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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: West Bromwich Albion v Leicester City

20.00 on Sky Sports Football & Ultra
While the clubs from the Midlands in the top tier have had a slow start, their counterparts in the Championship have been setting the pace. It’s far too early to make predictions as to how the season will pan out, but with Leicester being the only side in the top half who are currently benefitting from the financial boost of parachute payments, the Championship is looking even more open than usual. Of course, the sort of cash that parachute payments provide can give a club far more options in the January sales, options that help a great deal as the season draws on. West Brom’s Premier League bonus expired last year. Since their relegation in 2021 they’ve made top half finishes but have only made the play-offs once, which tells you why they’re on their fifth manager in that time. Ryan Mason is the latest, in his first role as a permanent head coach after two notable spells as caretaker of Spurs. Still only 34, his career was cruelly cut short after a head injury 8 years ago. In another timeline though it could have been his opposite number in charge at the Hawthorns. In April, while still head coach at QPR, reports emerged that representatives of Marti Cifuentes had been in contact with West Brom over the vacant manager's job, following Tony Mowbray’s departure. QPR put Cifuentes on gardening leave ahead of the final match of the season, but it turned out he wasn’t even on the Baggies’ shortlist. He went on to replace Ruud van Nistelrooy at Leicester in July but may still feel he has something to prove here. GS

Saturday

Championship: Coventry City v Birmingham City

12.30 on Sky Sports Football
A side newly promoted from League One with a very popular streaming documentary series is who Birmingham play next weekend when they host Wrexham. Birmingham, of course, have their own famous North American co-owner and documentary series but just haven’t captured the imagination as much. After a season in League One, it’s not out of the question for Tom Brady’s side to get another promotion and return to the top flight for the first time since they won the League Cup back in 2011. Their last two away games ended in defeat but were hard-fought and against early pacesetters Stoke and Leicester. But while they certainly proved a defensive challenge to their hosts, they only registered one shot on target across the two games. Frank Lampard’s Coventry should provide much the same problems for head coach Chris Davies. Coventry’s main attacking threat is the in-form US international Haji Wright who already has six goals this season. Brought in from Antalyaspor in 2023 after Viktor Gyökeres was sold to Sporting, his scoring rate for the Sky Blues is a shade better than that of the Swedish international at 0.42 goals per game. GS

Premier League: Nottingham Forest v Sunderland

17.30 on Sky Sports Premier League, Main Event & Ultra
The last time these two famous old clubs played each other was in December 2017 when Sunderland were on their way to their second successive relegation. The Lads ran out 1-0 winners that day under Chris Coleman, who, despite embracing the challenge and the region, was fighting a losing battle steering a side and a club in the dying days of an absentee owner, catalogued and immortalised by the cameras of Netflix. Fast-forward to 2022 and both sides were celebrating promotion via the play-offs, with Forest into the Premier League and Sunderland back in the Championship. Both now together in England’s top division, their respective starts to the season have been contrasting to say the least. Just a month ago Nuno Espirito Santo was speaking publicly of his disintegrating relationship with both owner Marinakis, and Edu, the recently appointed Global Head of Football. In came Ange Postecoglou who promptly failed to win his first four games in charge. I like big Ange. He adds a splash of colour to the domestic game, but can anyone really see him tolerating Marinakis and his capricious character long term? Imagine the lardy Forest owner somehow managing to shift his massive frame into the playing area to pull up Big Ange on some tactical decision he’s not remotely qualified to comment on - Ange would put him on his sizable arse. Still, that’s all (definitely) to come. In the meantime, there’s tonight’s game. The Lads put in a serious shift last week despite going down to ten-men thanks to Reinildo’s reckless and violent retaliation on Matty Cash, who went on to give the Villains the lead. Sunderland showed a steely resilience, despite their disadvantage, and deserved the point they finished with thanks to Wilson Isidor converting Xhaka’s headed assist. Midweek, Forest led at Betis for most of their return to European competition thanks to two from Jesus (not that one, the other one). Old Trafford reject, and now Betis cult hero, Antony, leveled the game in the dying minutes, denying Big Ange his first win. Will that first win come tonight? Well, probably. If it doesn’t, Ange may need to start looking over his shoulder. JB

La Liga: Villarreal v Athletic Bilbao

20.00 on Disney Plus
This is the battle of La Liga’s other Champions League sides. While the big three of the Spanish league are accustomed to splitting attention between Europe’s premier competition and their bread and butter, for the occasional visitors to the top table it can present a challenge, especially when you throw a round of midweek league fixtures into the mix. Having lost three from three since the last international break, Athletic should have beaten winless Girona at home on Tuesday night but having juggled his starting line-up, Ernesto Valverde’s side went in at half time deservedly a goal down. He made four changes at half time which appeared to do the trick with his side equalising within minutes of the restart. In the end though they had to settle for just a point. The games for both of these sides last weekend were affected by red cards: Villarreal were fortunate to get past Oviedo, despite their opponents being reduced to ten just before half time. The Yellow Submarine had to come from behind and their late winner came from a shot that deflected into the top corner. Bilbao’s match at Valencia was a cagey affair until Dani Vivien was sent off for a last man foul 30 yards from goal. Valencia scored 10 minutes later and extended their lead in injury time. Both sides will need to balance playing time for key players with challenging ties in the Champions League coming this Wednesday: Bilbao have a tough trip to Dortmund while Villarreal host Juventus. GS

Sunday

Women’s Super League: West Ham United v Chelsea

14.30 on BBC iPlayer & Red Button
East London is not a happy place to be right now. Early signs point to a relegation struggle for the Hammers and it's hard to see where the next win will come from. This sentence can just as easily apply to the men as well as the West Ham women's side, but Graham Potter's team have 3 points, while Rehanne Skinner's side are yet to get off the mark. And there have been heavy losses: five shipped at home to Arsenal, four on the road to Brighton. It's not a pleasant position to be in, even if we're only four matches into the WSL season. At least Skinner can point to a midweek win over Charlton in the cup, but Sonia Bompastor's all-conquering Blue Machine are a very different proposition to a WSL2 side, even one that's gunning for promotion. Aggie Beaver-Jones has started the season in red-hot form, Sam Kerr is starting to make appearances from the bench after a lengthy ACL-enforced absence, and new signing Ellie Carpenter has already given dynamism down the left flank. If there's one glimmer of hope for the Hammers - and it is a very faint glimmer - it's that Chelsea somewhat laboured to their 1-0 win over Leicester at Kingsmeadow, and could have easily seen their unbeaten run end had Leicester's Emily Van Egmond been more clinical and not suffered from a sudden affliction of the Inzaghis when presented with the offside line. But who are we kidding? It's hard to see anything other than a hit out for the Blues and more misery for West Ham. The only positive is that Dagenham is a less soulless place to watch football. After that, I'm out of reasons to be cheerful for the East Londoners. GA

Premier League: Newcastle United v Arsenal

16.30 on Sky Sports Premier League, Main Event & Ultra
I know, I know, six Boxset’s into the season and Arsenal have been in every one. But at the moment they seem to be a worthwhile topic of conversation amongst the hacks. Last weekend’s draw against City increased the hubbub that this Arsenal side are somehow “playing with the handbrake on”. In the match, Pep recorded his lowest possession percentage ever trying to defend a one goal lead; a lead that was cancelled in injury time with an audacious flicked lob from substitute Gabriel Martinelli. The main criticism appears to come from Arteta deciding to use Mikel Merino to replace the injured Martin Odergaard instead of someone more exciting like Eberechi Eze. His selection will again come under scrutiny against a Newcastle side struggling to find the right gear with just one win from five. Both sides successfully negotiated their respective League Cup fixtures in midweek: Newcastle scoring more against Bradford than they have in five league games, while a much-shuffled Arsenal came out 2-0 winners away to Port Vale. On paper it looks like Arsenal should go all-out attack, but there should also be a footnote on that paper saying that four of the Gunners’ last five visits to St James’s Park have ended in defeat. The home fans always raise the noise for a visit from Arsenal and this will be no exception. For the record, the most number of consecutive appearances in the Boxset is nine set by Liverpool between February and April 2022. GS

Serie A: Milan v Napoli

19.45 on TNT Sports 1 and DAZN
It's early days in Serie A, but this match already has the sense of a Major Narrative Game. Napoli have four from four as they look to be the first team to secure back-to-back Scudettos since Juventus in 2020. Not that it's been plain sailing. Winless Pisa gave the I Pertenopei a scare last round out, and then there's a Champions League loss to Manchester City. Meanwhile, Milan have Massimilano Allegri back in the hot seat and no shortage of class in midfield with the summer acquisition of Luka Modric and Adrien Rabiot. The Rosseneri are without European football this season, and that could be an advantage over a long season. After a surprise opening day loss to Cremonese, Milan have looked like potential title challengers and thoroughly dismantled a hapless Udinese last week. This being Serie A, we could be facing a classic or a cagey, tense match. It feels like there's too much quality in both teams for that to happen, although Antonio Conte remains as combustible as ever on the sidelines. Teams under Conte tend to run out of steam after a season, so this should be a good marker of both sides' title credentials this season. GA


Whatever you watch, have a great weekend.

Graham, Jan and Gary