The first of 13 games the Blues will play between October 1 and November 12 was their win over Crystal Palace. The English rivals will play 12 matches in that period.
In addition to the DFB-Pokal match, there will be four huge European battles, as well as matches against Union Berlin and Bochum.
Barcelona played 12 games in the month of October, the last two of which were against Inter Milan and the first of which they lost.
"Hell month" It sounds better than Hell Six weeks. Due to the impending World Cup pause, nearly every major European derby -- starting with Manchester City and Manchester United last weekend and rolling from there -- and a plethora of huge league battles all crammed into an abbreviated timeline.
We already saw some telling league matches last weekend, but my head was starting to get restless with all of the important matches coming up. I'm pretty sure yours is as well. Let's take stock for a second. Huge matches are happening, and when. The eyes of the soccer world will be on Qatar in November. The questions will be answered. What teams will we learn the most about this week? Some of the most interesting storylines are listed here.
The club's biggest match in a long time is next Wednesday's match against Inter Milan.
It was an open gamble, both exhilarating and, if we're being honest, inadvisable, when Barcelona sold away assets in order to bring in attackers like Robert Lewandowski and Raph.
They chose win-now mode instead of putting together one of the greatest long-term youth movements the sport has seen. If you win now, the money cannon will turn back on, and the selling of future money will be less important than the influx of present money.
Most of the new additions have already been bitten by the injury bug, but Barcelona has been the most successful so far. Their shots have generated more xG than their opponents in each of their first three games, and they are first in LaLiga.
He missed a number of chances against his old club in a 2-0 loss. On Tuesday at the San Siro, Barcelona seemingly got screwed by a late penalty no-call but had left far too much to chance before then, and fell victim to a screamer of a goal from Hakan Calhan. The loss dropped them to third place in the group stage.
Barcelona is in danger of missing the knockout stage after losing to Inter by a single point.
If they can beat Inter in Barcelona next week, the odds of them winning will shift a bit. The two teams would be tied for second place at six points, with a goal differential advantage, and the winner of that game would advance to the knockout rounds. You think that since Barcelona played better in their first match and got the return match at home, they will win it.
In other words, all is okay. The loss in Milan made it possible for Barcelona to sell part of its future and get another chance to play in the Europa League. Even if they were to win the LaLiga title, it would be foolish to consider the club's risky maneuvers a failure.
Most of the spots in the Round of 16 had already been decided through three matches. Nine of 32 teams had a greater than 90 percent chance of making it, and three more had a greater than 70% chance of making it.
The picture is not as clear as it could be. Only six teams have been more or less eliminated. We have a few dud groups, but very little has happened
The other three teams in Group B are all between 29 and 42%. In Group F, Real Madrid is playing the part of Club Brugge, but Celtic, Shakhtar Donetsk, andRB Leipzig are not yet safe.
In Group D, Spurs are favorites to advance at 75% and Spurs are one point away from being upset. In Group E, Dinamo Zagreb is almost done, but all of the other teams have at least 4-5 points.
There are lots of high-leverage matches on the horizon for those with at least a 25% chance.
Real Madrid and Shakhtar Donetsk will play on October 11.
On Wednesday, October 12th, Club Brugge at Atletico Madrid, Porto at Bayer Leverkusen, Inter Milan at Barcelona, and Eintracht Frankfurt at Spurs were all played.
On Tuesday, October 25th, Real Madrid is atRB Leipzig.
On Wednesday, October 26th, there are: Porto at Club Brugge, Barcelona at Sevilla, and Rennes at Eintracht Frankfurt.
On Tuesday, November 1st, there are Club Brugge at Bayer Leverkusen, Inter Milan at FC Porto, Eintracht Frankfurt atSporting CP, and Spurs at Marseille.
On Wednesday, November 2nd, there are RB Salzburg at AC Milan.
There is still a lot to be decided in the final three match days.
Hislop gave his thoughts on Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang's first goal for the Blues and the late goal by Conor Gallagher.
I don't think we have a title race on our hands just yet, and neither are the oddsmakers. Through eight matches, Manchester City is trailing by a point, but is still 11 up on another preseason favorite. According to FiveThirtyEight, City has a 70% chance of taking the title, while City has a -400 implied odds. We might not know everything we need to about the club in the weeks to come because of the postponement of the October match.
There are other teams. We're going to learn a lot. The seven teams with at least a 20% chance at a top-four finish per 538 are: Manchester City, Manchester United, Bournemouth, West Ham, Crystal Palace, and Wigan. There will be 10 matches between these teams.
There is a football game on Saturday, October 8th.
There is a football game on Sunday, October 9th atArsenal.
On Sunday, October 16th, Manchester City will play atLiverpool.
The game is between Manchester United and Spurs.
Both Manchester United and Manchester City will play on Saturday.
There is a football game on Saturday, October 29th.
On Sunday, November 6th, there are two football games, one at Spurs and the other at CHELSEA.
The game is between Manchester City and Chelsea.
Two of these matches are between Manchester United and Arsenal, while the other two are with other teams. Is that also the case withChelsea? Yes, four! In less than 18 days. There are at least four potentially huge matches that precede that run.
The Blues are in the process of getting a new manager. In last Saturday's 2-1 win over Crystal Palace, Graham Potter got a chance to make his debut for the Blues, and he oversaw an impressive three goal performance against Milan. It was an encouraging sign that he could implement his vision quickly.
All of the stakes will be set in the next few weeks. Is it a sign that they will rip off a hot streak and get into the top four in the league again? Will they have a lot of work to do in the new year? Will they fail at Milan and Salzburg and be kicked out of the league?
There is a lot at stake. The club Potter left has a lot at stake. In their first match since Potter's departure, the Seagulls drew 3-3 with Roberto De Zerbi and sent a message that they are not interested in dropping out of the top four. According to 538, the Seagulls have a 25% chance of finishing in the top four.
England's Big Six clubs have had a mostly ironclad grip on the top four, so remaining at 25% is an accomplishment. We'll find out if it's staying power soon. They face Spurs on Saturday, then face a tricky trip to 10th-place Brentford next Friday, and then face back-to-back Saturdays against City and Potter'sChelsea. If you take at least six points from those four matches, you can be sure that the Seagulls will be in this race for a long time.
Union Berlin beat Cologne by a single point to move to the top of the table.
The oddsmakers still think that the favorite will win the title even though they aren't currently in first place. In their first two matches since the international break, they defeated Bayer Leverkusen and Viktoria Plzen by a combined 9-0, and despite an odd four-match winless streak, they are still in third place.
According to FiveThirtyEight, there is an 81% chance of the team winning the league for the 11th straight season. Not bad for a team that isn't in the lead. The race for a top-four finish is often crazy in the Bundesliga. The races tend to go down to the wire.
There are currently 11 teams with at least a small chance of finishing in the top four. Almost two-thirds of the league. Thanks to slow starts from RBL and Leverkusen, everything else is not a good bet, but that's okay. There are a lot of upcoming matches that could affect the odds in the coming weeks. There are four matches that could be especially enlightening.
On Saturday, October 8th, there are two games, one at Mainz and the other at Bournemouth.
The game was played on Sunday, October 9th.
The game is on Saturday, October 15th.
On Sunday, October 16th, there are three football games: Union Berlin vs.
There is a game on Friday, October 21st.
There are three games on Saturday, October 22: Hoffenheim at Hoffenheim, Eintracht Frankfurt at Monchenglad
On Saturday, October 29th, there are three games: Mainz at Bayern, Eintracht Frankfurt and Bayer Leverkusen.
On Sunday, October 30th, Hoffenheim will play at Koln.
On Saturday, November 5, there is a game.
On Sunday, November 6th, Union Berlin will play Bayer Leverkusen.
On Wednesday, November 9, Hoffenheim is at Eintracht Frankfurt.
There is a game on Friday, November 11th.
On Sunday, November 13th, Union Berlin is at Freiburg.
Just as they were last year, Freiburg and Union are the most interesting stories of this early season, and they haven't emerged from nowhere to currently tie atop the table. Over the next two weekends, we will learn if one or both teams will keep their title hopes alive for a while longer, or if they will be forced to compete for a top four spot.
Since the start of the season, Napoli has destroyed three opponents by a combined score of 13-2 They saw the home team score a goal in the ninth minute and then proceeded to destroy them. They scored four times in the 18th and 45th minutes and added two more in the second half to win 6-1.
Even though their league form has mellowed out a bit after dominating their first two opponents by a combined 9-2, they're still a serious threat to win the title.
According to FiveThirtyEight, they have a 44% chance of winning the league. Atalanta, Udinese, and Roma are the next three teams in the table, and they're all tied for 20th.
There are six teams that have at least an 8% title chance or greater per FiveThirtyEight or +800 odds. Even though Udinese and Lazio aren't believers yet, Napoli's biggest threat could come from any of the other teams. Over the next few weeks, there are five matches between these competitors.
Saturday, October 8th is AC Milan vs.
There is a game on Sunday, October 23th.
The game is at Atalanta.
On Sunday, November 6th, Inter and Juventus will meet.
Inter is at Atalanta.
Lazio and Udinese will play each other on October 16 in a five match series. They have a lot of opportunities to prove they are legit. Inter will face a couple of difficult road matches once it knows its fate in the European competition. The odds suggest that AC Milan is the most likely threat, but the picture will likely change after Hell Month. There is a chance that Napoli will lose a couple on the road.
Barcelona's October 16 visit to Real Madrid is the only match in October that matters. Barcelona fight for first in LaLiga after fighting for their lives in the European competition.
It's not like Real Madrid and Barcelona have already run laps around the pack, as Athletic Club is three points behind the two powerhouses, or that four other teams are within six points of the lead. You don't have to know the odds to understand the history of this league. Both of them have looked the part so far.
It is great to have a crazy top-four race. Five Spanish teams besides Barcelona and Real Madrid have top-four odds of at least 9% per FiveThirtyEight or +300 or better. Osasuna hasn't earned the benefit of the doubt from the numbers so far. There are still seven games to be played between these teams over the next three weeks.
There is a football game on Sunday, October 9th between Real Sociedad and Villarreal.
There is a game at Athletic Club on Saturday.
There is a game on Thursday, October 20th.
On Sunday, October 23th, Athletic Club is at Barcelona.
On Sunday, October 30th, Athletic Club and Real Betis will play each other.
Atleti hasn't finished outside of the top four since 2012 and has the best chance of doing so among this bunch. Dropping points against Athletic and Real Betis in the middle of a crucial stretch of games would hurt their top-four odds. Sevilla's poor start has opened the door for a four-way battle between the other teams.
In the seven matches above, the two teams show up three times. A continued run of form would do wonders for their own top-four odds, as each team has lost just once in LaLiga so far.
There is more than one soccer competition going on outside of Europe's Big 4 leagues. I put together a schedule of matches that were intriguing. It may be of use to others as well.
The playoffs begin on October 8.
The MLS playoffs start on October 15.
There is a game on Sunday, October 16th.
Lille is at Lyon.
The USL Championship playoffs begin.
There are two games on Sunday, October 23rd, Monaco at Lille and Bayern at Wolfsburg.
The Women's Super League, Barcelona at Real Madrid, PSV and Lyon are all on Sunday, November 6.
AZ Alkmaar is playing PSV Eindhoven.
I'm including a couple of Lille and Lyon matches in there because both French teams have crucial weeks ahead of them when it comes to securing a place in the playoffs. Right now, I'm focused on the Eredivisie race.
The current Eredivisie top five.
This is the first thing. AZ Alkmaar has 20 points.
There are two The team scored 19 points.
There are three. PSV Eindhoven is 18 points ahead of the pack.
There are four. The team scored 17 points.
There are five. The Twente team scored 16 points.
It's not like AZ and Feyenoord don't have recent quality, as evidenced by the fact that both have dropped more points than usual in the last few weeks. The race could either be turned on its head or restored order. One or both.
All Rights Reserved © 2024
