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Arsenal vs. Man United, Villarreal vs. Madrid, and the FotMob TV schedule
The weekly newsletter full to the brim with top match previews
There’s scores to settle all across Europe’s top leagues this weekend, and some at lower levels too. As usual, we’ve tried to cover it all, add a few interesting tidbits, and provide a useful tip from the app to keep you on top of your game.
Arsenal vs. Man United
Hostilities will be renewed between two of the Premier League’s most famous names as Manchester United head to the Emirates to face Arsenal on Sunday.
The Gunners are sitting pretty at the top of the table, safe with their seven point advantage, their watertight defence, and their near-infamous knack for scoring from set pieces.
Their second goal against Inter in the 3-1 Champions League win during the week was the 19th to have come from an Arsenal corner in all competitions this season. The first came back on the opening weekend of the Premier League, at Old Trafford, when Riccardo Calafiori’s early header decided the last meeting between these two old rivals.
Manchester United have been through a lot since then, and while Arsenal’s campaign has been near-faultless, United fans may finally now be feeling optimistic for the first time since that Sunday in August.
Michael Carrick’s interim spell in the dugout couldn’t have started much better. And if he can follow a comfortable 2-0 win over Manchester City by ending Arsenal’s current 12-game unbeaten run, the former United midfielder will find himself among the front-runners for the permanent job whenever that decision needs to be taken by the Old Trafford hierarchy.
Villarreal vs. Real Madrid
Álvaro Arbeloa has barely gotten his feet under the desk in the head coaches’ office at the Bernabéu and he’s already facing a potentially pivotal game in LaLiga.
Having overseen games in three different competitions in his first three outings, Arbeloa now takes his team to Villarreal, the side sat third in the league - albeit one that are seven points worse off than Los Blancos going in to the weekend.
The main talking point is that Madrid could take over at the top of the table should they win. Thanks to Barcelona’ slip up last weekend, the gap between the two rivals is down to one point. If Arbeloa can seize the initiative here, it’ll go some way to alleviate the heat coming from a deharmonised fanbase in the wake of Xabi Alonso’s recent dismissal.
A repeat of the midweek performance put in by Madrid’s star players against Monaco in the Champions League would also help. We gave Vinícius Júnior a 9.4 FotMob rating for his goal and two assists while Kylian Mbappé got a 9.0 after his brace, and even Jude Bellingham was back on the scoresheet.
Ronaldinho once described the atmosphere at Fratton Park as the best in World football. But the Brazilian great only visited as part of an AC Milan side that were in Portsmouth for a UEFA Cup game back in 2008. He might have a different opinion if he was pulling on a Saints shirt and stepping out in to the febrile atmosphere of a South Coast Derby.
Portsmouth and Southampton played out a goalless draw at St. Mary’s back in September. But at Portsmouth, the heated nature of this rivalry will be felt even more keenly. The home crowd have been waiting a long time for this.
Back in the second tier for only a second season since back-to-back relegations in 2012 and 2013 saw them fall as far as League Two, Pompey are still trying to reestablish themselves at this level. Southampton have yo-yoed between the Premier League and the Championship but have regularly played at a higher level than their Hampshire neighbours in the recent past.
Seven points and six places (Saints are 15th, Pompey 21st) separate the sides ahead of the weekend, and with Portsmouth in dire need of a win to put some distance between themselves and the relegation zone, you can expect them to be going all out for the local bragging rights.
Marseille vs. Lens
On Saturday night, we’ll see first take on third in Ligue 1, or possibly second vs. third depending on how defending champions PSG get on in their game later today.
For now, Lens remain the league’s surprise leaders. Although, we should probably stop calling them that, considering they’ve now won their last eight games straight in the league and conceded just three goals during that run. Pierre Sage’s team are there on merit — they work hard, they’re resilient, and their underlying numbers are good. They are the best team on the road, they have the meanest defence in the division and have created the most big chances (72) and the highest xG (34.8).
Roberto De Zerbi does, however, have Marseille playing in an even more attacking manner. L’OM have outscored everyone, averaging 2.3 goals per game and while that has only earned them 35 points to Lens’ 43 you can never write them off at the Vélodrome.
In the not too distant past, Marítimao were a top flight stalwart in Portuguese football, an island oddity that many football fans may have been familiar with from their exploits in Portugal’s domestic cups, and even the Europa League, where they faced off against Newcastle United as recently as the 2012/13 season.
Now, the side based in Madeira — an island in the Atlantic Ocean approximately 800km from the mainland — are riding high in the country’s second division. After three years away from the Liga Portugal, the Maritimistas sit seven points clear at the top of the table. This weekend they could stretch that lead with a win against midtable Felgueiras.
Presuming their rivals Nacional and Santa Clara, from the Azores, survive this season, promotion for Marítimao would mean we’ll see three island clubs in the top flight for the first time in five years.
England’s fifth tier, the National League, is notoriously difficult to get out of. With all but a handful of it’s 24 teams now fully professional, the division is ‘non-league’ in status only. There are always more than a handful of sides who are well-equipped for promotion to League Two, so much so, there are calls at this point for the EFL to expand to a League Three.
Only one of those hopefuls can go up automatically, with one other promotion spot available to the end of season play-off winners. This is a legacy of the old protectionist Football League that only a generation or so ago demanded an election process to enter. At present, all teams in the fifth and sixth tiers are collectively campaigning for a third promotion spot to the hallowed uplands of the EFL.
This season looks even more competitive than normal, with six sides still in the title race. York City won at Carlisle United in midweek, a result that saw them take a one point lead in the table and sent Carlisle down to fourth. Second placed Rochdale have multiple games in hand on the sides around them and only four points separate the top five.
The three teams mentioned are all ex-football league members (14 out of the 24 in the division are, in some guise) so expectations are understandably high at each. Boreham Wood, who sit third, are this season’s best placed anomaly, riding high after promotion from the National League South.
FC Thun are aiming to ‘do a Leicester City’ in the Super League. Promoted back to the top flight this season, the side from the Switzerland’s 11th biggest city are defending a six point lead at the top of the table. We’ve profiled them here as they prepare for crucial back-to-back games against the country’s big two - Young Boys and Basel.
Jordi Cruyff’s surname is synonymous with Ajax, with the stadium even named after his father. But now, after holding similar roles elsewhere in Europe, most notably at Barcelona, Jordi is back in Amsterdam to try and arrest the club’s slide down the Eredivisie pecking order as Technical Director.
With another game coming up against nearest rivals Celtic on Sunday, Derek McInnes’ side need to lay down another statement of intent. The Jam Tarts have led the table for three months now but they must keep going at full pace if they are to break the Old Firms’ 40-year hold on the Scottish championship come May.
This week, we’ve decided to remind you about the completely customisable TV Schedule that is available for all FotMob users. Never miss a game again!
Not only do we give details on how to watch upcoming games in individual match facts, we also have a separate feed that shows you every single game being broadcast or streamed in your region.
On iOS, you can find it by selecting TV schedule from the menu in the top right. On Android, you need to locate it via the More tab.
Next, make sure you have selected your country, and most useful of all, hit the next edit button to filter the channel list to show only those you have access to at home.
This is particularly pertinent this weekend, with a number of games we’ve previewed here being broadcast on channels you might not expect - for example, the Hamburg Derby between St. Pauli and HSV is on the BBC in the UK and ESPN in the States.
Pro Tip: Click on any of the matches below, then tap the star in the right hand side of the match page to add them to your Following section.
Friday: Inter Milan could up open a six point lead in Serie A if they topple relegation threatened Pisa this evening. In France, PSG can once again leapfrog Lens at the top of the table, should they win away at Auxerre. But we’ve already mentioned what is perhaps the biggest game of the night, the Hamburg Derby being played in the Bundesliga.
Saturday: If you said a few weeks ago that Wolves would be the form side heading in to a game against Manchester City, no one would have believed you. But here we are - Wolves are unbeaten in five while City are yet to win in the league in 2026. Later, Bournemouth vs. Liverpool rounds off the day in the Premier League while Chelsea vs. Arsenal is the big game in the WSL. In Germany, Vincent Kompany’s all-conquering Bayern Munich side turn their attention to Bavarian rivals Augsburg while surprise package Hoffenheim go to Frankfurt.
Sunday: Serie A should provide some entertainment with Juventus vs. Napoli pitching fifth vs. third and Roma vs. Milan being fourth vs. second! Barcelona attempt to get back to winning ways in LaLiga when they face bottom side Real Oviedo and Crystal Palace’s home game against Chelsea is one of four Premier League games. And in Scotland, there’s the top of the table clash between leaders Hearts and chasers Celtic that we previewed in detail in the Must Reads section above.