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FIVE games to follow this weekend: Key fixtures in LaLiga and the EPL plus Hamburg vs. St. Pauli

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In this weekend preview we summarise the best five games to follow on your match feed. And make a couple of suggestions for matches that you may otherwise miss.

By Bill Biss

🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿 Premier League: Arsenal vs. Bournemouth

Last weekend saw the Premier League title race whittled down to two sides. Arsenal currently hold a one point advantage over Manchester City at the top of the table, but crucially, only have three games to play, compared to City’s four. That therefore makes every game a must-win affair, and for Arsenal that starts with the Saturday lunchtime kick-off against Bournemouth.

The Cherries are currently sat 10th but under the dynamic management of Andoni Iraola they still have a chance of matching, or even bettering their best ever finish of ninth in the English top flight (2016/17), with back-to-back wins over Wolves and Brighton putting them in a strong position to do so.

Arsenal gave their fans a scare last weekend, conceding two second half goals at North London rivals Spurs having raced to a three-goal lead and looked so dominant in the first 45 minutes. They held on for the three points though, and that victory came after a 5-0 drubbing of Chelsea and a 2-0 win over Wolves. Last month’s wobble against Villa and defeat to Bayern in the Champions League quarter-final may become a distant memory if they can hold off the charge of the defending champions.

🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿 Premier League: Manchester City vs. Wolves

Of course, not many pundits are expecting Pep Guardiola’s City side to cede the advantage they appear to have over the course of the run-in but that does only increase the pressure on the club that has won five of the last six titles. They too need to maintain momentum and win every one of their remaining four games due to Arsenal’s superior goal difference (as things stand).

City have the added bonus of knowing exactly how Arsenal have fared when they kick-off their fixture with Wolverhampton Wanderers on Saturday evening. But they’ll need to be vigilant, Wolves are one of only three sides to beat them in the league this season, with the old gold winning 2-1 at Molineux back in September. That was one defeat in a run of three that fell in domestic competition, almost unheard of in recent times for Man City.

And accordingly, they’ve lost just once since – in December – meaning they are now unbeaten in 24 domestic matches. Championship winning form in anyone’s book.

🇩🇪 2. Bundesliga: Hamburg vs. St. Pauli

Friday night’s big Derby game in Germany’s second tier is monumentally important! Hamburg Derbies are always big but this one comes with an added dynamic. St. Pauli, who last played in the Bundesliga back in 2010/11, have the chance to seal promotion back to the top flight on enemy territory. With two further rounds to a play, a victory would do it.

The win would also come with the added bonus (from a brown and white perspective) of pretty much guaranteeing that Hamburg can no longer catch Düsseldorf – who sit third, in the play-off place – and thus consign the fallen giants to yet another season outside of the big time. The 2. Bundesliga is a notoriously hard division to get out of and 11 of the 18 sides currently in the division are previous German champions – as detailed in a piece we published on this topic just today.

Hamburg simply can’t afford to lose this one.

🇪🇸 LaLiga: Real Madrid vs. Cádiz

With Ligue 1, the Bundesliga, and Serie A all tied up, the Spanish league title looks like being the next big league to be decided, and with the right combination of results, that could happen as early as Saturday evening.

There’s still five rounds to play here but Real Madrid hold an 11-point lead over nearest rivals Barcelona. They could extend that to 14 with a win over Cádiz, in a game which takes place at the Bernabéu on Saturday afternoon. Barcelona’s kick-off is a little later, but if they were to lose at early-season pacesetters Girona, they would hand to title to Carlo Ancelotti’s side. A draw would also be enough for Madrid if Barcelona were to slip up.

Ancelotti would, of course, prefer this game not to fall between legs in their Champions League semi-final against Bayern Munich, with the home leg coming up on Tuesday night, but such is life as manager of one of the most decorated clubs in the world.

A win for Barcelona would only delay the inevitable, but will Ancelotti be tempted to rest players against Cádiz in order to focus on the Champions League? And then get back to full strength when the title decider rolls over to next weekend’s trip to Granada? Or will he just want to get it all done as soon as possible?

🇳🇱 Eredivisie: PSV Eindhoven vs. Sparta Rotterdam

Similarly, the Eredivisie title should be confirmed on Sunday afternoon. PSV have been almost unstoppable in the Netherlands this season, not losing a game until late March, and only dropping points in three of their other 30 matches in the league. And at present, they hold a nine point lead in the table.

A win at home to Sparta Rotterdam would seal title number 25 for Peter Bosz’s (almost)all-conquering squad. Chasers Feyenoord play later in the day but even if they won all three of their remaining games and PSV lost all of theirs, soon-to-be Liverpool manager Arne Slot would need his charges to make up a goal difference of 30 in order to steal the title (as it stands).

PSV’s swashbuckling attack are scoring at a rate of 3.3 goals per game this season, with Feyenoord currently going at a rate of 2.6.

If you want to follow any of the games mentioned above, click on the relevant link and tap the bell icon to receive all the key match updates.

Or join us on our Social channels for updates on all the important football going on this weekend – search @FotMob on x, @fotmobapp everywhere else!

Images from IMAGO

FIVE games to follow this weekend: Key fixtures in LaLiga and the EPL plus Hamburg vs. St. Pauli

In this weekend preview we summarise the best five games to follow on your match feed. And make a couple of suggestions for matches that you may otherwise miss.

By Bill Biss

🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿 Premier League: Arsenal vs. Bournemouth

Last weekend saw the Premier League title race whittled down to two sides. Arsenal currently hold a one point advantage over Manchester City at the top of the table, but crucially, only have three games to play, compared to City’s four. That therefore makes every game a must-win affair, and for Arsenal that starts with the Saturday lunchtime kick-off against Bournemouth.

The Cherries are currently sat 10th but under the dynamic management of Andoni Iraola they still have a chance of matching, or even bettering their best ever finish of ninth in the English top flight (2016/17), with back-to-back wins over Wolves and Brighton putting them in a strong position to do so.

Arsenal gave their fans a scare last weekend, conceding two second half goals at North London rivals Spurs having raced to a three-goal lead and looked so dominant in the first 45 minutes. They held on for the three points though, and that victory came after a 5-0 drubbing of Chelsea and a 2-0 win over Wolves. Last month’s wobble against Villa and defeat to Bayern in the Champions League quarter-final may become a distant memory if they can hold off the charge of the defending champions.

🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿 Premier League: Manchester City vs. Wolves

Of course, not many pundits are expecting Pep Guardiola’s City side to cede the advantage they appear to have over the course of the run-in but that does only increase the pressure on the club that has won five of the last six titles. They too need to maintain momentum and win every one of their remaining four games due to Arsenal’s superior goal difference (as things stand).

City have the added bonus of knowing exactly how Arsenal have fared when they kick-off their fixture with Wolverhampton Wanderers on Saturday evening. But they’ll need to be vigilant, Wolves are one of only three sides to beat them in the league this season, with the old gold winning 2-1 at Molineux back in September. That was one defeat in a run of three that fell in domestic competition, almost unheard of in recent times for Man City.

And accordingly, they’ve lost just once since – in December – meaning they are now unbeaten in 24 domestic matches. Championship winning form in anyone’s book.

🇩🇪 2. Bundesliga: Hamburg vs. St. Pauli

Friday night’s big Derby game in Germany’s second tier is monumentally important! Hamburg Derbies are always big but this one comes with an added dynamic. St. Pauli, who last played in the Bundesliga back in 2010/11, have the chance to seal promotion back to the top flight on enemy territory. With two further rounds to a play, a victory would do it.

The win would also come with the added bonus (from a brown and white perspective) of pretty much guaranteeing that Hamburg can no longer catch Düsseldorf – who sit third, in the play-off place – and thus consign the fallen giants to yet another season outside of the big time. The 2. Bundesliga is a notoriously hard division to get out of and 11 of the 18 sides currently in the division are previous German champions – as detailed in a piece we published on this topic just today.

Hamburg simply can’t afford to lose this one.

🇪🇸 LaLiga: Real Madrid vs. Cádiz

With Ligue 1, the Bundesliga, and Serie A all tied up, the Spanish league title looks like being the next big league to be decided, and with the right combination of results, that could happen as early as Saturday evening.

There’s still five rounds to play here but Real Madrid hold an 11-point lead over nearest rivals Barcelona. They could extend that to 14 with a win over Cádiz, in a game which takes place at the Bernabéu on Saturday afternoon. Barcelona’s kick-off is a little later, but if they were to lose at early-season pacesetters Girona, they would hand to title to Carlo Ancelotti’s side. A draw would also be enough for Madrid if Barcelona were to slip up.

Ancelotti would, of course, prefer this game not to fall between legs in their Champions League semi-final against Bayern Munich, with the home leg coming up on Tuesday night, but such is life as manager of one of the most decorated clubs in the world.

A win for Barcelona would only delay the inevitable, but will Ancelotti be tempted to rest players against Cádiz in order to focus on the Champions League? And then get back to full strength when the title decider rolls over to next weekend’s trip to Granada? Or will he just want to get it all done as soon as possible?

🇳🇱 Eredivisie: PSV Eindhoven vs. Sparta Rotterdam

Similarly, the Eredivisie title should be confirmed on Sunday afternoon. PSV have been almost unstoppable in the Netherlands this season, not losing a game until late March, and only dropping points in three of their other 30 matches in the league. And at present, they hold a nine point lead in the table.

A win at home to Sparta Rotterdam would seal title number 25 for Peter Bosz’s (almost)all-conquering squad. Chasers Feyenoord play later in the day but even if they won all three of their remaining games and PSV lost all of theirs, soon-to-be Liverpool manager Arne Slot would need his charges to make up a goal difference of 30 in order to steal the title (as it stands).

PSV’s swashbuckling attack are scoring at a rate of 3.3 goals per game this season, with Feyenoord currently going at a rate of 2.6.

If you want to follow any of the games mentioned above, click on the relevant link and tap the bell icon to receive all the key match updates.

Or join us on our Social channels for updates on all the important football going on this weekend – search @FotMob on x, @fotmobapp everywhere else!

Images from IMAGO