Get the Weekend Boxset in an email every week

German football returns - and you can watch it live on the iPlayer! Serie A kicks off too.

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

Get the Weekend Boxset in an email every week

Head over to Substack to get this newsletter in your inbox every week.
https://soundoffootball.substack.com/

Share this with someone on WhatsApp

All times are UK

Friday

Bundesliga: Bayern Munich v RB Leipzig

19.30 on BBC iPlayer and Bundesliga YouTube
The Bundesliga season kicks off with its traditional Friday night opener featuring the champions. Last season Bayern regained the Bundesliga title after having a previous twelve season run of championships and will probably be lifting the trophy again in April. If there is to be a different champion, Bayern must be consistently poor while another team captures lightning in a bottle for an entire campaign, just like Leverkusen two seasons ago. That said Bayern will be without Jamal Musiala for most of the season after his terrible injury in the Club World Cup. Attempts to sign Florian Wirtz fell short but Luis Diaz joined from Liverpool. Leipzig have undergone a summer of transition. New coach Ole Werner joined after an excellent spell at Werder Bremen. The 37-year-old has earned the chance to coach a more ambitious club. However, he needs to get the team back into European competition which his predecessor, Marco Rose failed to do. He has also lost Benjamin Sesko who moved to Manchester United and Xavi Simons looks likely to follow. However, the Red Bull recruitment network has swung into action. Brazilian striker Romulo joins from Turkish club Göztepe, as does Yan Diomande from Leganes and Johan Bakayoko from Eindhoven. Diomande is already off the mark with a goal in Leipzig’s 4-2 win at Sandhausen in the DFB Pokal last week. TD

Saturday

Championship: Charlton Athletic v Leicester City

12.30 on Sky Sports Football, Main Event & Ultra
Former Leiceter and Luton Town head coach, Nathan Jones, having taken Charlton back to the Championship, comes up against Martí Cifuentes and a Leicester City side struggling with something of a Premier League hangover. Not helpful, then, that the Valley will be packed out with 20,000 fans for the second home game in succession. It may be early in the season, but there’s an optimism in South East London: unbeaten across their first three competitive games, they’ve kept clean sheets in both Championship games with a win at home to Watford and a draw away at Bristol City. Gathering a reputation as a difficult side to play against, it’s the last place a fragile Leicester will want to go. Martí Cifuentes, who left Queens Park Rangers last term following a falling out over a job offer from West Brom that didn’t actually exist, now has to turn around the relegated Foxes. Gone is former boss Ruud van Nistelrooy and talismanic striker, Jamie Vardy, who chose no club over the one where he made his name. Vardy, the last of the 2016 Premier League winning squad, leaves a big hole. Indeed, so limited are Leicester's options up top, that they played sixteen year old, Jeremy Monga, in attack last week. Their first game back in the Championship was a home win against troubled Sheffield Wednesday, thanks to a late winner from Wout Faes. This was followed by a loss on penalties to League One Huddersfield Town in the EFL Cup then defeat at Preston where the only positive was the infant Jeremy Monga getting his first goal of the season. It may be early, but despite Leicester having the better team on paper, the gulf in momentum couldn’t be greater - home win. JB

Premier League: Arsenal v Leeds United

17.30 on Sky Sports Premier League Main Event & Ultra
Leeds’ winning return to the Premier League will have been especially satisfying to their manager Daniel Farke. In five Championship seasons with Leeds and Norwich, he has won the title three times and got to a play-off final. In the top flight, however, his record is dismal: just 26 points from 48 games, before Monday. Luckily, no one seems to have told that to his Leeds side and they certainly look up to the challenge of staying up. Well they did against Everton at least. Arsenal came out winners in their opener at Old Trafford but it was a game they rarely looked to be in control of. Old Trafford has never been an easy place for the Gunners, even when, on paper, United are at their weakest, so for Arteta it may just be a case of take the points and hope for more commanding performances ahead. For Arsenal, the build-up to this has been dominated by the transfer of Eberechi Eze, which at the time of writing is close but not yet a done deal. A week ago the transfer headlines were announcing that Spurs had “hijacked” Arsenal’s Eze deal, today those same outlets are proclaiming that Arsenal have “hijacked” Spurs’ Eze deal. Maybe all that’s really happened is that Palace have looked at bids from both clubs and decided that one comes out more favourable for them and/or the player - but I guess for the clicks it needs to sound more like an episode of 24 rather than Garden Rescue. GS

La Liga: Levante v Barcelona

20.30 on Disney Plus
Despite playing only away games before September’s international break, it looks like Barcelona will have to start their season back in the old Olympic stadium, with a return to the renovated Camp Nou still a way off. Of course it wouldn’t be the start of the new season without Barca juggling their finances to get new players registered and stay within Spanish spending limits. This season has seen them try to claim back 80% of team captain Marc-Andre ter Stegen’s wages while he’s recovering from back surgery (much to the German goalkeeper’s dismay). Thankfully matters appear to have been sorted, allowing Joan Garcia to come across the city from Espanyol to deputise for ter Stegen in last weekend’s season opener. Alongside him was loan-signing Marcus Rashford, who played the last half an hour of a game that was long since over as a contest. The 3-0 victory away to Mallorca was helped by a series of key decisions going against the home side in the first half. The champion’s second goal came when the referee had the whistle in his mouth, about to stop play with a Mallorca defender prone in the penalty area after blocking a shot with his head. That was soon followed by two home players given red cards in the space of six minutes. Levante’s first game back in the top flight after three seasons out saw them lose in injury time away to Alavés. The Granotes lost just once at home on their way to the Segunda title last season but are likely to struggle this campaign having been relegated from the top division twice since their only European qualification back in 2012. GS

Sunday

Premier League: Everton v Brighton & Hove Albion

14.00 on Sky Sports Main Event & Ultra
Finally, the Hilly Dick is ready to open its doors for Everton’s first ever home Premier League fixture. And it’s going to be a challenging season ahead for the club. Before David Moyes re-joined as manager in January this historic event could have been a Championship fixture. But the returning hero did enough to galvanise the team and steer them away from the relegation zone, helped by an extremely poor bottom three. After a gruelling few years of under investment in the squad, much depends on the new signings: What can we expect from a rusty Jack Grealish? How quickly can Kiernan Dewsbury-Hall be integrated into the team? Can Thierno Barry’s La Liga form from last season be translated into Premier League goals? If Monday’s 1-0 defeat at Elland Road is anything to go by there is still plenty of defensive work to be done. Yes, they were unlucky to concede a VAR penalty but Leeds’s xG in that game was 2.0 vs Everton’s 0.8. Leeds fully deserved that win. Brighton’s xG in their 1-1 draw with Fulham was 1.5. They were denied three points when Rodrigo Munez popped in at the far post to meet a 96th minute corner. Albion have lost striker João Pedro and are likely to lose Carlos Baleba before the transfer window closes. That aside they have a settled squad and will be confident of an unpopular away win on Everton’s big day. TD

Premier League: Fulham v Manchester United

16.30 on Sky Sports Premier League, Main Event & Ultra
No easy games at this level may well be a cliché, but this is one of those early headache-inducing fixtures for Ruben Amorim. Fulham last season were one of those sides who had a habit of flying under the radar and making life extremely difficult for bigger names, and unlike Manchester United are a very settled squad. It's hard to know exactly what you'll get with The Cottagers, as form-wise they have a habit of pulling out some unexpected results after an indifferent run, so it's best not to read too much into an opening season 1-1 draw against Brighton. United, on the other hand, have spent close to £200m, mostly on attacking players, but still seem intent on starting Casemiro in midfield, selecting a backline that's a mixture of youthful soon-to-be-crushed dreams and creaking mistakes, and a goalkeeper who has an unfortunate habit of dropping howlers. There were flashes of promise in their opening day loss to Arsenal, but there's a sense that while we're in a new season, the United of 24/25 still remain, just with more propensity to score goals. They'll need their new frontline to gel quickly, but it's hard to see them blowing a settled, disciplined Fulham side away at Craven Cottage. Draw at best for the Red Devils. GA

Serie A: Juventus v Parma

19.45 on TNT Sports 1 and DAZN
This weekend sees the start of a new season in Italy. Antonio Conte was widely expected to start the campaign as the new head coach of Juventus, but having won the title with Napoli he decided to stay in the South. As a result of guiding Juve to fourth place and the Champions League, Igor Tudor’s contract with the Old Lady was extended for another season. More than half the sides in Serie A start this season with new men in charge. Well, old men in some cases, with some familiar names returning to roles they’ve already held. Stefano Pioli is back at Fiorentina, Massimiliano Allegri has returned to AC Milan, and Maurizio Sarri retakes the seat he left just over a year ago at Lazio. Also, Gian Piero Gasperini’s long spell at Atalanta has come to an end; he’s now at Roma and has been replaced by Ivan Juric (yes, him). After leading Parma out of the relegation zone at the end of last season, Cristian Chivu was offered the Inter job, replacing Simone Inzaghi. Chivu has been replaced at Parma by Carlos Cuesta in his first managerial role, having spent the last five seasons as an assistant to Mikel Arteta at Arsenal. After Parma’s struggle to stay up in their first season back, you’d have to say it’s a risk to appoint an untried coach in a new league. No excuses for Juventus then in this one, who will have Jonathan David in attack. The sought-after 25-year-old Canadian has joined from Lille on a five-year contract. GS


Whatever you watch, have a great weekend.

Graham, Terry, Jan and Gary