Weekend Boxset: Early season jitters

By Graham Sibley August 23, 2024

Weekend Boxset: Early season jitters

You can't estimate form on just one or two games, but that's not going to stop us.

Seven great matches to take you from Friday to Sunday. It’s the Sound of Football Weekend Boxset.

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All times are UK

Friday

La Liga: Sevilla v Villarreal

20.30 on LaLigaTV & Premier Sports 1
These sides will be hoping for better things from this season after last campaign saw them both on their third head coach by the time Christmas arrived. Results improved in the new year, but after a summer where both teams sold their season’s top scorers, neither look certain to challenge for the European places. The cap on squad costs together with a family war over boardroom control has left Sevilla in disarray. We’re now three years into the tightening of financial restrictions imposed by La Liga chief Javier Tebas, and while those limits have been slightly relaxed in a bid to re-energise the transfer market, clubs are still having to juggle their finances. Coming in for Sevilla to replace Fenebahce-bound Youssef En-Nesyri, is Nigerian striker Kelechi Iheanacho, who should make his debut in this game now that enough business has been done for the league to accept his registration. Although the deal was made at the end of July, the books wouldn’t balance until the Andalucians had shifted Marcos Acuna in a free transfer to River Plate. Another former Leicester player, Ayoze Perez, signed for Villarreal in the summer having played well enough last season on loan at Betis to earn his first international call up for Spain at the age of 30. He replaces Alexander Sorloth, who immediately came back to haunt his old side, scoring Atléti’s second equaliser in Villarreal’s opener last weekend. Sevilla were also involved in a 2-2, with their latest head coach Garcia Pimienta unable to get a first game win against the side he led last season, Las Palmas. GS

Saturday

Championship: Queens Park Rangers v Plymouth Argyle

12.30 on Sky Sports Football & Ultra
It’s becoming a bit of a golden age for fans of clubs outside of the Premier League swamp. In the UK, Sky’s new deal with the EFL will see every one of the 72 clubs featured at least twenty times across the coming season. For fans who prefer to watch their games in person, it’s a double edged sword, as the archaic three o’clock black-out means games are often shifted around. Fans travelling from Plymouth to West London for today’s 12.30 kick-off face a very early start. While this isn’t great, it’s important to remember that, unlike years gone by, many fans, for reasons too numerous to go into here, don’t live anywhere near their clubs. Until we smash capitalism, the reality is that TV money pays for football, so we all have to suck it up until someone starts rolling out the guillotines. Until that happens, we have the small matter of a Championship fixture. Hosts, QPR, with the worst stadium in world football, host Wayne Rooney’s Plymouth Argyle. Interestingly, both sides finished last season in the exact league positions they find themselves in today, but it’s the home side who’ve had the more difficult of starts. An opening day defeat to West Brom, where former Sunderland favourite, Josh Maja, gabbed a hat-trick for the Baggies, was followed up with a draw at promotion candidates, Sheffield United. For Rooney and Plymouth, an opening day 4-0 mauling at Sheffield Wednesday was put into perspective by a win in the League Cup and a decent draw at home to Hull. I think we’d all like to see Rooney do well. Sadly, I think it’s going to be a long journey home for the Pilgrims. JB

Premier League: Aston Villa v Arsenal

17.30 on Sky Sports Premier League, Main Event & Ultra
Ask an Arsenal fan what were the two most damaging games to last season’s title challenge and they’d probably say West Ham at home and Fulham away. Ask anyone else and they’ll tell you it was the games against Villa that meant Arsenal didn’t become champions for the first time in 20 years. There’s truth in both answers. The narrative of this fixture is, of course, the on-going restoration of Unai Emery’s reputation in England - as if leading Villa to their highest finish since the mid-90s and a European semi-final last season weren’t enough. It’s also about the rehabilitation of Arsenal as a title challenging power. While Emery’s tenure at Arsenal may have been a disappointment, in an alternate universe where Arteta takes over straight after Wenger, would things have gone differently? Probably not. In addition to the two defeats last season, Unai Emery has had the better of Mikel Arteta over two legs in the semi-final of Villarreal’s successful Europa League campaign in 2021. The only other match between the two saw Arteta’s only win: the Premier League meeting in February 2023 which Villa led up to the hour mark but ended up losing in chaotic scenes in injury time. All five encounters have been tense affairs that could have gone either way and there’s nothing to suggest this match will be any different. GS

NWSL: NY/NJ Gotham v Portland Thorns

19.30 on TNT Sports 1
The WSL is still a month away but, if you’re in the UK and hankering for some women’s football to watch, TNT have picked up some games from the world’s richest league, which restarts its season having taken a break for the Olympics. We join the regular season with ten games to play, with both teams set fair to reach the post-season. With the expansion to 14 teams this season, the top eight now go on to play-off for the championship. Last season these sides met in the semi-finals, with Gotham going on to the win in the final. The influx of money into the NWSL from the new multi-broadcaster deal, has already started to see players making the journey across the Atlantic to cash-in. Lioness Jess Carter has left Chelsea, along with her partner, Germany goalkeeper Ann-Katrin Berger, to join Gotham. Australia’s goalkeeper Mackenzie Arnold has signed for Thorns from West Ham. But it’s not just the increased money that makes the NWSL a more attractive league for players than it was in the recent past. The league operated draft systems for clubs to pick the best college players and, whenever the league expanded, the new clubs filled their roster with players from other teams - whether they wanted to go or not. Transfers could also be made without player agreement. After extensive negotiations with the players union, these practices were abolished this week, along with the introduction of free agency at end of contracts, all of which will see the league operate more in line with those in Europe. But with much more money. GS

Sunday

Premier League: Bournemouth v Newcastle United

14.00 on Sky Sports Premier League, Main Event & Ultra
When the Saudi’s took over Newcastle in 2021 it was fully expected they would use their overwhelming financial muscle to buy up the world’s best talent and quickly become an irresistible force in the Premier League and Europe. Drawing to the end of the sixth transfer window of the new regime, this vision has yet to materialise. Maybe the Premier League’s recent crackdown on overspending is less about maintaining the status quo and more about controlling the influence of state-run clubs after having their hand forced by the Boris Johnson government to accept the club’s takeover. Having played in the Champions League last season, Newcastle missed out on European football this campaign when Manchester United won the FA Cup. Given that improvements need to be made it’s surprising that the club has yet to make a big signing. Rumours persist regarding Marc Guehi but with all that Michael Olise money in the bank, Palace have no reason to let him go, even at market rates. Bournemouth finished 12th in Andoni Iraola’s first season in charge, the best of their seven seasons as a top flight club. Of course most of the work to get them into the top flight was done by Eddie Howe, but this game will be his third attempt to get his first win at the Vitality since he left in 2020. Last season Bournemouth won 2-0 in this fixture, both goals coming from Dominic Solanke ,who moved to Spurs in the summer for £55m. With that money they’ve been able to bring in Evanilson from Porto for a club record £31.7m, make Luis Siniterra’s loan move permanent, and put the change towards other good business like the signing of 19 year old Spain U21 defender Dean Huijsen from Juventus. GS

Bundesliga: St Pauli v Heidenheim

16.30 on Sky Sports Mix
There is a clear contrast between these two clubs. St Pauli, steeped in tradition, culture, with an international fanbase and Heidenheim, whose roots go back to 1846 but were in fact founded in 2007. After FCH won the 2 Bundesliga on the final day of the 22/23 season they were expected to be comfortably relegated. However, under the guidance of coach Frank Schmidt (who has been in post since 2007) they finished eighth and played (and won) the first leg of a Conference League qualifier last night. All of this is achieved with a small fanbase and without any major backing. St Pauli are a much beloved club with fans across the globe but with a reputation for chaos on the pitch. A club of this size should be an eternal Bundesliga side, but they only gained promotion last summer after over a decade in the second division. The man who got them there was 31-year-old coach Fabian Hurzeler who is now at Brighton. His replacement is Alexander Blessin formerly of Union St Gilloise and Genoa, who began his coaching career at Red Bull. Both clubs negotiated their way past lower league opposition in the DFB Pokal last week against Hallescher and Villingen respectively and both have had an encouraging pre-season. Normally you would put them down to struggle this season, but these are not normal times in the Bundesliga, and I think both are in for some excitement. TD

You can read Terry’s analysis of the upcoming Bundesliga season on our blog.

Serie A: Napoli v Bologna

19.45 on TNT Sports 1 and OneFootball
“In the first half we were the only ones on the pitch. In the second we melted like snow in the sun.” Those were the words of Napoli coach Antonio Conte after witnessing his team’s disastrous 3-0 defeat at Verona on the Serie A opening weekend, last Sunday. It was a spectacular collapse and underlines the rate of the Partenopei’s decline since they won the title in 2023. Media reports tell stories of a squad that is unhappy with a number wanting to leave including star striker Victor Osimhen and a new coach who, his foray at Tottenham aside, is used to managing winning teams and is surprised by the mess left behind. It is possible that by the time you read this, there will have been some transfer activity. The most eye-catching possible incomer being Romelu Lukaku from Chelsea. Bologna were one of the great surprises of the last season, finishing fifth in the table and qualifying for the Champions League for the first time. Unsurprisingly the bigger clubs have come calling and coach Thiago Motta is now at Juventus, top scorer Joshua Zirkzee is at Manchester United and Riccardo Calafiori is at Arsenal. But unlike Napoli, I Petroniani are not in chaos. They have ploughed some of that money from sales and they began their campaign with a 1-1 draw with Udinese. While it may be a challenge to play a domestic season on top of a Champions League campaign, no one is saying that new coach Vincenzo Italiano is on a hiding to nothing. Looks like things could get worse for Napoli before they get better. TD

Whatever you watch, have a great weekend.

Graham, Terry and Jan