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Barcelona’s return to La Liga play on

Saturday afternoon against newly promoted Real Valladolid will be an attempt to make it four wins from four games this season.

Real Valladolid are in 11th place after taking four points from their first three games of the 2024-25 season, while Hansi Flick’s team leads the table with nine points from their first three games.

It was unexpected when Xavi left Barcelona as head coach at the end of the last campaign, and there is a lot of expectation on new boss Flick to challenge Real Madrid for the championship this year.

All things considered, Flick’s reign has gotten off to an extremely impressive start.

The German has handled a number of off-the-field issues admirably, and he has led the team to three straight La Liga victories over Athletic Bilbao, Rayo Vallecano, and Valencia, collecting nine of the possible nine points.

In two of those three matches, Barcelona has had to fight back from behind. In their most recent match against Rayo Vallecano, for example, Pedri tied the score on the hour, and Dani Olmo sealed the victory in the 82nd minute of the match in Madrid.

Even with their injury issues, Barcelona has had an excellent start to the season and will be hoping to finish first in the standings with 12 points from four games come September’s international break. There is still an awful lot of football left to play.

With Pau Victor and Olmo joining, the team has only signed two players thus far this summer. However, movement is anticipated in the final phases of the transfer window, as the team is expected to recruit a new midfield player after Marc Bernal’s major knee injury sidelines him for the remainder of the campaign.

Real Valladolid, on the other hand, may also be happy with their season debut after gaining four points from their first three games, good for eleventh place in the standings.

Bernal is the most recent of Barcelona’s seven players who are not eligible for selection; the 17-year-old’s ACL injury was verified on Wednesday, and he will now have surgery.

For Barcelona, Christensen, Eric, Ansu Fati, Araujo, Frenkie de Jong, and Gavi are all absent, therefore Flick’s choices for making changes are now restricted.

But after seeing the Spaniard play off the bench against Vallecano, the head coach will be able to give Olmo his full debut. In addition, there may be two more changes made to the team that played at the start of the last game: Lopez will likely replace the injured Bernal, and Martin should be replaced by Balde at the back.

Anuar Tuhami is still not eligible for selection for Real Valladolid, but other than that, the visitors are in great form for this weekend’s match.

After coming off the bench against

Leganes, Juanmi Latasa -who joined from Real Madrid during the summer- is eager to be started, but he may need to exercise patience.

Read Also: Dani Olmo Biography 

When Borussia Dortmund visits Werder

Bremen on Saturday at the Weserstadion, they’ll be hoping for their second straight league victory.

The home team’s first encounter of the

2024-25 Bundesliga season ended in a 2-2 draw with Augsburg on August 24. After one matchweek, they are now ranked eighth, while the visitors, who defeated Eintracht Frankfurt 2-0 on the same day, are in third place with three points.

Felix Agu’s goal in the 12th minute gave the home team the lead in their first league match of the season. However, they let up an equalizer four minutes later, but Elvis Rexhbecaj’s long-range goal was hardly their fault.

Werder Bremen trailed 2-1 at the break after a goal from Samuel Essende in the 35th minute, but a goal from Justin Njinmah in the 58th minute was enough to earn them their first point of the season.

The fact that both teams had 11 shots may indicate that the match was fairly contested, but given that Augsburg only collected 0.15 ×G, the Green-Whites will be dismayed to have lost twice.

Boss Ole Werner will also be anxious that after Njinmah put his side 2-1 in front, Werder Bremen failed to up the tempo and only deserved two more attempts.

The result takes Werner’s team into the next round of Bundesliga still unbeaten in the last six games but they have only

managed to record only one clean sheet in the last 13 league matches.

Coach Nuri Sahin of Borussia Dortmund looks happy during a DFB Pokal First Round football match between Phoenix

Luebeck vs Borussia Dortmund ;

Volksparkstadion on August 17, 2024

The counterpart Borussia Dortmund, they won their match 2-0 in the first league match of Nuri Sahin as a coach but they were really lucky and they appeared to be lucky as well when watching how the hosts could have opened the score.

In the 71st minute, Eintracht Frankfurt’s Fares Chaibi blown a huge chance to put his side ahead by missing an open goal from inside the eighteen-yard area, and it was made to regret a minute later when the young striker Jamie Bynoe-Gittens put Dortmund ahead.

Sahin’s team dominated the match with 70% possession of the ball and was also able to create 20 attempts at goal of which 13 were rated as from inside the penaltyarea.

In their match against Eintracht Frankfurt,

BVB with their new tactics and formations seemed more aggressive in the beginning of the season especially when compared to their style of play under their former coach

Edin Terzic, where they completed 646 accurate passes which is way higher than their league average of 481. 6 last term.

The large portion of their points were obtained during the 2023-24 season where

Dortmund got only 30 out of their possible 63 points outside of their home ground bettered only by Stuttgart and Bayer Leverkusen who are division champions.

With that being said, Sahin’s side have lost their last two Bundesliga away games but before that they did triumph in six and drew in four of the previous ten away fixtures.

At the Emirates Stadium on Saturday

afternoon, Arsenal and Brighton & Hove Albion will compete for the top place in the Premier League table, putting their perfect records on the line.

Last Saturday, the Gunners defeated

Manchester United 2-0 in the West

Midlands, ending their hoodoo against Aston Villa, while the Seagulls upset

Manchester United by winning two goals to one.

Unai Emery, the manager of Aston Villa, has a history of getting back at Arsenal since he was fired in 2019. This includes eliminating the Gunners from the 2020-21 Europa League semifinals with Villarreal and winning both of the Premier League titles last season.

Due to important interventions at both ends on the field, Arsenal remain one of the four teams to seven harvest six points out of six in the offer for the 2024-25 English Premiership season alongside Brighton &

Hove Albion, Liverpool and Manchester City that they will be facing consecutively.

The last eight top-flight matches that the Gunners have played have all been won and should Arteta help guide Arsenal to another victory on Saturday, they will have matched a nine-game Premier League winning streak set by the ‘Invincibles’ team in the 2003/2004 season.

Some of Arteta’s achievements in his early days into the management has been described in worthwhile laud, but his counterpart this weekend is the former 18 year old Fabian Hurzeler who is already marking his nascent credentials on the South Coast.

Brighton continued their domestic campaign from a 3-0 victory over a makeshift Everton team to slice through wet and windy South Coast weather to dump Erik ten Hag’s Man United out at the Amex, only Welbeck and Joao Pedro made differed Amad Diallo’s consolation goal.

The Seagulls were still made to sweat in the closing stage as offside Joshua Zirkzee touchline helped Aleiandro Garnacho’s effort over the line, but Saturday’s visitors were fully deserving of the second competitive victory on the trot under Hurzeler, who also led the team to a 4-0 mauling of Crawley Town in the EFL Cup on Wednesday.

Having boasted a perfect record in their last match against Oxford United under

Hurzeler, the 31-year-old is now the man in charge of writing a new success story for the Brighton, to break a capital jinx that haunted the Seagulls last season, as they struggled to find a way to log any victory over seven top-flight games on their travels to the London clubs in the following 2023-24 season.

However, the last thumping the Gunners managed to accomplish at the capital was a

3-0 Emirates rout in May 2023; still,

Arteta’s squad managed to give as good as they received against the Seagulls last season, including a 3-0 away romp.

But the Spaniard’s desire to exact revenge for his dismissal vanished last Saturday, as Leandro Trossard’s clinical finish and Thomas Party’s typical 20-yard goal (although with one or two assists from Emiliano Martinez) helped the Gunners to a victory that lifted spirits.

Although Trossard and Party’s goals were significant, David Raya’s stop of Ollie Watkins’ close-range header inside the Arsenal area was maybe the game-changing moment. It will undoubtedly go down in history as one of the greatest in Premier League history.

Gabriel Jesus was absent from the Villa

Park matchday squad and is anticipated to miss Saturday’s match as well, despite pregame claims that he had a groin injury during training. It is not thought to be a major injury, though.

However, Jesus is added to Arsenal’s list of injured players for the Seagulls match.

Takehiro Tomiyasu (knee) and Kieran

Tierney (hamstring) are also out. Mikel Merino, who was finally confirmed to be acquired from Real Sociedad this week after weeks of discussions, may make his debut there.

After the game, Hurzeler expressed his instant pessimism over ‘Riley’s diagnosis.

As a result, the former Celtic player will undoubtedly join Solly March (knee) on the Emirates sidelines, and it will be necessary to evaluate Brajan Gruda and Mats Wieffer’s injuries.

After suffering an ankle injury in midweek, Evan Ferguson returned to the bench.

However, Welbeck, a former player for Arsenal, is expected to score in three straight Premier League games for the first time in ten years, so it is doubtful that the 19-year-old would replace him.

Turkish Euro 2024 star Ferdi Kadioglu, who was previously connected to a transfer to the Emirates Stadium, may also be in line for a left-back debut.

In the rematch of their Europa Conference

League playoff match on Thursday, Chelsea will want to win in Switzerland against Servette, one week after winning the first leg at Stamford Bridge.

The West Londoners won their first meeting on home turf 2-0, and they take that two-goal lead into Stade de Geneve.

Chelsea’s first-leg victory over the newly-expanded 2024-25 Conference League was secured by goals from Christopher Nkunku and Noni Madueke in the second half, capping a season spent away from Europe.

After Nkunku’s coolly converted penalty, Madueke, a replacement, scored a lovely goal three days later. It was Madueke’s first senior career hat-trick, and it helped Chelsea defeat Wolverhampton Wanderers 6-2 in the Premier League on Sunday.

Wolves’ Matheus Cunha and Jorgen Strand

Larsen balanced out goals from Nicolas

Jackson and Cole Palmer in the first half, but Chelsea dominated the second half and won all three points thanks to Madueke’s treble (all assisted by Palmer) and a late goal from new acquisition Joao Felix.

After the game, an enthusiastic Enzo Maresca-now off to a poor start as a Premier League manager -admitted that Chelsea’s attacking showing in the second half is how his team “intends” to play moving forward. 

However, the Italian also reaffirmed that he needs time to develop players and create a Blues team that can contend for major titles.

Chelsea needs only a draw against Servette to advance on aggregate and guarantee their spot in the hat for Friday’s

Conference League draw, as they have won their past three away games-two of which came from the previous season.

Despite having seven more shots and twice as many corners as Chelsea in the first leg of the match last week, Servette was unable to sustain a lead for long stretches of the match and now faces a difficult road to the Conference League for a second straight year.

Although head coach Thomas Haberli has acknowledged that a two-goal deficit is

“quite a lot” to overcome against a team of Chelsea’s caliber, he has refused to give up hope of pulling off an incredible upset in Geneva. Haberli lamented the wasted opportunities his team had at Stamford Bridge, especially in the second half.

Servette, who won the Swiss Cup and finished third in the Swiss Super League the previous season, had a full week off from domestic play last weekend, giving them time to recover and be ready for Thursday’s second leg.

The Maroons have struggled to produce positive results; they have only won one of their last six competitive games across all competitions this month. Their two losses have come at home, to Basel 6-0 in the top division and Braga 2-1 in the second leg of the Europa League third qualifying round.

Servette had only faced two English teams in European competition before their first-leg matchup with Chelsea. They had defeated Derby Country 6-2 on aggregate three years later in the UEFA Cup, and had lost 3-2 on aggregate to Liverpool in the

1971-72 Cup Winners’ Cup, despite winning the first leg 2-1.

In the second round of the EFL Cup, Wolverhampton Wanderers will play

Burnley at the Molineux Stadium on Wednesday night. The team is still looking for 

their first victory of the 2024-25 campaign.

The visitors have won two and lost one of their first three Championship games, while the hosts have lost both of their opening two games in the current Premier League season.

Following their first return to the top league since 2011-12, Wolves had a mixed experience in the six seasons following their promotion as Championship winners to the Premier League in 2017-18.

They performed admirably in their first two seasons back in the top division of English football, placing seventh in 2018-19 and

2019-20, respectively, but they haven’t been able to duplicate that performance in the following years.

In the years that have passed, Wolves have placed 13th, 10th, engaged in a relegation struggle in 2022-23, finishing barely seven points above the drop zone in 13th, and now 14th.

After Julen Lopetegui left the team due to financial difficulties, Gary O’Neil took over just a few days before the 2023-24 season began, and as the team was sitting in 10th place on matchday 29, he looked poised to lead them to a comfortable top-half finish.

O’Neil is hoping for a top-half finish this year for the first time since 2021-22 after Wolves had a very bad conclusion to the season, losing eight of their last 12 games and dropping to 14th in the standings.

Wolves’ 2024-25 campaign got off to a less than ideal start when they lost 2-0 to Arsenal in their first game and then humiliatingly 6-2 to Chelsea at home.

O’Neil will be eager for his team to defeat Burnley, whom Wolves have only defeated once in the previous nine meetings, in order to record their first victory of the new season following those two outcomes.

With 16 players having left the club already this transfer window and rumors of additional departures before the deadline, Burnley is in a bad situation going into this match. Scott Parker’s team has a worrisome lack of depth in their squad.

After defeating Luton Town 4-1 and Cardiff

City 5-0 in Parker’s first two games as manager, Burnley’s unbeaten start to the Championship season came to an end against Sunderland. The team’s goal is to return to the Premier League following their relegation from previous year.

Parker will be hopeful that Burnley can resolve their depth concerns in the team over the remaining days of the transfer window. The new manager’s goal is to get back to winning ways on Wednesday when Burnley takes on Wolves.

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In their La Liga match on Wednesday, Atletico Madrid will try to keep their perfect start to the season going when they welcome Espanyol.

The newly promoted guests, who started the campaign with consecutive losses, are eager to start performing.

Atletico Madrid made a number of noteworthy additions during the summer transfer window, raising the possibility that they will launch a genuine title push.

Diego Simeone’s offensive options have been bolstered by the addition of Julian Alvarez and Alexander Sorloth, while Robin Le Normand and Conor Gallagher have reinforced the defense and midfield, respectively.

After adding players to its roster, Atleti has begun the new season with four points from their first two games.

Madrid overcame two deficits to get a point against Villarreal at the Estadio de la

Ceramica. Then, on Sunday, they defeated Girona 3-0 at home with to a commanding performance by Antoine Griezmann, Marcos Llorente, and Koke.

Now that they are facing Espanyol for the first time since their thrilling 3-3 tie in May 2023, Atleti will be aiming to make it six games without a loss in their head-to-head record.

Espanyol only played in the second division for a single season before making their first-ever return to La Liga after winning the Segunda Division playoffs.

Sadly, the Periquitos started the season without the services of Martin Braithwaite, the leading scorer in the Segunda Division the previous year, who left when his contract expired and signed a free transfer to Gremio.

Espanyol’s lack of Braithwaite has been felt in their opening two games as the recently promoted team has failed to generate much of a goal threat in back-to-back 1-0 losses.

Espanyol only played in the second division for a single season before making their first-ever return to La Liga after winning the Segunda Division playoffs.

Sadly, the Periquitos started the season without the services of Martin Braithwaite, the leading scorer in the Segunda Division the previous year, who left when his contract expired and signed a free transfer to Gremio.

Espanyol’s lack of Braithwaite has been felt in their opening two games as the recently promoted team has failed to generate much of a goal threat in back-to-back 1-0 losses.

After losing narrowly to Real Valladolid, another newly promoted team, in their first game, Take Kubo of Real Sociedad scored the game’s winning goal in the 80th minute to send Espanyol to defeat in their first home game of the year.

The fact that Manolo Gonzalez’s team played to a 1-1 draw in their most recent away match with Atleti in November 2022 may serve as some motivation as they look to secure their first points of the season on

Wednesday when they go to the Metropolitano.