Weekend Boxset: Banishing the January blues

By Graham Sibley January 24, 2025

Weekend Boxset: Banishing the January blues

After surviving the week of Blue Monday, you deserve something decent to watch.

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

Championship: Sheffield United v Hull City

20.00 on Sky Sports Football, Main Event & Ultra
Another week, another Friday night fixture. Great for the arm-chair fan, a day’s leave and mad-dash across the county for actual fans. Hull may only be sixty-odd miles from Sheffield, but try getting there for an eight o’clock kick-off after a day at work in the middle of an extreme weather event. Television, it seems, wins every time. On the pitch, United could potentially go top with a win tonight. Leaders (dirty) Leeds are away to Burnley on Monday which, given the Claret’s home record and awful, cheating shit-houser of keeper James Trafford, will probably end in a draw. This comes at a good time for the Blades; they went into Christmas undefeated in eleven but lost out to promotion rivals Burnley and Sunderland. Facing them tonight are a Hull side who have endured something of a tumultuous season. At the end of November, they parted ways with head coach Tim Walter. His reputation in Germany’s second tier failed to make an impression in the Championship and he was replaced by former Southampton and Reading coach, Rubén Sellés a few days later. Having not won since 1st October, he steered the Tigers to wins against Swansea, Blackburn and Millwall, while taking points off Watford and highflying, omni-dirty, Leeds. A continuation of this form should see Hull pull clear of the relegation places, but it’s unlikely they’ll get much out of tonight’s game. Home win. JB

Saturday

A-League: Macarthur v Melbourne City

08.35 on TNT Sports 2
This could be a lot of fun for neutrals. The top six in the A-League is tight and we’re starting to get into a stage of the season where a misstep here or there could prove costly to play-off or even Premier Plate ambitions. Both MacArthur and City are highly watchable sides but also capable of putting in a stinker of a performance. Both will also fancy their chances of three points here. A win for MacArthur puts them in the title hunt, a win for City consolidates their top six ambitions and puts them within touching distance of Auckland and Adelaide. Even the bookies have the same odds on both sides for a win. MacArthur have been the less showy of the teams but have their current position on consistency. The experienced Aurelio Vidmar meanwhile has been a smart hire in the dugout for City, and despite a lack of star names there’s a gritty A-League quality to this side that know what it means to win. Impossible to call, but with big implications, this one is worth switching on when you wake up. GA

Championship: Luton Town v Millwall

12.30 on Sky Sports Football, Main Event & Ultra
Challenging times at Kenwilworth Road, with Rob Edwards’ time up and Matt Bloomfield curiously swapping a promotion push with Wycombe for a relegation battle with Luton. There’s nothing that on paper would seem obviously wrong with the squad but Luton seemed to be stuck into one of those relegation battles that a team is ill prepared for, but a seven match winless streak including losses to a lot of near rivals suggests a change is desperately needed. Millwall also aren’t in great form but can grind out draws when needed, which will probably be enough to see them safe. Alex Neil is also a peak Championship appointment and even if he won’t set pulses racing, he should have enough know how to keep the Lions safe. Their form on the road is pretty poor though, so this may be Luton’s best chance to get points on the board. The Hatters should be too good to be a League One team next season but if they can’t at least get a point against Millwall then the omens don’t look good for the rest of the season. A draw may be the most likely result, which would probably come as a relief to the local constabulary. GA

Premier League: Manchester City v Chelsea

17.30 on Sky Sports Premier League, Main Event & Ultra
City go into this game after an interesting week where the club made some key staffing decisions. Erling Haaland has agreed a new ten year contract with the club with a weekly wage or £500,000 per week. The amount of remuneration plus the duration of the deal is sending a couple of messages: that Erling is to be the face of Manchester City for a generation; and that City must be pretty confident that enforced relegation is not an expected punishment for their 115 misdemeanours. At the same time, Kyle Walker has probably played his last game for the club. The long-serving full back put in a transfer request earlier in the month and looks set for a move to AC Milan on loan with an option to buy. The club also welcomed Egyptian striker Omar Marmoush from Eintracht Frankfurt for £59 Million. Marmoush is an admirable player but is out-performing his xG this season by some margin (15/8.8) and may be over-priced. Before Wednesday it looked like City’s recent horror show was over. They then came an unwelcome sequel at the Parc de Princes against PSG in the Champions League. Giving up a 2-0 lead to lose 4-2 was as exhilarating to watch as it was hard to believe. But any concerns about a European exit must be put on the back burner as they turn their thoughts to a resurgent Chelsea. The Blues overcame the Sound of Football Kiss of Death with a 3-1 win over Wolves, ending a five-game winless snap in the league. There has been no European week for the Londoners so Enzo Maresca has had plenty of time to prepare his team to attempt their first win at the Etihad since May 2021. TD

Sunday

Women’s Super League: Chelsea v Arsenal

12.30 on BBC Two & iPlayer
Hopefully the Gunners will turn up with the right socks for this game. Last season’s trip to Stamford Bridge saw the game start 30 minutes late with Arsenal wearing Chelsea away socks they had to buy from the club shop and cover the badge and logo with tape. The visitors put in a first half performance that looked equally as ill-prepared and Chelsea ran out comfortable winners. Having been in caretaker charge of the the club since Jonas Eidevall left in October, Renée Slegers was confirmed as the new permanent Arsenal head coach last week. Her spell in charge has been transformative, getting the best out of players who looked off their game at the end of Eidevall’s time. Under Slegers, the Gunners are unbeaten in twelve, winning eleven, have qualified for the knockout stage of the Champions League and have climbed to second in the WSL table, but are still seven points behind Chelsea. Even if Arsenal win today, for them to win the title would still rely on Chelsea shooting themselves in the foot more than once in their remaining ten fixtures, and as Sonia Bompastor’s side dropped points just once in the opening half of the season, that looks unlikely. Any time now, Chelsea are set to break the world transfer record having agreed a deal to sign 24-year-old San Diego Wave defender Naomi Girma, breaking the million barrier (in US$ and €) for the first time. The fee is double that of the record Chelsea set last year when they bought Mayra Ramirez from Levante, and is thought to be more than $250,000 more than current record fee paid by Bay FC for Zambia forward Rachael Kundananji. GS

Bundesliga: St Pauli v Union Berlin

16.30 on Sky Sports Football
This is something of a relegation six pointer between Germany’s pre-eminent cult clubs. After struggling at the start of the season, St Pauli, have since lifted themselves out of the bottom three. Their form against relegation contenders is key. Last week they beat Heidenheim, 2-0 and they have also seen off Holstein Kiel and Hoffenheim. Exemplifying coach Alexander Blessin’s dogged approach is central midfielder Jackson Irvine. This full-blooded Aussie with his NRL hairstyle has been embraced by the fans and is an effective layer of protection in front of the back line. While St Pauli’s squad may be limited, they are getting the best out of themselves which is more than can be said of Union who sacked their coach Bo Svensson after a run of eight league games with just a single point. Granted one of those games was a 2-0 defeat awarded to their opponents Bochum after a Union fan threw a lighter at Bochum keeper Patrick Drewes, injuring the player. Union are appealing the decision. The new coach is Steffen Baumgart who is back in the Bundesliga. You may remember his spell at Koln where he got them promoted and took them to Europe. He is recognisable for his trademark flat cap that he wears on the touchline. Baumgart, who made 64 appearances for Union as a player, was last coaching St Pauli’s city rivals, Hamburg SV and is an HSV fan so is likely to get a rocky reception. TD

Serie A: Lazio v Fiorentina

19.45 on TNT Sports 2 and OneFootball
Back at the end of November, both sides were firmly in the title race, in a pack of five teams separated by just a point. Since then they’ve both have slipped back from the gruppo. Fiorentina’s are on a run of seven games without a win, the latest seeing I Viola give up a lead to draw against a ten-man Torino, piling pressure on head coach Raffaele Palladino, who only took over in the summer. His side’s poor run began soon after the on-field collapse of midfielder Eduardo Bove, who suffered a cardiac arrest in the match against Inter. The 22-year-old, on loan from Roma, has had an implanted defibralator fitted, but, as with Christian Eriksen, this means he will be unable to continue his career in Serie A. For Lazio, their decline has been less stark and they still occupy fourth position in the table. Preparations for this match haven’t been ideal coming after a week of unwelcome headlines for things largely out of the club’s control. It started with the club firing their falconer for posting pictures on social media of his newly surgically-enhanced penis. In more serious news, this morning the club face possible sanctions after violence in the centre of Rome which saw fans of Real Sociedad set upon by armed Lazio hooligans. GS

Whatever you watch, have a great weekend.

Graham, Terry, Jan and Gary