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Keep track of the weekend's key matches with The Assist
Arsenal vs. Wolves, Sunderland vs. Newcastle, Real Madrid, and more
As we head in to the busy festive period, it’s time to get ready for another weekend of top football action. In this week’s edition of The Assist, we have the return of one of English football’s fiercest rivalries, a check in on ‘crisis club’ Real Madrid, the Serie A title race, and Europe’s top goalscorer.
Arsenal vs. Wolves
Fresh from making it six wins from six in the Champions League mega-group league phase, Arsenal return to domestic action with a game against the side that are propping up the rest in the Premier League.
This looks like a classic first vs. last contest. The Gunners need a response after last weekend’s stoppage time heartbreak at Villa ended a 11-game unbeaten run that dated back to August. Rob Edwards and his Wolves side just need a first league win. Or a hard-fought draw. Frankly, Wolves need something, anything, that can kickstart their season.
Monday night’s defeat to Manchester United was Wolves’ eighth in a row, equaling a club record that dates back to the 1981/82 season. The team from the Black Country have been through three managers and two sporting directors since they last won a league match.
It’s desperate stuff. But at least Jean-Ricner Bellegarde scored their first goal since October in that game against United. Scoring another against Arsenal, and what is the best defence in the division might, however, be a tall order.
Sunderland vs. Newcastle United
Here we go! Sunday sees a game that has been hotly anticipated since Sunderland sealed their return to England’s top flight via the Championship Playoff final back in May: The first Tyne-Wear (or Wear-Tyne on this occasion) Derby played in the Premier League for the best part of a decade.
Sunderland and Newcastle United did meet in the FA Cup last season, but that was the only time they’ve clashed competitively since both sides were last in the same division, back in the 2015/16 season. This is a big one.
And unlike last season, when the Magpies were in form and had a certain Alexander Isak bagging in the goals, the Black Cats may feel they come in to the game as favourites. Particularly at home, where they have yet to be beaten.
Despite their positive start, Sunderland are currently on a run of one win in six, albeit, they have managed draws against Arsenal and Liverpool during that spell. That drop in form has allowed Eddie Howe’s side to close the gap between the two to just a single point, with Newcastle starting the weekend in 12th to Sunderland’s 9th in the heavily-congested middle of the Premier League.
Alavés vs. Real Madrid
If we’re using the same scale that we just outlined for Wolves, Xabi Alonso’s current predicament at Real Madrid can’t be called a crisis. But at one of the world’s biggest, richest clubs, two wins in eight games just won’t do.
Ahead of Wednesday night’s annual meeting with Manchester City in the Champions League, there was talk that Alonso was on his last chance, with Florentino Pérez and the rest of the board said to be preparing to sack a manager they employed just six months ago. As it stands, though, that has not happened.
Madrid pressed and pushed City but struggled to make the best of their chances as they slipped to back-to-back defeats for the first time since April.
Los Blancos still sit second in LaLiga but in a league defined by slim margins, they are four points down on leaders Barcelona. And that lead may be extended further by the time Madrid take the field at Deportivo Alavés as Barcelona play their game first.
Perhaps the biggest question that will be asked in the build up to this one concerns the fitness of Kylian Mbappé, rather than the status of his current manager. Mbappé sat out the City defeat and is said to be a doubt for the weekend clash against midtable Alavés, the kind of opposition he usually has no problem scoring against.
FIFA Intercontinental Cup
Never one to miss an opportunity to keep the fixture schedulers busy, games in FIFA’s Intercontinental Cup have been taking place sporadically for weeks, with things now coming to a head over the next few days.
This is the second edition of this re-badged tournament, but this is essentially the old Club World Cup, played between the winners of each federation’s premier club competition. With the Club World Cup now a massive sprawling month-long jamboree involving multiple teams from all the top leagues, the Intercontinental Cup is a more concise, but equally strung out affair.
African champions Pyramids FC beat Auckland City and Al-Ahli to lift something known as the African-Asian-Pacific Cup back in September. That set up Saturday’s meeting with Flamengo, the recently crowned Copa Libertadores champions from South America.
To get here, the Brazilian giants ran out 2-1 winners over CONCACAF Champions Cup holders Cruz Azul during the week. Now, it’s Africa vs. South America in a game branded as the Challenger Cup, with the winners then earning the right to take on European champions PSG in the overall final next Wednesday.
That’s right, unlike the old Club World Cup, the Champions League winners don’t even have to win a game before challenging for the title.
The biggest game in Dutch football takes place this weekend, as Ajax host Feyenoord for De Klassieker on Sunday afternoon. And there’s one man everybody is talking about ahead of this one.
Ayase Ueda is in the form of his life! Now in to his third season with Feyenoord, the Japanese forward is scoring at a rate of 1.32 goals per 90 in the Eredivisie, racking up 18 goals in just 15 starts. He scored four in last week’s thrashing of PEC Zwolle, collecting a hefty 9.9 FotMob rating in the process.
Ueda played just over 20 league games in each of the last two seasons, scoring five and seven goals, so this period of red hot form is definitely surprising. Perhaps February’s appointment of Netherlands legend Robin van Persie has had an impact, particularly when it’s time for the shooting drills to be run through on the Feyenoord training ground.
The Rotterdam club currently sit second in the table, six points down on runaway leaders PSV, but two places and eight points better off than arch rivals Ajax. All has not been well in Amsterdam of late and it cost coach Johnny Heitinga his job in November.
New man Fred Grim, who won a Champions League and four league titles as an Ajax player, has so far overseen three defeats, then three wins across all competitions. This will be his biggest test to date.
It’s tight at the top of Serie A, and if the recent pattern continues, we could see first place change hands multiple times again this weekend. AC Milan led the way as we went in to last week’s round but first Inter, then Napoli overtook them, only for Milan to then beat Torino on Monday to regain top spot.
This week, all three of the leaders play on Sunday. And with just an eight point gap between first and Juventus, who sit seventh in the table, there’s little room for error from anyone.
Milan play first as they feature in the early kick off against Sassuolo. Then, Antonio Conte’s defending champions Napoli play away at Udinese in the afternoon, before Inter travel to Genoa later in the day.
Christian Pulisic was the star of the show in Milan’s win over Torino, scoring twice and turning the game after coming off the bench in the 66th minute. The American has seven goals in nine games but has only managed to play a full 90 minutes once so far this season. No one has scored more in the league and only Inter’s reliable goal getter, Lautaro Martínez has as many.
Brentford’s Igor Thiago is the second top scorer in the Premier League behind Erling Haaland, and is on course to break the record for the most goals scored in a single season by a Brazilian striker in England’s top flight. The marker for that record currently stands at 15, with Thiago already on 11.
In May, the Viola ended the 2024/25 season in sixth place in Serie A, their highest finish since 2016. Fast forward to December and they are still winless and sat bottom of the league. We took a look at what’s gone wrong.
Yes, Jack Grealish has a new lease of life, but the transfer signing that’s really driving the Toffees forward? It might just be Kiernan Dewsbury-Hall, the midfielder creator who is driving Everton’s charge towards a possible qualification for European football.
Hopefully all of you reading this already make use of the Following feature in the FotMob app - the ability to go into an upcoming game, tap the star, and then have that game surface at the top of your match feed.
The aficionados among you probably use the resulting Following section to track all the games you want to keep an eye on, saving the need to scroll down even as far as where your favourite leagues are listed. A time-saving behaviour that we certainly endorse here at The Assist.
But this week’s Pro Tip takes this one step further by encouraging you to add the FotMob Following widget to your home page. By doing so, you can check all the important scores without even opening the app.
Instructions vary, depending on whether you are on iOS or Android, but once you’re in to the widgets menu, scroll down until you see FotMob, and then check out what we have on offer for your device. Each widget can be resized or edited to fit what looks best on your screen.
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: In the Bundesliga, second-placed RB Leipzig play at Union Berlin, and in the EFL Championship, there will be no love lost between West Bromwich Albion and Sheffield United. The latter will be looking to continue their recent rise up the table.
Saturday: Enzo Maresca will look to rally his troops as Chelsea take on Everton, while elsewhere in the Premier League, Liverpool can build on their midweek win when they face Brighton. Barcelona are in LaLiga action against Osasuna, and PSG can go top of Ligue 1, if they win away at Metz.
Sunday: Staying in France, Lens then have the opportunity to reclaim top spot with victory over Nice. Palace vs. Manchester City and Nottingham Forest vs. Spurs are two Premier League games that kick off at the same time as the Wear-Tyne Derby, Bayern face Mainz in the Bundesliga, and Bologna vs. Juventus is the closing game in Serie A. In Scotland, St. Mirren take on Celtic in the League Cup Final.