Week 22: See what’s on in football this week
Boxing Day fixtures across England certainly offered up a high level of entertainment with a number of high scoring matches. Things started off with a win for Nottingham at Newcastle and ended with a highly entertaining 3-2 comeback win for Manchester United over Aston Villa. Elsewhere there were wins for Liverpool and the top two in the Championship played out a 1-1 draw in the evening.
This upcoming weekend isn’t reserved solely for English football as there is also action from Italy, Portugal, Scotland and Turkey amongst others. The schedule starts on Friday evening and is busiest on Saturday before things quiet down for Sunday and Monday. For the time being there are no matches scheduled from France, Spain or Germany as these leagues take varying midwinter breaks.
The Premier League fixtures have been spread out over much of the week so there are no matches on Friday, meaning fans will have to make do with a full schedule from the Championship instead. In form Southampton start things off with a match against Plymouth at 7 pm with the rest of the matches starting later. Birmingham City put in a terrible performance at home to Stoke and they will be looking to redeem themselves against Bristol whereas leaders Leicester are on the road to Cardiff.
The Premier League joins in on Saturday starting with an early match between Luton and Chelsea, an intriguing match considering the up and down form of both these teams. Later in the day Aston Villa will look to return to winning ways against Burnley and there is a London derby between Crystal Palace and Brentford.
Manchester City face bottom side Sheffield United, Wolves play Everton and the last match of the day is Nottingham, on a high after beating Newcastle, at home to Manchester United, who managed their first win in four league matches. On Sunday Fulham host Arsenal in what should be a tough London battle and Tottenham are home to in form Bournemouth. There is one match lined up on Monday evening and that sees Liverpool take on Newcastle before the final match of the round on Tuesday between West Ham and Brighton.
This weekend we will also be entertained by a full set of fixtures from Italy’s top division starting with Fiorentina versus Torino and Napoli against Monza on Friday. Later in the evening Genoa host leaders Inter and Lazio are at home to Frosinone. Saturday’s action starts early with Atalanta at home to Lecce and later on in the day third placed AC Milan are home to Sassuolo before the final match of the day and the highlight of this set of fixtures, Juventus against AS Roma.
Elsewhere the Turkey Super Cup takes place on Friday evening between old rivals Galatasaray and Fenerbahce, a match that is always likely to be a feisty affair. The top division in Portugal also provides a set of fixtures and the Scottish Premiership joins in on Saturday with an Old Firm battle between Celtic and Rangers being the highlight.
Friday 29/12
Napoli vs Monza
Serie A reigning champions Napoli will be hoping to end the year with a much needed three points but they go into this match in poor form. They have three defeats from their last four matches and have failed to score in any of those losses. Their most recent defeat, to AS Roma, sees them drop out of the European places as their weak title defence continues to go from bad to worse. The fact that they already have four home defeats is a worry and means that they won’t be going into this match with as much confidence as they usually might. Anything like the 4-0 win against these opponents last season will be most welcome.
Monza were one of only four teams to inflict a defeat on Napoli last season and they are currently in similar form to Napoli, having also lost three of their last five matches. The visitors are currently in the bottom half of the table but their away form is very hard to predict, with two wins from their last six on the road.
Napoli are understandably favourites to win here but the unpredictable form of both teams makes it a tough match to call. These two teams have met six times with Napoli winning twice and Monza also winning twice with both winning their home matches last season.
Saturday 30/12
Luton vs Chelsea
Luton managed another positive result last time out as they pulled together to come from behind to beat Sheffield United on Boxing Day. This was the first time they managed two wins in a row since being promoted to the Premier League and fans will be dreaming of a third win against their illustrious opponents.
Their home form has been good and in recent matches they got the better of Newcastle at Kenilworth Road and only narrowly lost to Manchester City. Chelsea will be another challenging opponent but this Luton team is approaching these matches with relish and will look back on the fact they only lost 3-2 to Chelsea in the FA Cup in March.
Chelsea have two wins from their last three league matches and won their last match against Crystal Palace, albeit requiring a late goal to do so. Defence continues to be an issue for them as they have conceded 59 league goals in total in 2023 and they have lost their last four away matches conceding an average of 2.5 goals per game.
Chelsea have a good record when playing their last game of the season, they are unbeaten in this fixture since 2011. Their injury list continues to be a worry though with the likes of James, Chilwell, Sanchez and Fernandez all ruled out.
Luton have two wins from the last ten meetings whereas Chelsea have six but prior to a cup tie in 2021 the last time these two met was back in 1991.
Juventus vs AS Roma
An important match for both teams with both having their own ambitions, the home team aiming to keep up with league leaders Inter at the top of the table. Only four points separate the top two and Juventus have only one defeat so far this season so they will go into this match in a confident mood. Last time out they got the better of Frosinone, a narrow 2-1 away win but it hasn’t all been smooth sailing as they have two draws in their last five matches. Only eleven goals conceded illustrates how strong Juventus are defensively.
AS Roma continue to struggle for consistency this season as they go into this match in sixth spot in Serie A. They managed a solid 2-0 win at home to Napoli last time out and this time they face another tricky opponent on the road. They have three wins from their last five matches but have already lost five times overall this season and have been somewhat frustrating to watch at times. A win here will potentially send them into the top four though, and that is surely the overall target for this season.
Roma won the last meeting between these two but Juventus have the better overall record with five wins in the last ten as compared to three for the team from the capital.
Celtic vs Rangers
An interesting Old Firm derby gets things started on Saturday with Celtic welcoming old rivals Rangers for this early kick off. So far this season is proving to be a competitive one with Rangers only five points behind Celtic but with two games in hand. Therefore, three points for either team here is very important. Celtic suffered two losses in the last five matches, against Hearts and Kilmarnock, so their form isn’t the best currently but they are the leagues top scorers by some distance, with 48 goals, 11 more than Rangers.
Rangers have taken advantage of the blip in form from their rivals and closed the gap at the top by winning the last five matches. Much of their success is based on a very compact defence, they have only conceded eight goals so far this season. A win here for the team in blue would certainly put the pressure on Celtic.
Celtic have certainly had the better of recent head to head meetings, winning six of the last ten. The first meeting of this season, back in September, went the way of Celtic who managed a 1-0 away win and last season Celtic won four of the six meetings between the two including the League Cup final and the Scottish Cup semi final.