Weekend Boxset: Standing still

By Graham Sibley October 24, 2025

Weekend Boxset: Standing still

The protests seen during last week's La Liga matches seem to have worked. For now.

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: Preston North End v Sheffield United

20.00 on Sky Sports Football & Ultra
Preston manager Paul Heckingbottom rebuilt his reputation working under Chris Wilder at Sheffield United, eventually replacing him as caretaker manager the first time Wilder was sacked. Heckingbottom made his name with Barnsley, winning the League One play-off final in 2016 but followed that success, as so many others have done, by failing at Leeds, and then enduring a forgettable stint with Hibs. He was made permanent manager of the Blades after Slavisa Jocanovic was sacked and improved results enough to take them to the play-offs, and in the following season got them back into the Premier League by finishing second. He didn’t last half a season in the top flight before being replaced by Chris Wilder. He took the reins at Preston one game into last season and only kept them up the final day of the season. Signs of improvement were seen at the start of this campaign with just one defeat in their opening nine games, taking them to fourth in the table. That run saw them get the better of two sides coming down from the Premier League, Ipswich and Leicester, and gave fans a glimmer of hope that maybe this season would see them return to the top flight for the first time since the maximum wage was abolished. At that stage, just three weeks ago, Sheffield United were on the bottom of the table but both sides have experienced a change of fortunes since. Preston go into this on the back of successive defeats to West Brom and Birmingham, while the Blades appear to have put their horrific start under Ruben Selles behind them with successive wins over Watford and Blackburn. Those wins have been enough to see Chris Wilder’s side climb out of the relegation zone. GS

Saturday

A-League: Sydney v Central Coast Mariners

09.35 on TNT Sports 1
Contrasting scenes for both these clubs in the opening round of the new A-League season. A Sydney team fancied for the finals plodded around Adelaide’s Coopers Stadium, exhibiting all the energy of a group who’d just stumbled out of an all-day accountancy conference. In contrast, Central Coast were celebrating after a frantic, topsy-turvey F3 derby, where Andrew Redmayne saved a penalty for the Mariners at 90+7 before booting the ball upfield for Nicolas Durate to score the winner a minute later. Sydney, meanwhile, looked toothless up front with the departures of Douglas Costa, Adrian Segecic and Patrick Klimala. They need their new look attack to gel quickly, while the familiar defensive woes that undid the Sky Blues last season are still present. The Mariners have made a habit of making life difficult in recent seasons, and while early season matches will be a series of free hits for Warren Moon, appointed a few days before the start of the season to a side expected to struggle, anything less than a win for Sydney would increase the pressure on Ufuk Talay. The Sky Blues board gave Talay a new contract at the end of last season, to the consternation of the fanbase. Given his side has started the season where they left off in May, it could be quite a tense atmosphere come full time at Leichhardt Oval. GS

Premier League: Manchester United v Brighton & Hove Albion

17.30 on Sky Sports Premier League, Main Event & Ultra
By dint of a win over newly promoted Sunderland and a Liverpool side in crisis, Manchester United were able to claim back to back league wins for the first time under their coach Ruben Amorim. As milestones go its pretty hollow and a measure of how far United have fallen that it’s generated the amount of excitement it has. Which is not to say that a rare win at Anfield should not be celebrated in its own right. Any right thinking neutral should be enjoying the Harry Maguire - Bringer of Chaos era and it seems fitting that the former captain should be making decisive contributions as United scrabble for relevance. Much has been said about Amorim’s formation and its unsuitability for the squad but a wise coach recently told me that such things are not that big a deal and it’s adaptability that counts. If the United players can do this then talk of an apocalyptic campaign can be put down to early season hysteria. We might know a bit more after this game. The Seagulls have lost twice away from Falmer so are certainly there for the taking. But whoever is picked for the United defence or however it is deployed, they will need to keep a close eye on former player Danny Welbeck who is on fine form this season. The 34 year old Manchester native has score four goals, including two in Brighton’s 2-1 win against Newcastle last week. Old Trafford has been a happy place for the Sussex club, winning the last three visits in the Premier League. TD

La Liga: Valencia v Villarreal

20.00 on Disney Plus
These two clubs are separated by 60 km of orange groves but are worlds apart in the way they are run. Valencia have the history and the fans, but they’re also terribly run by absentee owner Peter Lim. They’ve spent the last six seasons hovering around the lower mid-table, seemingly stuck in a limbo of potential buy-outs and a new stadium that never looks like materialising (and, if it does, will load the club with a staggering debt). Villarreal are owned by local billionaire Fernando Roig who runs the club as sensibly as he does his ceramics empire and Mercadona national supermarket chain. In the 27 years since he took control of the club they have become a mainstay in the top flight and regularly compete in Europe, reaching Champions League semi-finals and winning the Europa League in 2023. Such success though has not turned them into a giant of Spanish football. Villarreal is a town with a population of just 50,000 and the club rarely fills their stadium. Growing their global brand is seen as the best way to push them on to compete with the big three sides, which explains the thinking behind them agreeing to participate in the controversial decision to play a “home” match against Barcelona in Miami. Last weekend, matches in La Liga saw an inventive protest against the decision where players stood still for 15 seconds after the referee blew the whistle for kick-off. On Tuesday night it was announced that the promoters of the fixture, Relevant, had cancelled the plans. The timing of the announcement during Villarreal’s Champions League defeat to Manchester City incensed head coach Marcelino. It seems that the club had been given no indication of how much money they would receive from the venture, or who was footing the bill to take 5,000 season ticket holders over to Florida. It all sounds a bit of a shambles, something you’d expect from a club like Valencia rather than Villarreal. GS

Sunday

Scottish Premiership: Heart of Midlothian v Celtic

12.00 on Sky Sports Football
Scottish football, for decades dominated by the Glasgow giants, is suddenly interesting again. Edinburgh’s Heart of Midlothian currently sit five points clear of champions, Celtic, in the early season race. To be clear, this isn’t some kind of fluke; an investment of both cash and fresh ideas from new board member, Tony Bloom, has had an immediate effect. Bloom, owner of south coast club, Brighton, loves data — he really loves data. So much so that both Brighton and his other interest, Belgian side Union Saint-Gilloise, have put all of their eggs in the Jamestown Analytics basket. This strategy has seen the Seagulls become part of the Premier League furniture and Union Saint-Gilloise win the Belgian championship. Taking the same blue-print north of the border, Hearts have brought in a number of summer signings which have catapulted the Maroon side of Edinburgh to the top of the league. Bloom’s bullish statements about Hearts challenging for the title now appear to have substance, they’ve beaten city rivals, Hibs, as well as adding to the already considerable pressure on Rangers with a 2-0 win at Ibrox. Not a great time, then, for Celtic to be making the trip to Tynecastle, lugging with them their own problems. Disquiet amongst the fans, already growing following relatively poor performances both domestically and in Europe, erupted into a literal shower of tennis balls and tangerines in last week’s game at Dundee. Their subsequent 2-0 loss was their first at Dens Park in a generation, leading to the Celtic Fans Collective, an umbrella term for various supporter groups, promising more action after publicly labelling the Parkhead board as “unfit for purpose”. A clear-the-air meeting between the board and the Collective was described by the latter as ‘disastrous’ which resulted in their “Not Another Penny” campaign which pledged to boycott the purchase of anything from the club, with the exception of match tickets. Glasgow isn’t a happy place at the moment, but will they find relief in the capital? Expect quite the atmosphere for this one. JB

Premier League: Arsenal v Crystal Palace

14.00 on Sky Sports Premier League
After opening a three point lead at the top of the table, Arsenal are now odds on favourites for the title. Their mean defence, just three conceded in twelve games in all competitions, and their habit of picking up almost a goal a game from set pieces has already seen them take an extra seven points from the equivalent fixtures from last season. They can make that nine points with a win here (last season’s match finished 2-2) but Palace lead a table themselves this campaign that shows what dangerous opponents they are. Oliver Glasner’s side are clear ahead at the top of the xG table with 2.39 xG per game, the next club, Manchester United, trail by a distance with an average xG of 2.06. Of course it’s actual goals that really matter, a reminder of which was seen on Thursday night when Cypriot side AEK Larnaca won at Selhurst Park in the Conference League with their only shot on target. While there’s no denying it’s a disappointing result for a full strength Palace side, Larnaca had beaten the Dutch side Alkmaar 4-0 in the opening round of fixtures, so were never going to be pushovers. Despite the defeat Palace are still favourites to win the Conference League this season ahead on Fiorentina, Strasbourg and Mainz. Arsenal have had an extra 48 hours to recover from their 4-0 Champions League demolition of Atlético Madrid - which saw under-pressure Viktor Gyökeres score twice. GS

Serie A: Lazio v Juventus

19.45 on TNT Sports 1 & DAZN
There are slumps and then there are slumps. And Juventus are in a tailspin right now. Igor Tudor’s side haven’t won a match in any competition since 14 September. More worryingly, what had been a sequence of five straight draws now has two Ls appended to it. Losing away to Real Madrid is understandable. Losing away to Como (even if I Biancoblu are having an excellent season) is not. Given the trigger happy nature of Italian owners, it’s no exaggeration to say Tudor is under serious pressure going into this match. Juve fans expect more and the board certainly expects more, given the Old Lady was considered a title contender less than a month ago. Lazio are not a side that Tudor will want to face either. Historically, this fixture has been a banker for the Turin side, but Lazio have made a habit of bloodying Juventus’s nose in recent seasons. Yes, I Biancoceleste are in indifferent form themselves and are on a losing streak, but the Stadio Olympico crowd knows how to smell blood and will be preparing a hostile welcome for the visitors. Plus Maurizio Sarri will need little motivation here: sacked by Juve after delivering them a Serie A title in 2020, there would be a delicious irony in finishing off the current occupant of the I Bianconeri hotseat. This one could get entertainingly heated. GA

Whatever you watch, have a great weekend.

Graham, Terry, Jan and Gary