League football: 4 matches to watch this weekend

After league football commenced last week, there will be another round of matches once again across top leagues.

In addition to them, the German Bundesliga will start a curtain-raiser with Bayern Leverkusen visiting Borussia Monchengladbach on Friday, the 23rd of August.

Again, teams will be looking ready to stack points as soon as possible before other schedules from other competitions come testing the strength of their squads.

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In this week’s fixtures, some meetings tend to be more entertaining than others.

Let’s take a look at five big matches to watch this weekend.

1. Brighton vs Manchester United – Saturday, 24th August

Brighton opened the season with a convincing win away at Everton last week and sit at the summit of the English Premier League table. Manchester United, on the other side, had to rely on an 86th-minute strike from new arrival Joshua Zirkzee from Bologna to earn a not-too-convincing win when they hosted Fulham. The next meeting with Brighton and Hove Albion will not be easy for Erik Ten Hag’s men knowing that they have always struggled with Brighton. Manchester United have only won once in the last six meetings with Brighton – suffering four losses during these meetings.

2. Aston Villa vs Arsenal – Saturday, 24th August

Mikel Arteta and Arsenal were looking towards preventing Manchester City from winning the Premier League again last season until they visited Aston Villa. If they had won the match, they would have edged Manchester City by a lone point on the top of the table. But Arsenal were outrun by their opposition and fell to a 2-0 loss. Interestingly, Arsenal have failed to win any of the home and away fixture last season against Unai Emery’s men. Perhaps, Saturday could be the day of revenge for Arsenal and Mikel Arteta but Aston Villa would not be easy after they beat West Ham at home last week.

3. Barcelona vs Athletic Bilbao – Saturday, 24th August

Barcelona fans would get to see Nico Williams donning the no.10 shirt for Athletic Bilbao. It then remains to be seen if Williams would show Barcelona what they are missing or not, especially after a frustrating draw at home against Getafe last weekend. Although Barcelona came from behind to win the game versus Valencia, they were far from their best and might have a hard time dealing with Ernesto Valverde’s side. After all, past meetings have revealed that Barcelona have always struggled against the Basque team.

4. Athletico Madrid vs Girona – Sunday, 25th August

Girona blew hot all through last season. Apart from Real Madrid, they beat every opponent that came their way – and did so convincingly. Both teams, last weekend, drew their respective matches – Athletico drawing Villareal and Girona securing a late 1 – 1 draw with Real Betis. Now, both teams will be looking to get back to a winning form, thus, setting up an exciting clash.