Who’ll win the final Merseyside Derby before the Stadium switch?

It was a busy midweek with matches from across Europe’s top leagues and cups. There was a full round of fixtures from the PL with a couple of La Liga matches and a full schedule of fixtures from the Copa del Rey, DFB Pokal Cup and Coppa Italia.

Our attention is now fully on what is likely to be another busy and eventful weekend with most competitions cramming in the fixtures before taking their mid-season winter break over Christmas and New Year. The exception to this is, of course, the English leagues, where the amount of fixtures are ramped up as opposed to quietening down over the festive period. The fact that there was a midweek set of fixtures from England’s top division means that there is no Friday evening match this time around but we do have matches from the top divisions in Italy, France, Germany, Portugal, Spain and Türkiye. The highlight of the day is definitely a clash between Atalanta and AC Milan from Serie A.

A Merseyside derby kicks things off in England on Saturday with runaway leaders Liverpool heading to rivals Everton. Manchester City and Man Utd are both in action later in the day. In France, Monaco, Lyon and Nice are all playing on Saturday whilst Bayern, Dortmund and Leipzig as well as defending champions Leverkusen are in action in the Bundesliga. AS Roma will be looking to get back to winning ways on Saturday evening whereas Barcelona and Real Madrid both face tricky away matches in La Liga, travelling to Betis and Girona respectively. The highlight of the weekend in Türkiye is the battle between Besiktas and Fenerbahce on Saturday evening. 

Two London derbies dominate proceedings on Sunday as Arsenal travel to Fulham and Tottenham host Chelsea, with four matches from England’s top division being played in total. Ligue 1’s second placed team, Marseille, travel to struggling St. Etienne on Sunday evening whilst the top match of the round from Serie A sees fifth placed Lazio head to leaders Napoli in the last match of the day. The last of the big three in Spain, Atlético Madrid, play against mid table Sevilla on Sunday evening. 

On Monday there are matches from various top divisions across Europe with West Ham taking on Wolves, Monza hosting Udinese and Getafe versus Espanyol being the highlights. 

Atalanta vs AC Milan

Atalanta will be looking to continue on their excellent recent run, with their start to the season being very impressive indeed. They find themselves only one point behind leaders Napoli and are dreaming of their first ever Serie A title. There is a long way to go of course but with the inconsistency of teams below them they will surely feel that they have a decent chance this season. Atalanta’s 2-0 win over AS Roma on Monday night was their latest signal of intent as they continue to push and they are unbeaten in their last thirteen matches in all competitions, with eight wins in a row. Goalscoring certainly hasn’t been a problem as they have already scored 36 league goals this season, the highest in the division. Even a point against AC Milan will see them leapfrog Napoli to the top of the league. Atalanta will certainly be hoping that striker Ademola Lookman’s form continues as he has five goals in his last six appearances.

AC Milan head into this game on somewhat of a poor run as they only have three wins in their last six league games, although only one of those was a defeat and that was against leaders Napoli. New manager Paulo Fonseca has struggled to build any momentum since his arrival and they are currently four points away from the European spots, so he will know that he needs to turn around his team’s fortunes. Away form has been a particular concern as they have only won two of their matches away from the San Siro so far this season. They will hope that goalkeeper Mike Maignan is able to maintain his excellent record against Atalanta, he has only ever lost one match against the team from Bergamo. 

Atalanta have won three of the last ten meetings with AC Milan winning four and last season it was Atalanta that took four points off their opponents. The home side will go into this match as understandable favourites given how the season has gone so far. 

Everton vs Liverpool

Despite the gap between these two teams over recent years, this is nonetheless one of football’s most eagerly anticipated derby matches, with the rivalry going back so far that this is set to be the 245th version of this clash. For Everton, this will be an even more special match as it is the last time they will play their city rivals at Goodison Park, their home for over 130 years. As of next season, they will be moving to a flashy new stadium, something which they hope will allow them to compete with some of the bigger teams in the league. It is, therefore, likely to be a memorable occasion on Saturday afternoon and fans will be buoyed by the fact that they were comfortable winners over Wolves last time out. A win over Liverpool would give Everton their first back-to-back victories since April and they will look to Dominic Calvert-Lewin, who has scored in each of his last two matches against Liverpool at Goodison. 

Liverpool have a good record in this fixture, winning four of the last five prior to the aforementioned defeat in April. In fact, Liverpool have only lost two of the last thirty head to head meetings with their closest rivals. Midweek saw Liverpool drop two points when they were held to a 3-3 draw by Newcastle so they will be even more motivated to get back to winning ways as their lead at the top of the table was cut to seven points. Their defence hasn’t been up to its usual standards though, as they have conceded two or more goals in their last four away matches. Fans are bewildered as to why Liverpool have failed to agree a contract extension with Mo Salah, who is once again their star man and he both scored and assisted in the midweek draw. 

Everton’s win last season was only their second in the last ten meetings with Liverpool winning five, so recent history and form explain why the away side are such strong favourites. 

Girona vs Real Madrid

Girona have not quite been able to live up to the standards set last season but they are slowly making their way up the table and find themselves in a very respectable eighth position going into this match. They have three wins from their last five matches and last time out they managed a draw away to Villarreal. This week they are back playing on home turf but they face a very tough task against a Real Madrid side that will be aiming to get back to winning ways after their surprise defeat last weekend at the hands of Athletic Bilbao. Girona’s midweek cup match didn’t go to plan as they lost to fourth division Logronés on penalties but they will have to turn all their focus on to extending their four match unbeaten run in the league. Donny van de Beek has had an eventful few weeks, scoring, assisting and picking up two yellow cards across his last three league games. 

Kylian Mbappe will be more keen than most to put in a serious performance as his Real Madrid career certainly hasn’t got off to the best of starts. Last weekend he missed another penalty, which condemned his team to a defeat. They start this match four points behind leaders Barcelona and know they can’t really afford to drop more points here. That defeat was their second in their last five matches with their CL campaign also not going according to plan.

Real Madrid won both matches between these two last season by an aggregate score of 7-0 and have seven wins in the last ten meetings whereas Girona have only managed two.

Tottenham vs Chelsea

The final match on Sunday from the PL is a London derby which takes place at Tottenham’s fancy new stadium in North London. Once again their season has been blighted by inconsistency and their last few games illustrate this as they have two wins, two losses and a draw from the last five. The last match was a 1-1 draw against another London team, Fulham, and they will know that Chelsea will pose a far greater threat, especially as they are the league’s top scorers with 31 goals. Tottenham have themselves had no issue in scoring goals but they have been unable to kill off games and the same criticism seems to arise over and over, namely that they only know how to play one way. 

Chelsea fans will be delighted by how the season has gone so far as not many will have expected to see them in second place at this stage in the season. Their manager Enzo Maresca was one of the favourites to be amongst the first to lose his job but he has helped this group of players gel and has managed to imprint his style upon their play. Cole Palmer continues to be the star of the team and he is actually third in the league when it comes to goals scored. Nicolas Jackson is also having an excellent season, much improved from last year, and he is only one goal behind Palmer in the charts. The recent win over Aston Villa was a strong statement over a rival for a top four spot and another three points here would be equally important. 

Chelsea have by far the better record in this fixture as they have won seven of the last ten meetings with Tottenham only recording one win. 

Napoli vs Lazio

These two teams face each other for the second time in the space of a few days following on from their Coppa Italia clash on Thursday evening. This time though, it is league points that are being fought over with the home side desperate to keep hold of first place in the table. Napoli currently only have a one point advantage over in-form Atalanta with Lazio being one of three teams that are currently four points behind the leaders. The top of the table is certainly congested with only two points separating third from sixth. Napoli have made the most of the fact they are not playing in Europe this year and are fully focused on winning the league title that they lost to Inter last season. Last weekend they recorded a narrow 1-0 away win over Torino and will go into this match as favourites, although it is likely to be a significant challenge. 

Lazio surprisingly lost to mid table Parma last weekend, a result that saw them drop a few places in the league. They will certainly be hoping to get back to winning ways, although this fixture is certainly far from the easiest. They are the third highest scorers in the league but, on the flip side, Udinese are the only top ten side to have conceded more goals than Lazio. They can take confidence from the fact that they won this fixture 2-1 last season.

Napoli have six wins from the last ten meetings between these two whereas Lazio have three wins and the only draw was the meeting in Rome last January which ended goalless.  

PS: Odds might have changed since the writing and publication of this article.

Last updated: 06.12.24