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Athletic Bilbao was a really tough matchup for Atletico Madrid as it seems that they lost by 2-0 away. The first half was horrible for Atletico Madrid already. They weren't even close to scoring a goal in the whole half. When it comes to the second half they were better but still no goal. Athletic Bilbao punished their weaknesses really well and deserved this win.
On the same day Sevilla hosted Getafe and got a huge defeat by 3-0. I really don't know how Sevilla will save themselves. Diego Alonso would get sacked soon I assume. I mean maybe there hasn't been much time since he came. But Sevilla are known by replacing their manager very often in the recent years.
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Chelsea are said to be after Aaron Ramsdale to transfer him in January due to an injury picked up by Robert Sanchez. However no matter he is injured or not I don't think he is a goalkeeper that is at Chelsea standards. He is prone to make mistakes just like Onana has been for Manchester United. Therefore it would be really better for Chelsea if they get Ramsdale. Arsenal are already willing to sell him as far as I know. As long as there is an agreement on fee I don't expect anything else to hinder this transfer. Since Raya started to be in the starting lineup Ramsdale must also be keen on leaving the team for more playing time.  |
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Manchester City are a big failure for their fans these days. I mean they are like that at least in the Premier League despite doing good in the Champions League. Without Haaland they are weaker in the attacking line maybe but we are still talking about Manchester City which won the Champions League title without Haaland's score contribution in the semi finals and finale in the previous season.  There is a big problem with their defending seemingly despite having solid players. It was really unexpected that they couldn't keep their 2-0 score advantage against a team like Crystal Palace at Etihad. Guardiola had better figure out what's wrong otherwise the other title challengers can have a quite serious gap with them. |
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Lens - Reims game has been going on quite interestingly. Reims have had a bigger xG than their opponent so far however Lens are leading by 1-0 now. Actually there is a goal disallowed for Reims side first due to offside. Otherwise things could have been different now. I like the game the manager Will Still makes his players play so I don't expect them to give up easily.
After getting eliminated from the Champions League and moving on with the Europa League Lens had better be focused on the Ligue 1 even more. They couldn't start the season well but now they can still fight for top 4 for a chance to rejoin the Champions League.
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Leroy Sane's name has been called with a couple of big teams recently. One of them is Manchester City and the other one is Real Madrid if I'm not wrong. Manchester City want their old player back in the squad as it seems after seeing how he has been performing so far. I don't even know how they were okay with sending him in the first place. However I'm not sure about whether he would like to go back while he is happy with his performance at Bayern Munich. Maybe his answer could be the same against the Real Madrid option as well if he doesn't have a dream of playing for Real Madrid or so. I think he should stay while he has a great chemistry with Kane.  |
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Tottenham started the game week by a decent win over Nottingham by 2-0. This time Ange Postecoglou put Son on the left wing and preferred Richarlison in the centre-forward position. Both of these players showed good performances after that. However Kulusevski was definitely the man of the match as he scored a goal and made an assist. Now Tottenham are on a winning streak of two games. They really need to keep this streak as long as possible to recover. They need that not to fall too behind the teams at top as well otherwise they might have bigger problems on even finishing the season in top 4. The big man from Sweden wasn't nowhere to be found when he was right behind Richardlison, that formation did not work honestly. The Injury made his change plans and brought him to his main role for the club. He was free and was allowed to roam freely on his own. With that, he was able to locate Richardlison who was also located in the right spot to receive the ball with the ball with jishead Into the back of the net. With so much high pressing from Tottenham Hotspur, same man who linked the Brazilian to score was able to track that ball from the poor efforts of the goalkeeper who was trying to clear of that ball. It was powerful shot or should I say poor goalkeeping from Forest goalkeeper. Gald they could hold down forest tonight. The host attacked well in the first half until that goal came in. Arsenal fans be supporting Manchester United so they could go top of the league. Lol! I'd love that, Liverpool are one of them strongest rivals against Manchester United from way back! ( Liverpool and Leeds United ) Yeah Arsenal fans will definitely be supporting Manchester United at the weekend. However they must be also aware of the facts now that Manchester United are in big trouble. Liverpool will probably be crushing them at Anfield tomorrow evening. If the match was to be played at Old Trafford then maybe I could have given the Red Devils more chance. But I assume even in that situation they could have lost against Liverpool. They couldn't beat Chelsea home in the first place. Coming back to the game tomorrow Erik ten Hag needs a lot of luck not to lose the game by a big goal gap. Because their defense is very alarming. |
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Atletico Madrid are technically doing a little better than Barcelona in the league now. Despite having a missing game to play they have the same points with Barcelona now and they are ahead in the standings as well. That loss against Girona by Barcelona was telling us a lot of things. Barcelona are still inadequate in some ways to maintain their title competition comfortably.
In a couple of weeks Atletico Madrid are also going to face Girona so I'm curious about what will happen in that game as well. I don't feel like Atletico Madrid defense would be as weak as Barcelona's then. But first Simeone needs to deal with Athletic Bilbao away. It will be quite a difficult game for them.
That missing gake would be Sevilla and it seems like they'll also defeat Sevilla who are also currently struggling to find balance. They've faced challenges from the Champions League and La Liga. Back to Atletico Madrid, they're going well and like you said are much better position even with one game less. Barcelona needs to find ways to start scoring goals and also stop conceding too many goals in between with that tjey can be stabilized and start chasing for the league once again. Facing Girona? Girona needs no introduction and they should already know that they are not the club they want to underestimate anymore. After qualifications for the Champions League knockouts, I hope tired legs and fatigue doesn't affects them in this game. That missing game of Atletico Madrid against Sevilla are going to be played on December 23 by the way. Sevilla are a big disappointment this season in every tournament so I don't expect much from them in this tough away match either. Atletico Madrid have made a better start this season and I expect a convincing win from them here. I'm even curious about the possibility of Sevilla to relegate from the La Liga.  Because they are only 3 points above this zone and they have been able to win only 2 out of 15 games so far. This is the worst kind of scenario Sevilla would like to have I assume. Now they are out of European tournaments completely so they had better fully concentrate on the La Liga to reach safety. |
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Maybe Barcelona were already comfortable as they guaranteed finishing the group as the leader. However I still wouldn't have expected them to lose to Antwerp in the last game. Antwerp also had no goal to achieve left in the end. Barcelona should have played better and won this game. Xavi also stated how bad they were in this game.
They lost two games in this comfortable group so I'm curious about their performance in later rounds. If they don't get lucky with the draw I think they would be likely to get eliminated early. But at least there is some progress as they couldn't even get past the group stage in the recent seasons.
That's the only advantage they had last otherwise they'd have been knocked out of the competition ( Champions League ) already. They are going from bad to worst. After losing to Girona over the weekend I was thinking they want to change the cause of them performance and step up but they couldn't. In fact sime fans are already calling out for the sack of Xavi Hernandez that under his watch the club are going from bad to worst. They have all the time to buckle up if you have to ask me, they'll do better in the league and it'll reflect on how they play during the round of sixteen next year. They have all of the remaining days in December. If Barcelona don't win the La Liga title this season then Xavi's seat might be really under threat. There is progress in the Champions League as they have reached further the group stage this time. But I have big doubts about them to continue much longer here. It depends on the draw as well of course. If they get a draw against Copenhagen for example then they could reach the quarter finals too. But the La Liga is everything for Barcelona thinking about their long-running rivalry between them and Real Madrid. Right now things aren't going well for Barcelona there at all. I don't know how much credit Xavi has in the board now. Maybe a good success in the Champions League might be enough to give him another chance for the title in the La Liga next season as well but let's see. |
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Juventus opened the week by an away game against Genoa however it wasn't a positive opening for Juventus at the same time. They couldn't use their influence much here interestingly. Genoa were able to play at the same level with them. I mean their xG wasn't much different than Juventus and the number of goal attempts was also the same. Juventus are one of the best defense teams this season and I thought they would keep their advantage when they got ahead first here as well. However Genoa's effort deserved to be appreciated really. This is a really good opportunity for Inter to open the gap with Juventus more in the standings but first they had better manage to beat Lazio away. |
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I wasn't really expecting such result in the Monaco - Lyon game so I must admit that I'm very surprised. Especially in the first half Monaco were very effective. Their xG was around 1.00 but still couldn't score a goal. If they got ahead there maybe Lyon were going to lose their concentration which would lead to a bigger loss as well.
However we saw a much worse Monaco in the second half. They were further from scoring a goal despite having the double amount of their goal attempts in the first half. They had only 1 out of 13 shots on target in the second half I mean. Lyon somehow managed to score the winning goal in the last minutes and kept it to the end. This is another very valuable win for Lyon to make a move for getting out of the relegation zone.
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Tottenham started the game week by a decent win over Nottingham by 2-0. This time Ange Postecoglou put Son on the left wing and preferred Richarlison in the centre-forward position. Both of these players showed good performances after that. However Kulusevski was definitely the man of the match as he scored a goal and made an assist. Now Tottenham are on a winning streak of two games. They really need to keep this streak as long as possible to recover. They need that not to fall too behind the teams at top as well otherwise they might have bigger problems on even finishing the season in top 4. |
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Atletico Madrid are technically doing a little better than Barcelona in the league now. Despite having a missing game to play they have the same points with Barcelona now and they are ahead in the standings as well. That loss against Girona by Barcelona was telling us a lot of things. Barcelona are still inadequate in some ways to maintain their title competition comfortably.
In a couple of weeks Atletico Madrid are also going to face Girona so I'm curious about what will happen in that game as well. I don't feel like Atletico Madrid defense would be as weak as Barcelona's then. But first Simeone needs to deal with Athletic Bilbao away. It will be quite a difficult game for them.
The Atletico Madrid vs Girona match in Januarwy 2024 will indeed be very interesting to watch. And after Girona managed to beat Barcelona, of course now everyone is wondering whether Girona will also be able to beat Atletico Madrid. But before we get to that match, of course Atletico still has several matches at the end of the first half of this season. Like today Atletico Madrid will face Athletic Bilbao. Last season Bilbao could be said to have had a slightly bad season. Even Bilbao was only able to finish in 8th place at the end of last season. And last season, Bilbao suffered two consecutive defeats in Laliga by Atletico Madrid. Whether in home or away matches, it turns out that Bilbao was always beaten by Atletico Madrid last season. But this season I think Bilbao is a little different. Bilbao looks better than last season. Bilbao have only suffered 3 defeats this season. Just like Atletico Madrid who have also experienced 3 defeats this season. So the Atletico Madrid vs Bilbao match this time will definitely be more difficult for us to predict the outcome. But Bilbao is the host of today's match. So Bilbao could win this match. Or maybe you can get a draw. But I would probably prefer a draw. Because beating Atletico Madrid feels like it will be very difficult to do. When it comes to the Girona - Atletico Madrid game it is surely going to be an interesting one. Before anything else I must admit that it doesn't matter for Girona to play away or home so far. Because they have been very successful in both situations. But it does matter for Atletico Madrid as they are much more problematic in away games. This is why I'm not thinking of betting on Atletico Madrid to win this game. Girona are already a dangerous team and I have no doubt they will do their best in this game as well. Simeone will try to hunt them down by his special strategies and will try to keep Girona in a low scoring game. But Girona still have a capacity to get even three points just as they did to Barcelona. |
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Milan are the only team that have a chance to keep up with Inter and Juventus in the standings. However they pulled away from Milan even more by the results of the previous week. Atalanta made really serious difficulties for Milan. They got ahead 2 times and it was obvious they weren't going to let Milan go away with a win there. That winning goal in the last minutes devastated Milan. Now even Juventus are 7 points ahead of Milan. This is a serious gap thinking that we haven't even completed the first half of the season. It looks like this will be more like a title competition between two teams - Inter and Juventus. It is early to say so maybe but I don't think both of them will start performing badly for a long time. Previously, Milan was team that could match Juventus and Inter this season, but in the current conditions it seems that hope has disappeared because the gap between Milan and the top two teams is very large. No team can stop Inter and Juventus this season unless they suffer consecutive defeats, in the future, there may be chance for another team to rise, but this is unlikely to happen. The fight for first place and the title will continue between Inter as the top of the standings and Juventus as the team in 2nd place and of course those who are only two points apart will try hard to win the title this season. Serie A will only enter its 16th week and soon the transfer window will also open so that several teams will have the opportunity to get several players to improve their squad and be able to get better place. So, from the 7 point difference, if Milan wants to be able to compete and become one of the candidates in the race for the title, then needs at least 3 wins with 2 losses Juventus in the next match. But this will only be hope that is difficult to come true and even luck will not be able to make Milan become the strongest team this season. Yeah previously Milan even won the Serie A title in the 2021/22 season. However they are struggling to be a part of a title competition for two seasons. Napoli dominated the whole season previously though so no other team were able to keep up with them. But right now things are different. More than one team are in this competition now. Milan need to deal with their defending first I assume. Because their scoring capability isn't that bad however I can't say the same for their defensive side. They are one of the most conceding teams among the ones at top positions right now. |
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From my observation Manchester united can't win Liverpool and it seems united fans has also lost hope in the match cause the noise makers I know will always shout for victory but they're just quite, what's the problem with united they lack team work and orderliness at some extend I doubt if united players train before coming out to play cause why will Maguire be everywhere and when did he start playing as a striker, I will love united to win but the strength of united is just too weak.
Manchester United got a big shock in Champions League that can trigger a domino effect on their next performances. However it won't always happen and sometimes, a team in trouble can strongly bounce back but we won't know how Manchester United will perform in Premier League after disappointed in Champions League. They generally don't have good quality compares to Liverpool so if Liverpool play at their full strength and ability, don't give gifts with mistakes to Manchester United, three points will belong to Liverpool. As for Liverpool I doubt if Liverpool will stay long in the top I don't know why but I doubt cause have not even seen their best performance and they can't even withstand Arsenal for now am not sure Arsenal will let Liverpool win, Liverpool still have castle boys to face and I believe this time Newcastle will come prepared.
Staying at top of Premier League is not easy but Liverpool are not a weak team and they actually experienced that feeling as well as pressure at the leading position many times. They won't have much problems to stay there but I agree that there will be a lot of challenge from other competitors like Arsenal and Manchester City. I don't expect any surprise to be made by Manchester United in their next game in the league. Because there is a huge gap between Liverpool and Manchester United right now. Liverpool are a title contender and started the season much better than the previous season. Manchester United are quite behind them in performance and in points as well. There is a big weakness in Manchester United defense at the moment. Even their most qualified defenders are playing badly such as Varane and Casemiro. Martinez is still injured as far as I know. We must be all remembering what Liverpool did to them at Anfield in the previous season. I expect Liverpool to win comfortably here. |
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Dortmund have been really bad in the Bundesliga for many weeks. They were able to collect only four points in their last four league games. This caused them to fall behind the championship race very much as well. They are doing much better in the Champions League actually. That performance helped them even finish the group as the leader. However they had better start performing better than this in the Bundesliga. Even the fight for top 4 will be really challenging for them as it seems. Stuttgart and Leipzig both are going on much better than Dortmund in the league. Leipzig are also competing in the Champions League in the end but they are handling these two tournaments more effectively. |
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Ajax were showing some recovery in the recent times. I mean in their Eredivisie games. However I still expected this performance improvement to reflect onto the Europa League as well. I expected them to beat AEK in the critical game to join the Europa Conference League at least. They really did it by a convincing 3-1 win. I'm happy to see Ajax not ending their journey in European competitions early. They aren't a bad team normally but they have had really difficult times for a long time. Finally there is some fight by them to deal with this bad season and turn it into a better one. |
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Everything changed in Group H after the final games of the group. While Fenerbahce were under the danger of finishing the group stage at the third position they suddenly rose to the lead. I was expecting them to demolish Trnava honestly and it was what happened by 4-0. The only thing they needed was a win by a big goal gap to secure themselves and even finish as leader. I wasn't expecting Ludogorets to get a big win even if they beat their opponent. This was one of the most interesting groups really. Nordsjaelland beat both of these teams by huge scores before but they became the one to finish as third. |
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Atletico Madrid are technically doing a little better than Barcelona in the league now. Despite having a missing game to play they have the same points with Barcelona now and they are ahead in the standings as well. That loss against Girona by Barcelona was telling us a lot of things. Barcelona are still inadequate in some ways to maintain their title competition comfortably.
In a couple of weeks Atletico Madrid are also going to face Girona so I'm curious about what will happen in that game as well. I don't feel like Atletico Madrid defense would be as weak as Barcelona's then. But first Simeone needs to deal with Athletic Bilbao away. It will be quite a difficult game for them.
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Lyon did a really good work by beating Toulouse on the previous week. I wasn't expecting them to be that much dominant honestly. Lacazette even made a hat-trick and put a great end to his goalless streak. Because he has also been playing really poorly just as the rest of the squad for a long while. But will this 3-0 win be some help for Lyon to continue winning?
I really don't know about that. Their job is going to be much more difficult next time as there is an away game against Monaco. I feel like this will also end up with another loss for Lyon. Monaco are having a really decent season and I don't think they would lose points to a problematic Lyon home.
It was a great start for Lacazette after this season having barely seen him score and once he did he scored a hat trick. I'm curious that one of last season's top scorers will likely start to return this season if his performance is still the same as last time. I'm not so sure this victory will bring Lyon to consistent wins and it looks like we will still see them suffer a defeat or even a draw. Talking about the next opponent is Monaco, I will be a little optimistic about Lyon even though in reality they will lose again but at least they have to try first and taking advantage of the momentum of the previous win will also improve their performance. He is 32 years old so I understand him about not being very consistent. But actually he was still not like this at all in the previous season. He was like a goal machine which was nicely fitting a star striker like him. This season Lyon are very bad as a team and Lacazette must also be affected badly by that psychologically. It has affected his performance badly as a result. Maybe this improvement would push Lacazette to play better to be some help for saving his team from the relegation zone. But the team need to play stronger and more consistently before anything else. He needs to be able to get the passes he would like to finish. |
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Milan are the only team that have a chance to keep up with Inter and Juventus in the standings. However they pulled away from Milan even more by the results of the previous week. Atalanta made really serious difficulties for Milan. They got ahead 2 times and it was obvious they weren't going to let Milan go away with a win there. That winning goal in the last minutes devastated Milan. Now even Juventus are 7 points ahead of Milan. This is a serious gap thinking that we haven't even completed the first half of the season. It looks like this will be more like a title competition between two teams - Inter and Juventus. It is early to say so maybe but I don't think both of them will start performing badly for a long time. |
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