are slowly moving up the table and find themselves in a very respectable eighth position heading into this match. They have won three in their last five matches and last time out they managed a draw against Villarreal. This week they play at home again, but they will have a very difficult task against Real Madrid who will try to return to winning ways after their surprise defeat last weekend against Athletic Bilbao. Girona’s midweek cup match did not go as planned as they lost to fourth division side Logronés on penalties, but they will have to concentrate entirely on extending their four-match run without defeat in the league. Donny van de Beek has had an eventful few weeks, scoring, assisting and collecting two yellow cards in his last three league matches.
Kylian Mbappe will be keener than most to put in a serious performance, as his Real Madrid career certainly hasn’t started off in the best light. Last weekend, he missed another penalty, which condemned his team to defeat. They start this match four points behind leaders Barcelona and know they can’t really afford to drop any more points here. The defeat was the second in their last five matches, with their CL campaign also not going as planned.
Real Madrid won both matches last season by an aggregate score of 7-0 and have seven victories in the last ten meetings while Girona have won only two.
Tottenham vs Chelsea
The final PL match on Sunday is a London derby taking place at Tottenham’s swanky new stadium in north London. Once again, their season has been marred by inconsistency and their last matches illustrate this with two victories, two defeats and a draw in the last five. The last game was a 1-1 draw against another London team, Fulham, and they will know that Chelsea will pose a much bigger threat, especially as they are the league’s top scorers with 31 goals. Tottenham have had no problem scoring goals themselves, but they have failed to kill games and the same criticism seems to come up again and again that they only know how to play one way.
Chelsea fans will be delighted with how the season has gone so far, as few expected to see them in second place at this stage of the season. Their manager Enzo Maresca was one of the favorites to lose his job, but he helped this group of players solidify and managed to imprint his style on their game. Cole Palmer continues to be the star of the team and he is actually third in the league in goals scored. Nicolas Jackson is also having an excellent season, much improved compared to last year, and he is only one goal behind Palmer in the standings. The recent victory against Aston Villa was a strong statement on a rival for a top-four place and three more points here would be just as important.
Chelsea have by far the best record in this match having won seven of the last ten meetings, with Tottenham recording just one victory.
Napoli vs Lazio
These two teams face each other for the second time in the space of a few days after their Coppa Italia clash on Thursday evening. This time however, it’s championship points that are being fought for, with the home side desperate to retain top spot in the standings. Napoli are currently just one point ahead of in-form Atalanta, with Lazio one of three teams currently four points behind the leaders. The top of the rankings is certainly crowded with only two points separating third from sixth. Napoli have made the most of not playing in Europe this year and are fully focused on winning the league title which they lost to Inter last season. Last weekend they recorded a narrow 1-0 away win against Torino and will go into this match as favourites, although it is likely to be a tough challenge.
Lazio surprisingly lost to mid-table Parma last weekend, a result which saw them drop a few places in the league. They certainly hope to return to victory, even if this meeting is certainly far from the easiest. They are the third highest scorers in the league but, on the other hand, Udinese are the only team in the top ten to have conceded more goals than Lazio. They can take confidence from the fact that they won this match 2-1 last season.
Napoli have six wins in the last ten meetings between these two while Lazio have three wins and the only draw was the encounter in Rome last January which ended goalless.
PS: The odds may have changed since this article was written and published.
Last update: 06.12.24
