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City v Arsenal looms over the weekend but there's plenty of more entertainment on offer.

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

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Friday

St Pauli v Köln

19.30 on BBC iPlayer There are five rounds left in the season and while there are plenty of points up for grabs it’s going to require a miracle for Heidenheim and Wolfsburg to recover the gap to fifteenth and safety. But the relegation playoff is still up for grabs and its current occupant St Pauli badly need to break a run of five games without a win to keep their distance and put pressure on Werder Bremen, immediately above them. The good news is that three of their remaining fixtures are six-pointers, the first being against Köln. Effzeh made a coaching change in late March: Lukas Kwasniok, was hired in the summer but the team underperformed, unable to get the best out of what is a relatively young and promising squad, the most promising being the 19-year-old forward Said El Mala who has scored eleven goals this season. Despite his tender years, El Mala had the maturity to score a penalty in Köln’s 3-1 win over Werder last week which was the second game in charge for Kwasniok’s assistant and now interim head coach, René Wagner. The win moved FC up to thirteenth and a moderately safe position. Ordinarily I’d evoke the much-fabled atmosphere at the Millerntor, St Pauli’s legendary stadium but the club have lost their last two home games, including a 5-0 thrashing to Bayern last week. The home crowd have enjoyed a win only four times this season. TD

Bonus viewing: At the conclusion of this game, switch over to Sky Sports Football to catch the last half hour or so of Blackburn Rovers v Coventry City. Frank Lampard’s side just need a point to secure promotion to the Premier League while Rovers are still perilously close to the relegation line.

Saturday

Championship: Portsmouth v Leicester City

12.00 on Sky Sports Football, Main Event & Ultra
A few weeks ago, I previewed a Southampton game and suggested that they may have left it a bit late for automatic promotion. I didn’t quite anticipate the tear they would go on to put themselves within three points of second placed Ipswich with plenty of change to spare. I also didn’t anticipate the help the Saints would receive from the bitter local rivals Portsmouth who have taken points off two other promotion contenders in the last two games. Pompey convincingly beat Ipswich 2-0 on Tuesday and assisted with Middlesbrough’s decline with a late winner at the Riverside last Saturday. Those six points have proved timely in the relegation battle, lifting Portsmouth to nineteenth. The catalyst for this revival seems to be the 6-1 defeat at QPR in late March. Manager John Mousinho gave the players a couple of days off after the game for a mental and physical health break. They have not lost the last four games they have played subsequently. They must now follow up with a win against a fellow relegation struggler. Leicester are looking to avoid successive relegations on the tenth anniversary of their greatest triumph. The 2016 English Champions are five points from safety and, if they don’t win this weekend, face tough fixtures against promotion contenders Hull and Millwall plus a six pointer against Blackburn. It’s hard to believe that roughly half the City squad were in the Premier League this year but poor squad management, hiring the wrong coach in Gary Rowett in February plus a six-point deduction for PSR violation have led to the Foxes hoping that West Brom too fall foul of the EFL financial rules and they get dragged further into the mire. TD

Women’s World Cup 2027 qualifying, UEFA group A3: Iceland v England

17.30 on ITV4 and ITVX
Another home win against the world champions, Spain, in midweek has given England the advantage in this Nations League-style qualifying group. It certainly wasn’t the most entertaining matches; England went ahead early and sat for most of the remainder of the match in a low block. It puts England top of the group — the only position with a guaranteed World Cup spot — and likely to need just a draw when the sides meet again in June in Majorca. Likely, that is, as long as they don’t slip up elsewhere. Iceland are ranked 17th in the world but offered little against England when the sides met last month at the City Ground. England won 2-0 but the margin should have been greater. Given the tough draw, Iceland’s realistic priority in this group is to finish third, and go on to face a side in the first round of play-offs almost certainly outside the world top 50. If things go well for England in this game, Sarina Wiegman may consider bringing on 17-year-old Erica Meg Parkinson, who plays her club football in Portugal and impressed while playing for England U19s last summer. GS

remier League: Chelsea v Manchester United

20.00 on TNT Sports 1 & Ultimate and HBOMax
The Battle of Who Can Do Their Damnedest To Throw Away A European Spot continues in earnest. United are in a funny position of being both a deserved third and an unexpected third. Partly because Michael Carrick isn’t Reuben Amorim, and partly because a lot of the competition keep slipping up in assignments they really should win. Consistency counts in the Champions League positions and United have been remarkably consistent since the start of 2026. Not showy, not flashy just good in an understated way. Winning consistently isn’t a habit that’s come easy to the Red Devils in recent season, so their recent mini-blip against Bournemouth and Leeds will be a test of their credentials. Given the form of Liverpool, you’d expect Carrick’s team to be reasonably comfortable in making it back to the big stage for the first time since 2023. But then Chelsea are a funny team right now. Both funny amusing and funny peculiar. Their last league win at the start of March was a comprehensive dismantling of fellow European hopefuls Aston Villa, giving hope that appointing Liam Rosenior was a wise choice. It’s possible Rosenior may come good but his pearls of non-wisdom give the impression of a cat who catches a bird for the first time and isn’t quite sure what to do with it. Chelsea’s run-in after this looks relatively benign, but when you don’t know who your team mates are going to be week to week, it’s hard to build any kind of consistency. The kind of consistency Carrick has been a master of achieving this season. A win would reignite Chelsea’s charge for a Champions League spot, a loss puts more pressure on LinkedIn Liam. Hard to look past United on current form. GA

Sunday

Championship: Ipswich Town v Middlesbrough

12.00 on Sky Sports Football, Main Event & Ultra
A win for the Tractor Boys in their midweek fixture against lowly Pompey would have put them six points clear of tonight’s visitors. Despite the odds, this didn’t happen with Pompey comfortably beating them, just as they did Boro in their previous match. With just a handful of games to go, it seems that now nobody wants to get promoted, except maybe Southampton. The Pompey defeat was the first for Ipswich in nearly two months, showing just how impressive they’ve been. But they were poor on Tuesday and will need to be in much better form against Boro today. Questions as to whether manager Kieran McKenna has become distracted will continue to be asked as speculation linking him with the soon-to-be-vacant position at Bournemouth circulates. Indeed, the bookies have him as favourite, which will have at least some impact on both preparation and team mentality. Tonight’s visitors aren’t without their own problems. Despite being hot on the heels of Frank Lampard’s Coventry for much of the campaign, they’ve choked of late which, in case you were wondering, has nothing to do with the heavy metal content of the air on Teesside. Unable to buy a win since early March, the Smoggies have slipped into fifth, overtaken by the Saints and Millwall. They now face the unenviable task of trying to get three much needed points at Portman Road, something which no team has managed since October last year. In a lovely little bit of symmetry, immediately prior to that loss, Boro beat tonight’s hosts 2-1. With both Millwall and Southampton playing beatable, mid-table opposition, there really needs to be a result here today. Home win. JB

Premier League: Everton v Liverpool

14.00 on Sky Sports Main Event & Ultra
The end of the season probably can’t come quick enough for the current champions. It effectively ended in midweek when they exited the Champions League to PSG. Now all they have to go for is participation in next season’s competition, which is going to be far from easy as their last six games see them play the five clubs closest to them in the table, including Everton. They will also have to manage without top scorer Hugo Ekitike after he picked up an Achilles injury in the PSG game which has both ended his season and his World Cup hopes. The side have proven they can function without him — he didn’t feature in the 2-0 win over Fulham at the weekend — but of all of the signings the club made last summer he has been their most consistent. Will they need to spend a similar figure again this summer? Everton are looking to extend a winning run at the Hill Dickinson, after beating Chelsea and Burnley. Maybe the Toffees are finally getting used to their new home. They can close the gap on their city rivals to just two points today, and give themselves the confidence they need to secure their first top five finish since 2014. GS

Premier League: Manchester City v Arsenal

16.30 on Sky Sports Premier League, Main Event & Ultra
And so, it comes down to… nearly this. How the broadcasters would have loved this match to be the last game of the season, but this will do. If you’re reading this newsletter, you know what’s at stake (if you don’t, please reply and tell us what year you’ve arrived from). Arsenal have, has feared, succumbed to a case of Arsenalchokyitis, which can spread rapidly throughout the fixture list. Mikel Arteta’s men should have been already plotting the open top bus parade route by now, but another slip against Bournemouth has coincided with City’s annual spring surge. Pep Guardiola’s team currently look like champions elect with Rayan Cherki in the form of his life and Antoine Semenyo slotting seamlessly into the City way of play. Of course Arsenal could lose this and still limp over the line but any dropped points will have Guardiola’s sharks circling as the season draws to a close. Much as the relentless hype of the Premier League can often grate, this is an absolute must win. There’s nowhere else your attention should be on Sunday afternoon. GA


Whatever you watch, have a great weekend.

Graham, Terry, Jan and Gary