A weekend of big matches – Preview
Following the conclusion of the CL and EL league phase matches in midweek, our focus now switches to another busy weekend of domestic league action. Most of the more intriguing matches are taking place on Sunday this time around but there are the usual choices available on Friday evening from Germany, France, Italy and Spain.
Highlights on Saturday include a midlands derby in England between Wolves and Aston Villa and leaders Liverpool’s trip to take on Bournemouth. PSG are on the road to Brest with the other matches from France’s top division involving Monaco and Lille. Bayern Munich play in the mid-afternoon slot against Holstein Kiel on Saturday afternoon with Dortmund and Leipzig amongst the other teams in action. There are four Serie A matches on Saturday with the most interesting tie being Atalanta’s attempt to keep up with the top two in the league, this time they take on Torino at home. Both Madrid sides are in action on Saturday with Atlético at home to Mallorca and Real away at Espanyol.
There are three matches from the PL on Sunday with Tottenham desperate to get back to winning ways as they head to Brentford. Manchester United will be hoping to back up their win last week with another three points, this time at home to Crystal Palace. The game of the weekend is Arsenal versus Manchester City, which takes place in the late afternoon slot. The top Sunday match from France is Marseille against Lyon whilst over in the Bundesliga both Leverkusen and Eintracht Frankfurt are in action. There are two top matches scheduled on Sunday in Serie A, starting with a Milan derby and followed by AS Roma versus Napoli. Barcelona are among the teams taking to the field on Sunday in Spain.
The highlight on Monday is the Monday Night Football offering from the PL which is a London derby between Chelsea and West Ham. There are also matches from Italy, Spain, Portugal and Türkiye to round off the weekend.
Atlético Madrid vs Mallorca
Metropolitano Stadium, Saturday @ 18:30
After an excellent run in the league, Atlético’s last two results didn’t go their way as they fell to a loss at the hands of Leganes and followed that up with a draw against Villarreal. They managed a comfortable midweek win in the CL, getting the better of Salzburg to book their place in the last sixteen. They return to the Metropolitano to take on Mallorca on Saturday afternoon having won their previous six matches at home before drawing last weekend against Villarreal. Atlético have won the last four head to head meetings between these two. Antoine Griezmann is the man to watch as he has been involved in five goals in his last eight La Liga matches against Mallorca and scored twice in midweek.
Mallorca have had a very slow start to this calendar year, they are yet to score in 2025, losing all four of their matches. Despite their poor form, they are still in sixth place and will know that if they can get back on track they still stand a good chance of finishing the season in a European place. Manager Jagoba Arrasate has a poor record against Atlético, winning only one of thirteen meetings and all the stats indicate that it will be a surprise if Mallorca get something from this encounter. They are the second lowest scorers in the top half of the La Liga table with only nineteen goals scored in the league and have the worst goal difference in the top half, currently at minus seven.
Atlético have won six of the last ten meetings with Mallorca winning three. The last three meetings were all 1-0 wins for Atlético.
Arsenal vs Manchester City
Emirates Stadium, Sunday @ 17:30
This PL match is a very important clash in the battle for the title and the top four takes place on Sunday afternoon. Arsenal know they cannot afford more slip-ups as they chase down a Liverpool side who continue to set the pace at the top of the league. This will be a tough match though, as Manchester City look a lot more like themselves of late and they will be wanting to ensure a top four finish at least this season. Both these two managed midweek CL wins, over Girona and Club Brugge respectively and they go into this match with almost identical form. Arsenal have the joint best defensive record in the league with only 21 goals conceded.
Manchester City need every point they can get as they are locked in a battle for fourth spot with Newcastle, Chelsea and Bournemouth only a single point behind. Nine goals in their last two league matches seems to indicate that things are getting back to normal, but they did still struggle to get through from the CL league phase and needed a big second half effort to overcome Club Brugge. Expect to see some of the new arrivals back in the starting line up for this match as they were ineligible to play in Europe.
It ended in a 2-2 draw between these two earlier this season. Overall City have the better recent record with six wins whereas Arsenal only have two.
AC Milan vs Inter
San Siro, Sunday @ 18:00
One of the highlights of the Serie A season is always the Milan derby and this is the third meeting between the two this season. AC Milan have the advantage so far this season with a league win and a Supercoppa win and their form has been good in recent weeks. They did lose in midweek to Dinamo Zagreb in the CL, but prior to that their only defeat in the last ten matches was a 2-0 loss at the hands of Juventus. Goalscoring continues to be an issue, only Torino have scored less than them in the top ten with Pulisic being their leading scorer in the league with only six goals.
Inter have found goals far easier to come by and they have Thuram and Martinez both in form and scoring plenty of goals in the league and in Europe. They are far and away the leading scorers in the league with 55 so far and will go top of the table if they win their game in hand. Last weekend they registered an impressive 4-0 away win over Lecce and they go into this match as favourites to pick up all three points.
AC Milan have won three of the last ten with Inter winning the other seven, so there are no draws in recent clashes.
AS Roma vs Napoli
Stadio Olimpico, Sunday @ 20:45
Napoli managed a hard-fought win over Juventus last weekend to return to the top of the table, three points ahead of nearest rivals Inter, albeit having played a game more. This weekend they face another tricky task as they head to the capital to take on AS Roma who are in good form, with three wins in their last five matches. The last league defeat for the home side was back on the 15th December and they have certainly improved since the arrival of Claudio Ranieri. AS Roma’s home record is the fourth best in the league, so they will be optimistic about getting something out of this encounter.
Napoli have the joint best away record in the league with 26 points from eleven matches, so a trip to Rome will not worry them. They are favourites to win this match and they are on a seven match winning run with their last defeat incidentally coming in Rome against Lazio in early December. This match is the third in a tricky run which has seen them notch up wins against Atalanta and Juventus to really reignite their charge for the title.
AS Roma have only won one of the last ten meetings whereas Napoli have won six of the last ten.
Chelsea vs West Ham
Stamford Bridge, Monday @ 21:00
The final match of the “weekend” from England is a London derby which sees Graham Potter take his West Ham side back to his previous club, Chelsea. The home side will be firm favourites to win, although their recent record hasn’t been the best. They only have two wins from their last five and one of those was an FA Cup win over Morecambe. Last time out they were soundly beaten by Man City and will be hoping to bounce back to winning ways here. Chelsea have slipped down the league since Christmas, when they were Liverpool’s closest challengers at one point. On the plus side, they are the third highest scorers in the league with 45 goals to their name so far.
West Ham have struggled for consistency all season and find themselves in fourteenth place going into this match. New manager Graham Potter will have been pleased by the point gained at Aston Villa last weekend and will be aware that his team face another tough away day this time round. Fans will soon be demanding that the club push up the table but to do so they will need to sort out their defence, only Leicester City and the bottom three teams have conceded more goals than West Ham this season.
Chelsea won this fixture 5-0 last season and have six wins from the last ten meetings.
Last Updated: 31.01.2025
