Weekend Boxset: Happy 2025!

By Graham Sibley January 03, 2025

Weekend Boxset: Happy 2025!

Is there a better way to start the year than resolving to watch more football?

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: Valencia v Real Madrid

20.00 on Premier Sports 2 and LaLigaTV
The rest of the top flight in Spain are playing in the Copa Del Rey this weekend, but these sides have moved their round of 32 ties into next week so that they can play the league match that was postponed because of the flash flood that devastated the area surrounding the city of Valencia in late October. With only goal difference keeping his side off the bottom of the table, Valencia head coach Rubén Baraja was sacked two days before Christmas and replaced with former West Brom manager Carlos Corberán. Having won just two games all season, Baraja’s last three games were against their nearest rivals in the battle to avoid relegation, from which they could only manage to gain two points. Playing in the Champions League as recently 2020, Valencia have spent only one season outside of the top flight since 1931. At the other end of the table, the second half of the season is starting to look like a two horse race between the big Madrid clubs for the title. Having led the way in the table for most of the first half of the season, Barcelona have been thrown into disarray as they desperately pull their financial “levers” to get players like Dani Olmo re-registered. Valencia need a miracle, which is unlikely to start here but who knows what a new year brings. GS

Saturday

A-League: Melbourne Victory v Western Sydney Wanderers

08.35 on TNT Sports 2
Matches between these two not-quite-rivals (both will claim Sydney FC as their arch enemies, but there's no love lost here) can often be an entertaining affair. Last season both matches finished 4-3, with Victory and Wanderers both claiming a win apiece, and with both sides capable of leaking goals, Saturday night in Melbourne at AAMI Park has the potential to be a cracking fixture. Wanderers have shaken off their early season malaise and stodgy performance to sit one point outside the playoffs. Since losing to Sydney FC at the end of November, the men in Red and Black went on a four match unbeaten run, only ended on New Year's Day by Macarthur. Three of these wins came against Wellington, Adelaide and Melbourne City, which suggests that Wanderers should now be seen as genuine contenders. And with Brandon Borello in sparkling form up front, they'll be relishing visiting a Victory team that's been in a bit of a slump since coach Patrick Kisnorbo unexpectedly quit for an overseas role. Victory managed to grind out a goalless draw against league leaders Auckland on New Year's Day, but were flat in their 3-0 loss to Sydney and seem to be struggling for goals. Wanderers' defence may well oblige and another 4-3 scoreline wouldn't be completely unrealistic here. GA

Championship: Blackburn Rovers v Burnley

12.30 on Sky Sports Football, Main Event & Ultra
Back in August, Producer Graham and I found ourselves in a sports bar in Clapham watching the Arsenal game before we headed out west to see the mighty Leafe in Tolworth. Showing at the same time was Burnley v Blackburn which, as it turned out, was a much more entertaining watch. It was eventful not just for the absolute screamer scored by Blackburn’s Andreas Weimann, but also the eleven yellow and one red card that were dished out in a hotly contested encounter. The bar in question was also filled with supporters of each side, which made for a feisty atmosphere. However, it was nice to be surrounded by my fellow northerners, even if they were from the wrong side of the Pennines. Tonight’s hosts were on a run of six straight wins, but that fell apart just before Christmas with a loss at Millwall. They picked up just two points from a possible twelve over the festive season, but the draws came against Sunderland and Leeds (dirty Leeds), proving Rovers can’t be written off just yet. Burnley, having been relegated from the Premier League last season by Bayern Munich’s current head coach, are unbeaten since early November under Scott Parker. They sit in second, ahead of Sheffield United on goal difference and boast the best away record in the Championship. While they may be without former Man United man, Hannibal Mejbri, who starts a three-match ban for violent conduct, they’re in great form and should grab the points today. JB

Premier League: Brighton & Hove Albion v Arsenal

17.30 on Sky Sports Premier League, Main Event & Ultra
The Arsenal match Jan mentions above was the 1-1 between these sides at the Emirates, a match remembered by most Gunners fans as the game Declan Rice was sent off early in the second half after receiving a yellow card for an almost imperceptible restart delay. A game Arsenal had controlled for the first half turned into a seige in which they held on to secure a point. Brighton’s good start to the season was aided by their opposition going down to ten men in three of their five opening games, but now it looks as if their only red card of the season may have triggered a downturn in results. In late November, the Seagulls held on to beat Bournemouth after Carlos Baleba was sent off with half an hour to go, but they haven’t managed to win since. Having been level in the table with the Gunners after match day 12 Brighton now find themselves a dozen points worse off and drifting towards the bottom half. Arsenal start the second half of the season already needing snookers in the title race and knowing that they will be without the mercurial Bakayo Saka out for at least two months. They can draw encouragement though by managing without him and others (due to a sickness bug in the club) to come back from a goal down to beat Brentford on New Year’s Day. Confidence in the squad and the feeling a score needs to be settled should give the Gunners the extra edge against an increasingly frustrated Brighton side looking for a change of luck. GS

Sunday

Premier League: Fulham v Ipswich Town

14.00 on Sky Sports Premier League, Main Event & Ultra
Fulham, by their modest ambitions, are having a good season. Marco Silva has got his team of veteran cast offs humming along nicely to eighth place with a tilt at a European spot not entirely out of the question. There's something quite pleasing to see a team and a manager who has been disposed of from bigger clubs click nicely and the Cottagers are the epitome of the cliche “hard to beat”. They've not lost a match since 24 November and have taken points off Spurs, Brighton, Arsenal, Liverpool, Chelsea and Bournemouth. The less said about the goalless draw with Southampton the better though. Ok, there's not a huge amount of wins, but few would have expected to see a column that says L0 against that run. And yet, Fulham have struggled against the sides towards the foot of the table, so this isn't necessary a clear home victory. Ipswich played a tactically superb match against Chelsea on New Year's Eve, and they've given a decent account of themselves against better sides, suggesting that potentially Kieran McKenna's side are finding their feet in the Premier League as we start the second half of the season. That's not a bad place to be, and Tractor Boys fans are likely to be in a much more positive frame of mind at the start of 2025 than some of their other relegation rivals. Ipswich's result against Chelsea felt like it had been coming for a few matches, and it wouldn't be a huge shock to see them return to Suffolk with at least a point. Going by the form book, a draw is probably the most likely outcome, but there's a lot for a neutral to enjoy here, and it should give a good marker of what these two respective sides can achieve in the second half of the season. GA

Premier League: Liverpool v Manchester United

16.30 on Sky Sports Premier League, Main Event & Ultra
Manchester United travel to their great rivals at the worst possible moment. From being humped by Newcastle, battered by Bournemouth and olympicoed by Wolves and Tottenham, Ruben Amorim's team is close to being the worst to wear the Manchester United colours since the club was relegated in 1973. Despite the suspiciously early departure of their Sporting Director, Dan Ashworth it is still possible that the building blocks of recovery are in place. But before that happens, we face the real if fleeting possibility that the club and its dilapidated stadium may drop down to the Championship. Since taking control at Old Trafford, Sir Jim Radcliffe, a pseudo-Dickensian figure who, to coin an all-too-common phrase, knows the price of everything and the value of nothing, is accelerating the club’s demise. The on-field drama has only slightly overshadowed the egregious changes Radcliffe has made in the back office. So far, he has made 250 of his staff redundant and those that are left are said to be overworked and miserable. Last week it was reported that he cut the funding of an ex-players charity without, according to the Daily Mirror, even letting them know. Not content with his chemical company poisoning the planet, his penny pinching and incompetence is ripping the guts out of one of England's greatest cultural institutions. This is a man that revels in ripping the joy out of everything and it is men like him who could well be the death of us all. He deserves all the opprobrium that comes his way. Meanwhile on Merseyside, Liverpool’s problems pale into insignificance. It seems that only injuries or key departures can loosen their grip on the Premier League title. Trent Alexander Arnold, Mohamed Salah, and Virgil van Dyke’s contracts are up at the end of the season and it’s possible that one or more could leave in this transfer window. Real Marid’s bid for TAA has been turned down and my instinct is that the bid is a message to the England international and other possible suitors that they intend to sign him in the summer. But the real loss for the Reds would be Salah whose form is approaching unprecedented. Seventeen goals, thirteen assists, this season, and it’s only just January. The prospect of the Egyptian forward departing Anfield in the winter is very unlikely but coach Arne Slot might have a few nights sleep interrupted by thoughts on what to do if his best player picks up a knock. One can imagine what terrible things he is going to do to that broken Manchester United defence and non-existent midfield. On Sunday we will get to see it happen. TD

Serie A: Roma v Lazio

19.45 on TNT Sports 1 and OneFootball
What does the future hold for Roma now that the Friedkin Group’s purchase of Everton has gone through? The billionaire brothers have invested almost €1billion into the Giallorossi since taking over in 2020 but with potentially greater returns available in the Premier League, will there be anything left to invest in Roma? What may be more concerning for Everton fans is that Roma under the Friedkin group are only three points better off than the Toffees after 18 matches of this season. 2024 was a year of chaos for Roma, seeing three head coaches being fired - Jose Mourinho, Daniele De Rossi and Ivan Juric. Claudio Ranieri, at 73, has been plucked from retirement to try to restore some sanity to the club he’s managed twice in the past. Having saved Cagliari from relegation at the end of last season, his plans to go travelling with his family have now been put on hold. The club are actively looking for their next head coach with Ranieiri set to take an advisory role at the club at the end of the season. Patchy recent form has seen Lazio drift from the leading three teams - a 6-0 defeat at home to Inter perhaps signaling that the title race was for other clubs - but they hold the fourth Champions League spot, for now at least. Despite the gap in points, both teams can go into this derby with expectations of winning. GS

Whatever you watch, have a great weekend.

Graham, Terry, Jan and Gary