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Two former Champions League semi-finalists are back in their leagues’ top flight, but for how long?

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: London City Lionesses v Manchester United

19.00 on Sky Sports Football, Mix, Main Event & Ultra, Sky One and Sky Mix
A new season of the WSL kicks off with an intriguing match-up between a side looking to challenge the top three against the last side that tried. The summer has provided more questions than answers about these clubs’ respective motivations and ambitions. LCL are clearly looking to push for top places, but it’s less clear why. The communication from the club is all about disrupting the status quo, creating a strong club independent of a men’s team and attracting big names to the league. All worthy ambitions, but LCL are also part of Michelle Kang’s multi-club ownership group which includes current European champions Lyon. Should LCL finish in the top three it’s most unlikely they would be allowed to compete in the Champions League. This summer has been about developing an identity for the club by signing the biggest names available, including two-times Ballon D’Or winner Alexia Putellas along with former England (and United) goalkeeper Mary Earps. There have been big changes at Manchester United. Club legends Millie Turner and Leah Galton have gone as has manager Marc Skinner. In comes Eva Olid, a Spanish coach who has spent the last five seasons as manager of Hearts, transforming the Edinburgh side from also-rans into Scottish champions for the first time last season. As a club, the men’s side of United have form in hiring someone who turned a mid-ranking Scottish club into champions. It worked out pretty well for them that time. GS

Saturday

Championship: Preston North End v Blackburn Rovers

12.30 on Sky Sports Football, Main Event & Ultra
A local derby with more at stake than just bragging rights. Four games into the season and Paul Heckingbottom’s Preston are the only side in the EFL yet to register a point. His side have suffered two 3-1 defeats at home, to Wolves and Bristol City, continuing a run of poor form that started in January. Before the third round of the FA Cup Preston had climbed to fourth place in the Championship but from that point registered just four wins in the remaining 20 games of the season, seeing them finish 14th. The problem at the start of this season appears to be more about finishing chances than creating them. To help with that they’ve brought in Johnny Kenny from Celtic who spent the end of last season helping Bolton get promoted from League One scoring six in fourteen loan appearances. Blackburn last season would have been relegated were it not for points deductions for West Brom and Leicester. They have five points from their opening four games but go into this desperately short of central defenders. Hayden Carter and Scott Wharton are still to return from injury while 19-year-old Tom Atcheson will be unavailable having picked up two yellows in Blackburn’s 0-0 draw away to Lincoln. Frustratingly, deadline saw three deals fall through as returning Blackburn manager Tony Mowbray tried to plug the gaps. Is it still too early for a must win game? GS

Bundesliga: Schalke v Bayern Munich

17.30 on Sky Sports Football
Runners up in the Bundesliga as recently as 2018, Schalke return to the top flight having spent four of the last five seasons in the second tier. As in 2022, they come up as Bundesliga.2 champions, but will they be able to avoid relegation this time around? Schalke’s head coach is Miron Muslic who you may remember masterminded Plymouth’s victory over Liverpool in the fourth round of the FA Cup last year but was unable to stop them from dropping into League One. In the the opening weekend he saw his side lose 3-0 at Augsburg, with two of those goals coming in the last half hour after Schalke were reduced to ten by a red card for Ron Schallenberg. In stark contrast to newly promoted Premier League clubs, none of Schalke’s few signings have cost them more than £1m. They have however made a couple of notable loan signings: Hwang He Chang returns to the Bundesliga after five seasons, on loan from Wolves while German international Robin Gosens joins from Fiorentina. Bayern are expected to win the title yet again and are already top after one game having hammered Stuttgart 5-1 in their opener. Perhaps more concerning for other teams in the Bundesliga is that they got those five goals without Harry Kane being credited with any involvement. GS

Alternative viewing: Despite threats of mass boycott, the Women’s U20 World Cup in Poland is going ahead, with UEFA satisfied for now that their demands have been met (those demands didn’t include the resignation of Gianni Infantino). All of the games can be watched for free on DAZN. England’s opener is against Canada and kicks off at 17.00.

La Liga: Villarreal v Deportivo A Coruna

20.00 on Disney Plus
During the 90s and 00s Deportivo were one of the leading clubs in Spain, winning the league title in 2000 and two Copa del Reys. In 2004 they reached the Champions League semi-final, narrowly losing to Jose’s Porto on their way to the title. Since that golden period though it’s been a tougher ride. Relegation to the second tier in 2018 (their third in eight seasons) was followed in 2020 with relegation to the third tier and with the restructuring of the lower leagues, halving the number of clubs at that level, they only survived falling to the fourth tier by a single point. Now they are back and, proudly Galician, Os Herculeos have celebrated their return to the top flight by officially adopting the city’s Galego name, swapping the “La” for an “A”. While not expected to bring the back the glory days they have been busy in the transfer market, mainly involving Barcelona players past and present. Pierre Emerick Aubameyang, now 37, joins from Marseille, along with Adama Traore who was released by West Ham. Aubameyang has scored in all three games in Deportivo’s unbeaten start to the season. Traore could make his debut here. 22-year-old Marc Casado has also joined, on loan from the Catalan side. Having finished third last season Villarreal have had a slow start to this campaign and are still looking for their first win after drawing their opening two games and losing at Alavez last weekend. They’ve brought in Canadian Nathan Saliba from Anderlecht for €15 million. The 22-year-old midfielder impressed for the co-hosts during this summer’s World Cup. GS

Sunday

Premier League: Everton v Manchester United

14.00 on Sky Sports Premier League, Main Event & Ultra
As a Sunderland fan, I find it bizarre that David Moyes continues to draw a comfortable living as a top football coach. Today he welcomes Manchester United, a club which eventually saw him for the imposter he is. Not that incompetence is restricted to the coach these days at Everton. Their recruitment team went full Moyes 2016-17 this week in a chaotic showing on the final day of the summer transfer window. Their attempt to land Folarin Balogun from Monaco ended in failure despite both clubs signing contracts and submitting the required deal sheet. According to Monaco chief executive Thiago Scuro, the US international, who was in Liverpool, decided to head back to France, refusing to commit to the Merseyside club, citing his treatment by both the club and their medical staff over issues he claimed didn’t exist. In the back-and-forth between the medics, Monaco, needing to make a sale, agreed to engage with Chelsea for Lamine Camara. With the deadline literally minutes away, this was then suspended when Everton decided that there wasn’t a medical concern with Balogun after all. He then took his leave, collapsing both deals and leaving Everton threadbare up front, having already allowed Beto and Ndiaye to leave the club earlier in the window. The upshot of all of this is that Thierno Barry is Everton’s only centre forward until they can reinforce in January. Barry, who has made an impressive start to the season, will be one to watch for Michael Carrick, who got United back to winning ways with an impressive attacking display against newly promoted Ipswich last week. Defensively, there are concerns as the pace of Ipswich got past them on several occasions, and their opening-day defeat to Hull City speaks for itself. At least Bruno has got into his stride, and he may well be the decisive factor this afternoon. Away win. JB

Premier League: Arsenal v Chelsea

16.30 on Sky Sports Premier League, Main Event & Ultra
According to The Internet, this season is over for both sides. The Transfer Window has been lost and Mikel Arteta and Xabi Alonso should give up now. And while Arsenal’s failure to sign an attacker leaves them a little light up front and Monaco playing silly buggers means Alonso missed out on a replacement for Enzo Fernandez, the annual end-of-August panic remains one of football’s more ridiculous traditions. Personally, I’ve never really understood why clubs leave it until the last day to decide to spunk millions of dollars on players they’ve had all summer to sign (although as a man who frequently turns in my Boxset copy a minute before the editor presses send, I can’t really judge). Putting aside the tendency to shout at clouds in my advancing years, this has the hallmarks of a very entertaining match. Chelsea have been chaotically potent while Arsenal look as clinical as they were last season. At some point Chelsea will surely learn to defend, but until then, let’s enjoy Alonso’s madcap approach. GA

Serie A: Juventus v Milan

19.45 on TNT Sports 1, HBO Max and DAZN
It’s still early days in Serie A but two games in and the top of the table has a familiar look, bar the absence of Napoli. Roma, Inter, AC Milan, Juventus, Atalanta and Lazio all have two from two. So that means something’s gotta give in this early season meeting of two heavyweights. Last season, both the Old Lady and I Rossoneri fell short of expectations. Juve paid the price for a slow start and Milan faded badly. Former Azzurri boss Luciano Spalletti made a decent fist of making Juventus competitive after Igor Tudor got pushed through the door marked fanne uno and has been rebuilding the squad with a series of loans for second tier former Premier League players. While Pape Sarr looks like a smart addition, Nick Woltemade and Randal Kolo Muani have a lot to prove, although the slower pace of Serie A may suit them better. Milan, meanwhile, have installed Ruben “3-4-3” Amorim in the dugout and have been rewarded with a strong start to the season. Again, maybe Serie A is better sorted to the Portuguese’s stubborn adherence to his doctrine. Nonetheless, both sides have had two relatively straightforward fixtures against sides expected to finish in the bottom half, so neither side can exactly claim to have done anything more than the minimum required of them. Which makes this fixture all the more fascinating. On paper, Milan have a stronger, if ageing, squad. But Spalletti is a wily old so-and-so and will relish the challenge of deflating the early season optimism in Milan. With Napoli away at Inter and Roma hosting Atalana, plus a tricky trip for Lazio to Udinese, there will be a very different look to the table come Monday morning. GA


Whatever you watch, have a great weekend.

Graham, Jan and Gary