Weekend Boxset: Back to business

By Graham Sibley October 17, 2025

Weekend Boxset: Back to business

Coming back from the break with German and English Clasicos and the start of a new season of A-League.

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: Middlesbrough v Ipswich Town

20.00 on Sky Sports Football, Main Event & Ultra
It’s the first game back in the Championship since the tedious, but painfully necessary, international break. Thank the gods for some actual jeopardy to entertain and enthral us - you know, like football’s supposed to be. It’s also good to see two talented young managers with decent sides clash in a fixture that means so much for their respective seasons. Tonight’s hosts, the Smoggies, enjoyed a blistering start to the season which saw them unbeaten up until the end of September. However, the final game before the intertedium saw them fall on the road to Pompey which came off the back of a couple of draws against Southampton and Stoke. Are ‘Boro running out of puff already? Well, if they are, this isn’t a good time to be playing Ipswich Town. The Tractor Boys’ campaign has been a mirror image of their hosts; with just three points from their opening four games back in the Championship, it was beginning to look a lot like a relegation hangover. Up stepped a floundering Sheffield United who Ipswich swiftly put to the sword, kick starting their season. The five goals they scored that night proved to be the final nail in the coffin for Rubén Sellés who was UB40 two days later. Collecting a further seven points in the three games since, they go into this fixture having overcome East-Anglian rivals, Norwich, 3-1 at home in the Old Farm derby. Interestingly, while typing this, Rob Edwards popped up on Sky Sports News talking of the togetherness and progress of his charges - fairly upbeat, all told. As I may have mentioned, my brother-in-law is a Smoggie (a chemical brother, if you will), and he was similarly chipper when I spoke to him. 2-1 to the home side was his call - who am I to argue. JB

Saturday

A-League: Melbourne Victory v Auckland

09.35 on TNT Sports 3
Given the A League’s continual shouting around Narrative, it’s not a surprise that the opening weekend has thrown up this fixture. Last season Auckland were by far and away the best side in the competition, but the post-season finals can be cruel and Melbourne Victory - a club that could easily change their badge to a top hat and twirling moustache - were more than happy to play the pantomime villain by knocking the New Zealanders out in the semi-finals. This is a perfect time for Steve Corica’s side to travel to Victoria. While Auckland have made minimal changes over the summer, Victory have lost the entire spine of their team to European clubs or retirement and a lot will depend on how Arthur Diles’ side gels so early in the season. Of course, it’s entirely possible that other sides will figure out Steve Corica’s tactics, as happened in his last seasons at Sydney FC, or that Auckland will still suffer a hangover from their finals loss. But logic and squad strength says this should be an away victory. GA

A-League season preview: If you want to know more about the new A-League season be sure to check out Gary’s in-depth preview and predictions on our blog.

Premier League: Nottingham Forest v Chelsea

12.30 on TNT Sports 1 & Ultimate
There is only one place to start for this preview and that is the office of Nottingham Forest manager, Ange Postecoglou. The beleaguered coach has had a shocking start at the City Ground, failing to win any of his first 7 (seven) games in charge. The prospect of him being fired after the 2-0 defeat to Newcastle seemed realistic. Part of this was due to the club owner, Evangelos Marinakis, who is perceived to be highly emotional and fractious. However, the owner and manager have a prior relationship and whatever his persona suggests, Marinakis is no fool. In defence of Ange, seven games in less than a month is a punishing schedule especially when you’re flipping the team tactics from low block to high press and possession. It’s true that he does not have the support of some of the fans but reports suggest he’s not lost the dressing room. Another home defeat may be a tipping point, with Marco Silva or Sean Dyche in the frame to replace him, but I wouldn’t be surprised if the Greek tycoon stayed his hand a while longer. This is all assuming that Forest lose. Chelsea’s away form is patchy: only two wins from five in all competitions so far this season and only one in the Premier League at West Ham. But the Blues have not lost at the City Ground since Forest returned to the top flight. Of course, this is a different version of Forest who will not wait for Chelsea to come at them and may in turn expose Chelsea’s defensive shortcomings. The Blues have shipped nine goals in the Premier League this season which is not terrible but not great. Their Expected Goals Allowed (xGA) is 9.7 which is the fifth worst in the league. It looks like both teams may need to outscore each other. TD

Bundesliga: Bayern Munich v Borussia Dortmund

17.30 on Sky Sports Football
After a three season wobble it looks like the Bundesliga title race is returning to type: that being a lengthy procession of clubs all jockeying to finish behind Bayern Munich. I say that the last three seasons were a wobble but Bayern still emerged as title winners in two of them. This season the Bavarians are 100 percent after six games, have conceded a miserly three goals and scored a whopping twenty-five. Eleven of those goals have come from Harry Kane who is probably in the best form of his career. The Englishman is the fastest Bayern player to reach one hundred goals for the club and I’m sure there are more accolades to come. Gone is the sluggishness of the persistent back injury that has dogged him and he is playing with a renewed mobility. If he stays fit then the title could be decided in March. If not then it will be April. That is unless Borussia Dortmund can drop a pebble in the Bavarians tranquil lake and give them something to doubt themselves. Borussia are the only other unbeaten team this season but dropped points at St Pauli and at home to Leipzig, creating a four points between themselves and Bayern. Dortmund coach, Nico Kovac has built a relatively solid unit (4-4 draws with Juventus notwithstanding) and welcomes back top scorer Serhou Guirassy from injury. BVB’s recent form at the Allianz Arena is decent: a 2-2 draw and 2-0 win. In fact, Bayern have not beaten Dortmund in the last four meetings. Kovac will probably look to frustrate the home side, flood the number ten area with bodies, and hope that Michael Olise and Luis Diaz have a bad day. TD

Sunday

Premier League: Tottenham Hotspur v Aston Villa

14.00 on Sky Sports Premier League, Main Event & Ultra
How times change. Last season, Villa were dreaming of European football, while Spurs were sacrificing their league form to bring home the Europa League. Of course, Big Ange and his madness is long gone from White Hart Lane and Thomas Frank is doing a very solid job of making Spurs look like A Proper Football Club and has delivered some excellent results, such as victories over Manchester City and Villarreal. But Spurs also have a habit of drawing more games than they should and, just like last season, the treatment room is getting a little full, with Ben Davies the latest casualty after limping out midweek in Wales’ defeat to Belgium. With Dejan Kulusevski and James Maddison long-term casualties, a lot rests on Mohammed Kudus. The Ghanaian has been in excellent form since making the short journey from West Ham and is finally off the mark after scoring against Leeds. Villa, meanwhile, have started to play into a bit of form after a very wobbly start. Unbeaten since mid-September, Unai Emery looks a lot calmer on the sidelines and are only three points behind Crystal Palace, who are perceived as having an excellent season so far. Ollie Watkins is a doubt, and its up front where Villa have been somewhat sub-par. Donyell Malen is starting to look more settled but a lot will rest on his shoulders to find his way through a miserly Spurs defence. Both these sides have ambitions of cracking the top four. This fixture should give us an indication of how far both sides need to go to be playing Champions League next season. GA

Premier League: Liverpool v Manchester United

16.30 on Sky Sports Premier League, Main Event & Ultra
It’s been pretty much gravy all the way for Arne Slot since he took over at Liverpool from Jurgen Klopp at the start of last season. All the way that is until a few weeks ago. Since their last game at Anfield (the EFL Cup win over Southampton) his side have lost three games in a row. They’ve also hit perhaps their worst injury crisis of his tenure. It has been said, unfairly, that Slot’s success last season was helped by luck, but, if it was, it was more from an absence of bad luck than any extended streak of good fortune. What the current injury worries have done is sharply put into focus the club’s summer business, particularly in defence. Failing to sign Marc Guéhi has been the biggest miss. With an already fragile Konaté struggling for fitness and form, will Virgil van Dijk have the resilience to last the season with the extra work he’s being asked to do? Added to that, new signings Kerkez and Frimpong look unsurprisingly unable to replace probably the best full back pairing ever seen in the Premier League. Of course, these concerns must seem laughable to United fans. Ruben Amorim is still yet to have back-to-back wins with the real crisis club; it would be hilarious if he broke that particular hoodoo here. But Liverpool aren’t that bad, are they? There could be a lot of goals here. Not a lot of quality, but a lot of goals. GS

Serie A: Milan v Fiorentina

19.45 on TNT Sports 1 and DAZN
In 2022, Stefano Pioli led Milan to their only Scudetto in the last 14 seasons. He left at the end of 23/24 to spend a season swelling his pension fund in the Saudi Pro League with Cristiano Ronaldo’s Al Nassr. This summer, Pioli (who turns 60 on Monday), returned to Serie A, and returned to Fiorentina, who he managed for two seasons from 2017 and for whom he played for the largest chunk of his career in the early 90s. But it’s not been an easy return for him. Fiorentina are without a win in the league after six games, losing all three home games and drawing all three away games. Their biggest problem at the moment is scoring goals, or, more accurately, creating them. They have plenty of options up front with internationals Moise Kean, Albert Guðmundsson, Roberto Piccolo and the evergreen Eden Dzeko to choose from but they only have one goal between them (for their club, that is). They will have their work cut out here against the defence with the lowest xGA in the league right now. Milan lost ground to the leaders Napoli and Roma with a 0-0 draw at Juventus before the break but have been in excellent form since their opening day defeat at home to Cremonese. Remarkably, we’ve managed to pass the second international break without any manager getting sacked in Serie A. With tough games against Bologna and Inter coming after this, it might not be long before Pioli’s second spell at I Viola comes to an end. GS

Whatever you watch, have a great weekend.

Graham, Terry, Jan and Gary