Weekend Boxset: Here to stay

By Graham Sibley September 19, 2025

Weekend Boxset: Here to stay

This week's selection features a number of games with newly promoted sides with something to prove.

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

Women’s Super League: Everton v London City Lionesses

19.30 on Sky Mix, Sky Sports Plus and WSL YouTube
After the euphoria of promotion as the first independent women’s side to reach the top flight, London City Lionesses have been dealt a swift reality check. The fixture list wasn’t exactly kind to them and heavyweights Arsenal and Manchester United weren’t in a charitable mood, putting four and five past Jocelyn Precheur’s team. But despite the heavy defeats, the Lionesses can take a lot of positives. At 1-0 down against United, the south Londoners had a multitude of chances to equalise from Kosovare Asllani’s exquisite set piece deliveries. Yes, the cliches ring true about taking your chances at an elite level, but you get the sense that once the 17 (yes, 17) new signings start to gel there’s a result or two in the side. Plus plenty of WSL sides have struggled to get points on the board in the opening fixtures, so there’s still some leeway. The Lionesses can also take heart from the fact Everton are coming off a home loss against Spurs, and it’s difficult to know which side they’ll face: the somewhat ponderous approach of last week or the side who ran riot against Liverpool the week before. A draw on Merseyside would be an excellent result and first point for the Lionesses and if Asllani’s wand of a right foot can perform its magic and the big holes that have a habit of appearing between defence and midfield can be plugged, then that may be a realistic result. GA

Saturday

Premier League: Liverpool v Everton

12.30 on TNT Sports 1 & Ultimate
Everton make the short cross-city trip with an unusual feeling for Toffees supporters: optimism. After the disastrous ownership of Farhad Moshiri and a series of managerial lurches from expansive to pragmatic via chaos, this is a club that actually feels settled. David Moyes looks revitalised at a club where he’s viewed with affection rather than suspicion and, in Tyler Dibbling and Jack Grealish, has added flair and excitement to a forward line that has seemed ponderous in recent seasons. And while it might seem a little fanciful for Moyes to triumph at Anfield, Everton have made a habit of causing their Merseyside rivals a lot of discomfort. Liverpool should be expected to win this on both form and talent, but they’ve made a habit of winning late for much of the season with plenty of post-85 minute winners. On one hand, that’s the sign of a fit side with a winning mentality. On the other, it suggests this season may be a little tougher. In theory, Moyes can view this as a free hit - the Reds are expected to win - but in reality, expect his side to be fired up. There’s a lot of red cards shown over the years in this derby. It wouldn’t be a surprise if one side didn’t finish with 22 men. GA

Bundelsiga: RB Leipzig v Köln

17.30 on Sky Sports Football
In recent years this would have been a home banker but the visitors come to Leipzig in excellent form after their promotion from Bundesliga 2. FC Koln have had a blistering start to the season with two wins over Mainz and Freiburg plus a ding-dong 3-3 draw at Wolfsburg where three goals were scored in fourteen minutes of injury time. They were promoted under caretaker coach Friedhelm Funkel. The veteran stepped down in the summer and Koln paid SC Paderborn a fee to get Lukas Kwasniok out of his contract. The 43 year old did a good job producing a team that is competitive and fun to watch on a modest budget. Effzeh are a bigger club, but relative to the Bundesliga, face similar challenges. The attack has been strengthened with the arrival of Ragnar Ache from Kaiserslautern who is yet to get off the mark. But Jakub Kamiński (on loan from Wolfsburg) and Maruis Butler, a bargain at £1 million from Hoffenheim have scored four goals so far. It probably won't last but the FC fans can enjoy their third place while it does. Leipzig feature in the Boxset for the second time this season . The first was for their home opener against Bayern and they were destroyed 6-0. Since then, Ole Werner’s side have rallied with wins against Mainz and Heidenheim. It's fair to say that there are sterner tests to face for this team and they no longer benefit from Xavi Simons after his move to Tottenham. Two of the new signings I mentioned in the last preview, Johan Bakayoko and Romulu, are off the mark which is encouraging. But they are struggling with injuries. Benjamin Heinrichs, Amadou Haidara and Xaver Schlager being the most prominent. It could be a tricky night for the home side. TD

La Liga: Valencia v Athletic Bilbao

20.00 on Disney Plus
Athletic will probably feel they should have got something out of their opening Champions League tie against Arsenal on Tuesday night. They controlled the match for the opening 25 minutes in an intense atmosphere at the San Mames. They were unable to sustain the work-rate required for that opening period and control of the game slipped away as their (particularly Real Sociedad flavoured) opponents strengthened from the bench. It was a second home defeat in a row for Athletic after losing against Alaves last weekend. That was another game they largely controlled but this time they lost to a freakish own goal. Alex Berengeur blocked a cross from Denis Suarez from where the penalty area meets the by-line, the ball looped off the top of his boot over the head of goalkeeper Unai Simon to bounce in off the far post. For Valencia, this season is a sixth without European football - their longest spell out since they were relegated in the mid-80s (which was their only season outside of the top flight since first reaching that level in 1931). Expectations for this season are low but, at home at least, results have been promising: an opening day draw against Real Sociedad followed by a convincing win against an otherwise decent looking Getafe. On the road is a different story though, last weekend they were destroyed 6-0 by Barcelona with player of the match Fermin Lopez and substitutes Raphinha and Robert Lewandowski getting a brace each. GS

Sunday

Premier League: Sunderland v Aston Villa

14.00 on Sky Sports Main Event & Ultra
Sunderland, now an actual Premier League side, are currently in 6th (SIXTH) place and take on an Aston Villa side yet to score a goal in four attempts. Of course, it’ll be the most Sunderland of things for the Villans to suddenly find their goalscoring form and stick four past Robin Roefs while Wearside looks on in horror - hopefully, not. The Mackems go into this one off the back of a hard-fought goalless draw away at FA Cup holders, Crystal Palace, in which Roefs was in unbeatable form. The young Dutchman, a €10m summer signing from NEC Nijmegen, has already melted the hearts of the Sunderland faithful only four games in. A penalty save in the home win against a decent Brentford side was followed up by an outstanding display in the art of goalkeeping at Selhurst Park. In fact, watching from the away end, I’d say that the performance of the entire team was pretty special. Of course, you can look at the stats and the brief highlights reel and conclude that Palace battered the Lads for ninety minutes, but this really wasn’t the case. The point I’m circling around is that my beloved hometown club are enjoying an excellent start to their first Premier League campaign in eight years, and no spotty bean-counter with a laptop is going to take that away from me. Investment on a scale not witnessed in the club’s long history has seen a complete overhaul of the side which now boasts Granit Xhaka as captain, leading a side bristling with potential. Hopefully, head coach, Regis Le Bris will be able to keep their feet on the ground after such an impressive start to the season; Villa’s stumbling start to the campaign won’t last forever: they are blessed with a world class leader in Unai Emery and a host of talented players. The Stadium of Light may have been a fortress so far, but I’d argue that Villa will be the sternest test yet - form, as they say, is temporary. JB

Premier League: Arsenal v Manchester City

16.30 on Sky Sports Premier League, Main Event & Ultra
There was a time, not too long ago, when this fixture was all too predictable. Up to 2023, Arsenal lost 12 straight Premier League games against City, including six defeats in a row at the Emirates with a combined aggregate of 2-14. Last season’s 5-1 win for the Gunners will have done much to ease some of that pain, and with Arteta now enjoying a run five of matches unbeaten against his former boss, his side go into this one in the still unfamiliar position of being favourites. City are still far from their best but two confidence boosting home wins against a hapless United side last weekend, and a 10-man Napoli side in midweek, shows they are still a force. Arsenal have had 48 hours more than City to recovery from their Champions League tie but were made to work hard in Bilbao. It was another win and clean sheet for this new more resilient Arsenal side with both goals coming from their very strong bench. Whether Gabriel Martinelli’s obvious impact on that game will be enough for him to start this one on the left wing in place Eberechi Eze is one of many intriguing selection options available to Mikel Arteta. GS

Serie A: Inter v Sassuolo

19.45 on TNT Sports 1 and DAZN
As a reader of this weekly primer, you probably know more than few interesting nuggets of information about European football. If, say, I was to ask you who was the longest serving head coach in La Liga, you’d know it is Diego Simone, and that for the Premier League it’s Pep. But what if I asked you that same question about Serie A? Well believe or not, the answer is Sassuolo’s Fabio Grosso. Yes, the scorer of Italy’s World Cup winning penalty in 2006 is also the longest serving head coach in Italy’s top flight. That’s despite only taking the job up in June of last year; he won’t even reach the point of being 50 games in charge until after the next international break. Grosso last featured in the Boxset during his disastrous and mercifully short spell at Lyon in 2023. He joined Sassuolo after they had just been relegated to Serie B and immediately took them up (he’d previously done the same with Frosinone). Sassuolo’s relegation ended a 11-season run in the top flight, which included a fantastic spell under Roberto De Zerbi. In the end they sold too many key players and when they lost star man Dominico Berardi to injury in the second half of the season they didn’t have enough to pull out of the relegation mire, going on a hectic final day. It was a strange season for them, one which saw them beat Inter, the eventual champions, both home and away, so it’s fair to say that this match will hold no fear for the Neroverdi. Inter have lost their last two Serie A matches, the most recent a seven goal thriller in last weekend’s Derby D’Italia. It’s well worth catching the highlights for some amazing goals, including the Thuram brothers both scoring set-piece headers for their respective teams. GS

Whatever you watch, have a great weekend.

Graham, Terry, Jan and Gary