The international break is over and that means club football across Europe’s top five leagues will resume this weekend.
There are plenty of big games to look forward to, with Liverpool playing Chelsea in the Premier League and Roma hosting Inter Milan in Serie A to name just two of them. But what else should you be watching out for over the coming days?
Here’s a round-up of the main storylines and upcoming matches to follow across Europe’s biggest leagues and also a surprising stat from each of the divisions.
The return of the Bundesliga finds Bayern Munich facing their first real challenge of the season.
Before the international break, Vincent Kompany’s side had experienced a winless week — drawing with Bayer Leverkusen, losing to Aston Villa, and giving away a 94th-minute equaliser in a 3-3 draw with Eintracht Frankfurt. And, as a result, the clouds have just started to darken.
There were murmurs about Harry Kane, too, and his lack of goals, meaning that Saturday’s game against Sebastian Hoeness’ talented Stuttgart now has an edge. How good are Kompany’s Bayern? This might be the stretch of the campaign where we start to find out.
Kompany giving instructions to his Bayern players (Alex Grimm/Getty Images)
Borussia Dortmund have a broader identity problem. The Nuri Sahin era has teased evolution and some of Dortmund’s attacking football has been exhilaratingly potent, but old flaws remain — see the humiliating 5-1 defeat by Stuttgart and the dispiriting 2-1 loss to Union Berlin two weeks ago — and there is some restlessness.
Quietly, Freiburg have started to become a story. Following Christian Streich was an unenviable task — Streich had been head coach for 13 years — but Julian Schuster has taken that challenge in stride. They sit third and will play RB Leipzig in two weeks’ time.
Union Berlin have been revived by Bo Svensson. Union lost their way technically and ideologically last season, but Svensson has toughened them up in double-quick time.
St Pauli and Holstein Kiel, the newly-promoted sides, are struggling. Pauli cannot score enough goals. Kiel cannot stop conceding them. Around them, ominous organ music is playing in Bochum, who are yet to win, and at Hoffenheim, who have not done so since the opening day of the season. They play each other on Saturday.
And watch out for Eintracht against Leverkusen on Saturday, which cannot fail to be a good game.
Surprising stat: Omar Marmoush is an unlikely candidate for the Torjagerkanone, the trophy awarded to the Bundesliga’s top scorer. Marmoush has eight goals in just five starts for Eintracht Frankfurt and is three clear at the top of the charts.
Sebastian Stafford-Bloor
Barcelona midfielder Gavi (left in top image) looks set to be included in a match squad for the first time in almost a year when the La Liga leaders host Sevilla at Montjuic on Sunday evening, with the 20-year-old having recovered from a serious knee injury suffered with Spain last November.
Teenage winger Lamine Yamal is a doubt after straining his left hamstring on international duty with Spain, but midfielder Fermin Lopez is also close to a return after a month out recovering from a thigh muscle tear.
Their head coach Hansi Flick will not want to take risks as Bayern Munich visit Montjuic on Wednesday evening, and the following Saturday (October 26) brings the first La Liga Clasico of the season at Real Madrid.
Madrid are at Celta Vigo on Saturday evening and coach Carlo Ancelotti’s injury concerns continue. Lucas Vazquez is sure to step in for long-term absentee Dani Carvajal at right-back.
Less certain is the availability of players who missed games with their countries during the international break — including Kylian Mbappe, Vinicius Junior and Eder Militao. Goalkeeper Thibaut Courtois could return having missed Madrid’s last game with a minor adductor problem.
Leganes’ visit to Atletico Madrid’s Estadio Metropolitano on Sunday afternoon is the first game at the stadium since fans throwing objects at Courtois from the stands caused a 20-minute stoppage in the ‘derbi’ against Real Madrid on September 29.
The Spanish authorities ordered a section of the Metropolitano to be closed for the next three games. Atletico have appealed that punishment.
Surprising stat: Giovani Lo Celso has scored 63 per cent of all Real Betis’ La Liga goals so far this season (five out of eight). Since rejoining the club from Tottenham Hotspur in late August, Lo Celso has found the net five times from 16 attempts (in just 459 minutes). Betis’ other players have taken 120 shots in total across their nine La Liga games so far — their only other scorers are Vitor Roque, Marc Bartra and Abde Ezzalzouli (all one goal).
Dermot Corrigan
Ligue 1
For once, Paris Saint-Germain aren’t at the top of Ligue 1. The team ahead of them? Eight-time champions Monaco.
Under the management of former Eintracht Frankfurt boss Adi Hutter, Monaco have actually made a better start to the season than they did in the 2016-17 campaign — the last time they were crowned champions.
Hutter’s squad blends promising youngsters, such as Eliesse Ben Seghir and Lamine Camara, with experienced names like Denis Zakaria and Takumi Minamino. They are also on an unbeaten run that stretches back to April, one which includes beating Barcelona in the Champions League last month.
They could extend their streak on Friday (October 18) if they can avoid defeat against Lille, who themselves recently beat Real Madrid.
Meanwhile, PSG are set to face BlueCo-owned Strasbourg who, after an underwhelming season with Patrick Vieira in charge, currently sit seventh.
New boss, former Hull City manager Liam Rosenior, has implemented a style of play that’s incredibly similar to Enzo Maresca’s at Chelsea. Hardly surprising, given it’s one of the reasons he was hired in the summer.
Strasbourg manager Rosenior (Marcio Machado/Eurasia Sport Images/Getty Images)
Alongside Monaco and PSG, there’s one more side currently undefeated domestically, and that’s Lens. Will Still’s side travel south to Saint-Etienne on Saturday, a game which also could see the return of Kevin Danso.
The centre-back was on the verge of moving to Roma last summer, but the Italian side cancelled the deal after identifying a potential heart issue during his medical. After undergoing tests on the sidelines, the 26-year-old was recently cleared to return to first-team football.
Surprising stat: The average age of Strasbourg’s team so far this season is 21.5 years old. The next youngest in Europe’s top five leagues is Chelsea at 23.4.
Alex Barker
Premier League
The headliner for this weekend’s Premier League action is Sunday’s clash between Liverpool and Chelsea at Anfield, with Arne Slot’s team aiming to extend their lead at the top and Chelsea looking to bounce back from a 1-1 draw with Nottingham Forest.
Trent Alexander-Arnold was among Liverpool’s standouts during the international break. He was involved in England’s embarrassing 2-1 defeat at home to Greece — a side ranked 40 places below the Three Lions in FIFA’s world rankings — but responded convincingly by playing at left-back and scoring a stunning free kick in a 3-1 way win over Finland in Helsinki.
Mohamed Salah also got on the scoresheet in Egypt’s 2-0 win against Mauritania last Friday.
Alexander-Arnold celebrates scoring against Finland (Michael Regan – The FA/The FA via Getty Images)
Liverpool’s Dutch contingent — Virgil van Dijk, Ryan Gravenberch and Cody Gakpo — did not fare so well, losing 1-0 to Germany and drawing 1-1 with Hungary. Rafael van der Vaart, who is developing a reputation as Dutch television’s most outspoken critic of the national team, said he was “ashamed” of the Netherlands’ performance after Monday night’s defeat by Germany.
West Ham United’s trip north to Tottenham Hotspur at 12.30pm (7.30 am ET) on Saturday is another eye-catching fixture. Pressure is heating up on Ange Postecoglou after Spurs dropped a two-goal lead to lose 3-2 to Brighton in their last game.
Meanwhile, Julen Lopetegui will be keen to build on West Ham’s first win of the season with another positive result this weekend. But if you’re a Tottenham or West Ham fan hoping for a convincing victory, history suggests it probably won’t happen here. This is because just two of their last nine meetings have been won by more than one goal.
Elsewhere, Erik ten Hag will be looking to relieve the pressure on him at home to Brentford. And the same applies to Wolverhampton Wanderers’ boss Gary O’Neil, who is still searching for a first league win of the season. His team face… Manchester City on Sunday.
Surprising stat: The league is experiencing its highest share of draws in 25 years (30 per cent).
Elias Burke
Serie A
Napoli will quietly look upon this weekend as a chance to pull away from the chasing back. They are unbeaten since their shock defeat in Verona on the opening day of the campaign and, although far from perfect, have quickly assimilated new players into a throwback 4-3-2-1 reminiscent of Antonio Conte’s early promotion winners, Siena and Bari.
They are away to Empoli on Sunday lunchtime so expect Conte to remind us all of how their opponents were unbeaten until the last game before the international break, not to mention the challenges of digesting pre-match pasta prior to 12.30 kick-offs.
By that time, Conte (right in top image) will already know the outcome of Juventus v Lazio from the night before. Thiago Motta’s side remain unbeaten but they draw too many games and have started to concede after six clean sheets from their first six outings in the league. A 1-1 draw against Cagliari was disappointing last time out, however, it came only a matter of days after the exertion of Juventus’ epic comeback in Leipzig where they were 2-1 down with 10 men and still won 3-2.
Lazio have arguably been the revelation of this season’s Serie A in what most people had down as a transition year for the club from Rome after the departures of Ciro Immobile, Luis Alberto and Felipe Anderson. Level on points with Juventus, Marco Baroni’s outfit could and perhaps should have even more points on the board after taking the lead against Fiorentina and AC Milan.
Lazio manager Baroni (Silvia Lore/Getty Images)
Elsewhere, doesn’t time fly? Roma were revived under new interim coach Daniele De Rossi in the spring. He won his first three games in charge and went in at half-time against Inter 2-1 up in February.
De Rossi, meanwhile, has been on holiday in Iceland since Roma fired him a month ago. His replacement Ivan Juric delivered some initial uplift. Roma won their first game of the season against Udinese but haven’t entirely convinced since then, losing even to Elfsborg in the Europa League.
The ultras plan to continue their protest against the Friedkins’ ownership and will strike for the first 15 minutes against Inter who need to take advantage of Roma’s ups and downs ahead of the Derby d’Italia against Juventus the following weekend.
Surprising stat: Lazio left-back Nuno Tavares’s assists total is only bettered by Bukayo Saka in Europe’s top five leagues.
James Horncastle
(Top photos: Getty Images)
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