Sheriff Tiraspol were an unpredictable team even though bookmakers were showing Manchester United as the absolute favourite by a very low odd. However Manchester United prevented any surprise by bringing the score to 2-0 in the first half already. Ronaldo didn't have an impressive performance even though he scored a penalty. His performance is far from the previous season for now and this will push Erik ten Hag to prefer Rashford over him more in their Premier League games.

However he might still continue to choose Ronaldo in all of the Europa League games. It isn't nice to see Ronaldo being treated as a backup player but there is nothing to do about it unless he makes a big improvement in his effort.

Manchester United don't need Frenkie de Jong anymore in fact. Because they have already signed Casemiro for the defensive midfield position and I don't think they need to sign another player who has a similar role. However Chelsea might make a move for him as there have been rumours relating him to them as well. We might see a move by Chelsea in January maybe. Maybe they are thinking of replacing Kante with him as soon as possible. As you know, Kante has only one year left on his contract.

On the other hand, Xavi started to give so much opportunity to Frenkie de Jong in the starting eleven lately. Therefore it might cause de Jong to be eager to stay here rather than leaving.

I know that Atletico Madrid can have really big difficulties in scoring as for some games. However they haven't had any problem about that for three weeks in the league. I believe that they can find a way to do this against Real Madrid in their own stadium as well. Real Madrid were even 1-0 behind first against Mallorca last week. In addition to that, Real Madrid conceded one goal in each game they had in the league so far. Therefore Atletico Madrid should also be able to score in some way. Maybe even the first goal will come from them which would make things more difficult for Real Madrid.

Juventus would be able to defeat Maccabi Haifa in both games I believe. However the most important thing is to collect as many points as possible from PSG and Benfica as well. But this is going to be too difficult for them as long as they continue to play like this. Normally they would be able to collect at least 4 points in those games. They need to find a way out to reach this performance level again. Maybe Allegri's departure or some other changes in the team can improve their performance.

But I'm dreaming now most probably and we might see Juventus in the Europa League after the group stage.

Fenerbahce were really worrying against Rennes. They gave big openings in their defense to Rennes in the first minutes of the second half and two of them ended up with goals. Rennes were nearly making the score 3-0 as well if their shot didn't come back from the goal post. It was like a turning point of this game at the same time. Because a short time later, Irfan Can scored a superb goal and increased the hopes of the team for an equalizer. It came in the stoppage time by a penalty finally which was a devastating blow to Rennes.

However Fenerbahce need to solve their defensive issues immediately. There is a significant inconsistency there as it seems.

Zlatan isn't expected to return before January 16 due to having knee surgery. But even when he returns I don't think that Milan will be more eager to sell Rafael Leao. Zlatan is very old and he is here for leading the team rather than playing like a goal machine like in the old times. Therefore they need a great player like Leao to score and assist them in their games. But Leao would be likely to leave most probably too if he learns about a serious interest by Manchester City in the future. Of course Milan can use the money to sign another great player to fill his place then.

How come Atalanta are easy team to beat now? They are at the second position in the standings by sharing the points with the leader, Napoli. They won 4 games in the league so far and didn't lose any. In this case Roma have a very difficult job to do against them whatever strategy they use against them. Roma defeated them here last season by 1-0 and they are even stronger than that season now. This might be a help for them to be more effective against Atalanta. However I still expect a very close score like 1-0 or 2-1 in case they beat Atalanta.

Juventus still need some improvement in the squad indeed. Pogba is out until January now and it is not even guaranteed whether he will come back strong and solve the problem in the midfield. They need to add some new players to the team to strengthen the lineup. Allegri's usual game plan might not be working anymore at the same time. Because they are terrible in the Serie A and this tournament both. The board must be nearly out of patience about Allegri these days and they have the right to feel like this too.

Who knows maybe Allegri might be even sacked if Juventus get a negative result in their game up next against Monza.

I also agree that Harvey Elliott isn't good enough for the starting eleven yet. Liverpool had money to buy a solid midfielder in his place but they didn't want to make such move. Maybe we would see a move in January who knows. On the other hand, the team didn't have a solid performance as a whole for a long time. The Ajax game seemed like a hope as their performance was really satisfying. We need to see this Liverpool dominance from now on. Salah also scored which would increase his self-confidence again to start making a big contribution to the team. They have a long break ahead of them to focus on getting much better.

The statistics aren't wrong actually and you can find it here: https://www.flashscore.com/match/dfrFJubO/#/h2h/overall

I meant the games in San Siro in the Serie A. If you check the source you can clearly see that the last time Milan defeated Napoli in a league game in San Siro was December 14, 2014. This is why I found it interesting.

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Another interesting game of the week is Roma - Atalanta of course. Both teams are in a great shape. It is really hard to pick a side but there is just a feeling like Roma will win by one goal here. But as for betting on something, my choice would be both teams to score. Roma are better than before about being productive and Atalanta are also much stronger than the previous season. We might see a nice duel with goals from each side.

The race to sign Rafael Leao is getting more serious as it seems. Manchester City are also rumoured to be after him from now on. Chelsea have already been after him for a long time but Milan haven't been leaning towards selling him yet. These teams will most probably need to pay more than 100 million euros to have a chance of signing him. I don't expect any transfer to happen in January but it will be difficult for Milan to keep him in the summer. Especially Manchester City's interest might cause Leao to want to leave the team to join them.

It was such a difficult but great comeback by Manchester City. Both of the goals Stones and Haaland scored were incredible. Stones scored by a rocket that the goalkeeper didn't even see the ball and react to it. Cancelo - Haaland duo were great in the second goal also. Haaland proved once again that he can score in every kind of situation.    I was really worried about Manchester City after seeing their struggle against Dortmund after being 1-0 behind. But magically they scored two goals in four minutes and it was really devastating for Dortmund.

Bayern Munich weren't impressive against Barcelona in the first half but things changed in the other half pretty much. Two goals came in only four minutes and we had the usual Bayern Munich back all of a sudden.    They maintained their dominance against Barcelona at the same time. After this satisfying win they must be able to come back to the Bundesliga stronger. I won't place a bet on them as I said before but the Augsburg game is very likely to be the end of this draw streak (3 games). Bayern Munich's odd is 1.15 by the way so it's not even worth it.

In four days there is a great game between Atletico Madrid and Real Madrid in the league.

It is very difficult to trust Real Madrid to win this game. Because Atletico Madrid have always been a very tough opponent to beat for them especially in away games. They can't beat them for three games as well. Atletico Madrid are still using the same game plan which Real Madrid are very familiar with. This game is a big candidate for Real Madrid to have their first point loss after winning all of their league games so far. I expect at least one goal from each side at the same time so both teams to score @1.71 might be a good choice for this one.

This is finally a game to start showing a good performance and getting a solid win for Chelsea. I'm also wondering about Graham Potter's strategies with his new team. He might try to use nearly the same game plan he had at Brighton which means an attacking football. Chelsea really need to be more effective in attacking for sure. But they must be more aware at defense this time after losing to Dinamo Zagreb. Hopefully they won't concede any goal in this game and will get a win like 2-0 at least.

The most interesting game of this week can be Milan - Napoli.

There is a really interesting statistics about this matchup. I checked the head-to-head games and saw that Milan can't defeat Napoli in San Siro in a league game since December 2014. Napoli will have a huge psychological predominance against them as a result. It is up to Milan to put an end to this bad luck. They have a Champions League game to start in ten minutes and getting a win here would motivate them even more for the Napoli game. Milan and Napoli are both doing great in the Serie A now. Maybe it is a risk to take but I'm thinking of betting on Milan win @2.24.

Diego Costa's last season that he played very impressively was the 16/17 season. After that he was literally finished. After going to Atletico Mineiro I started to be more confident that he wouldn't return to European football anymore and retire there. However he surprised me by even coming back to the Premier League after many years. He is still 33 years old and he can play for 2-3 more years actually. But we will see how beneficial he will be for Wolves. I don't have big expectations from him of course but he might perform better than Raúl Jiménez maybe.

It is quite natural for people to believe in Real Madrid more about the league title. In the end they had a wonderful season the last time while Barcelona were newly starting to recover. As people observe Barcelona's performance now they are likely to change their opinion about the season as well. However Real Madrid are still keeping their same strength in the league now. El Clasico games can play a crucial role to determine the champion of the season. Because both teams would be less likely to lose points in less challenging games.

There was a turning point for Empoli after Pellegrini missed the penalty but the red card ended all the hopes left for them. It wasn't an easy win at all for Roma above all else. Empoli also had so many goal opportunities but they weren't as capable as Roma as for finishing. Dybala was the savior for Roma indeed by one goal and an assist. Since he came to Roma there has been a significant improvement in his performance (3 goals, 2 assists in 6 league games). They needed this win a lot to refresh themselves after that horrible Udinese loss.

@Cookdata I don't think that it is related to Real Sociedad's getting better. Because they weren't dominant against Manchester United in this game. They even got a controversial penalty which helped them win the game by 1-0. It was more related to Manchester United's effort actually. They didn't take this game as seriously as a Premier League game. They wasted so many opportunities. Ronaldo also did this but he was playing in the starting eleven for the second time on one hand. He needs to adapt to a long match tempo again to be more effective.