Martinez's picking up an injury must be really sad news for Inter. They won against Lecce comfortably anyway but they would like to have him back as soon as possible. His expected return date in January 3 now. They need him the most especially in bigger games in the Serie A and of course every single game from now on in the Champions League. 

He is having a much more productive season. He has scored more than one third of the number of goals Inter have scored in the Serie A so far. He is doing just fine in the Champions League too but his contribution would be more critical as of the current round. They have a really tough matchup against Atletico Madrid.

It looks like the La Liga is the earliest starting European league after we enter New Year. Because as of January 2 the games are underway right away. There is a Girona - Atletico Madrid on January 3 as well. This is going to be the most interesting game of that week for sure. Real Madrid might have a chance to increase the point gap with Girona while in the lead.

Morata's form has decreased a lot recently. Atletico Madrid really need him back in the game to be able to win more comfortably. Because while he was doing an amazing job with scoring goals they were more effective in the attacking line. If he has a good day against Girona then Atletico Madrid can collect some points there.

Arsenal look like they are going for Ivan Toney in January. He is already expected to return by mid January after his suspension ends by then. Arsenal actually have Gabriel Jesus and Nketiah both in the centre-forward position. Signing Toney will create a much bigger competition in this position for sure. Because Toney is a really skilled goalscorer.

He even has a potential to take the shirt from Gabriel Jesus if he makes a solid return. Even Nketiah's number of goals is higher than Gabriel Jesus in the Premier League this season now. So it wouldn't also make me surprised.

Manchester City's game this week against Brentford home has been postponed you know. It is due to Manchester City's playing in the FIFA Club World Cup finale two days ago of course. Hoewever the results of the most of the teams above them got this week have really helped Manchester City a lot. Tottenham won and got ahead of them maybe.

But Aston Villa, Liverpool and Arsenal all finished the week with only one point. Manchester City's performance in the FIFA Club World Cup was really amazing. But the most important thing now is to reflect this onto their Premier League games as well. We will see how good they will be about that.

This is one of the most boring games I have watched in the Serie A this season. Mourinho is using his usual game plan and Napoli are just way worse than I expected. I would have expected Napoli to be much more active than this in the attacking line. As Politano got a red card as well I just expect Napoli to try to preserve the 0-0 score to the end.

Roma have performed really poorly until this minute. They just can't find the target. The fans must have really missed Dybala already. Because if he was in Belotti's place now there would have been a good cooperation between Lukaku and him to score a goal.  

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While I was making the post Roma just scored.    Pellegrini is the scorer and this can really be the winning goal as well!

PSG are just very lucky that they have one of the most comfortable draws in this stage. However Real Sociedad are still a team not to be underestimated. Because they finished their group as the leader and there was Inter in that group as well. Inter are currently performing much better than PSG in the Champions League.

Therefore PSG had better get well-prepared for this matchup. Otherwise I won't be surprised to see them being eliminated. In the end PSG were nearly finding themselves in the Europa League if it weren't for Milan's comeback against Newcastle. 

Things didn't go the way I expected in the Atletico Madrid - Sevilla game. But still thankfully I got what I wanted from this game as Atletico Madrid won anyway. That red card by Caglar Soyuncu really made me worried about the possibility of a draw but Atletico Madrid showed once again how strong defense they have.

Sevilla were better than I expected today despite the loss. They might be really making progress this time but it is still early to make sure of something about them. They had a manager who didn't have any European football experience before. Now they have one who is familiar with it.

Liverpool played worse than I thought today. I mean especially their first half performance was a disappointment to me while I had a bet placed on their win.    That early goal by Arsenal made me uncomfortable already at the beginning. Liverpool didn't perform impressively in the whole half despite that goal. But thankfully Salah still scored the equalizer.

However even the improvement in their performance in the second half wasn't enough to win the game. Arsenal got what they wanted technically as they are still in the lead. Aston Villa missed a big opportunity to be the new leader.

He is sharing the same market value with Haaland and Mbappe now indeed. A short time period after he joined Real Madrid he managed to increase his value by 30 million euros. The same amount of increase happened in only a couple months as well. When it comes to whether he deserves this value I believe he definitely does.

Just look at his statistics and the way he has been playing since the beginning of the season. He is totally a different player than he was at Dortmund. He is much more of an offensive player who can play even as a centre-forward when there is a need. He is the goal source of Real Madrid now. Haaland and Mbappe will probably get more valuable than him again in time but I think Bellingham deserves to be in this race with them.

Another win by Lyon, wow! Especially that win over Monaco was really surprising to me as their opponent wasn't playing with 10 players either. Now they have made their winning streak three games thanks to another win over Nantes home. Lyon played really impressively from the beginning to the end honestly. They were really effective with their goal attempts so they deserved it.

These consecutive wins have helped them get out of the relegation zone so far. But to maintain this they need to continue to work hard just like this. But while they are on fire I expect the players to perform really motivatedly to move on solidly.

It was a really shocking goal by Sheffield Utd in the last minutes and I thought they were really going to lose this game for once. But Zaniolo's goal was really a life saver there in the last moments.

Aston Villa shouldn't lose points in such easy games if they want to be competitive for top 4 until the end. When it comes to the league title they can't win it if they lose points in such games more as they have really fierce opponents in this title competition. I know Manchester City also have lost points in simple games recently but Liverpool and Arsenal are benefiting from this at the same time. There would always be a top team going hard for the title.

As far as I know Guirassy's release clause right now is 17.5 million euros which means he is like a free transfer for rich teams.    I didn't know first that he had a release clause on his contract. Therefore I thought Stuttgart would demand a lot more money than his current market value. But the situation is really different than that.

Stuttgart have nothing to do about this situation either. They can only try to extend his contract but I wouldn't expect Guirassy to be okay with that at all. Because he must also be aware that there would be some top teams going after him in January.

Atletico Madrid are finally going to play their missing game in the league. It is tomorrow against Sevilla home. There shouldn't be any serious problem for Atletico Madrid to win this game honestly. It is a really comfortable game for them on paper. Because Sevilla are still a mess these days. Maybe they beat Granada the last time to get some morale boost.

But I don't think this win will change anything for Sevilla. Diego Alonso has got sacked and Quique Sánchez Flores has been brought to the job. But I don't think he can do magic against Atletico Madrid in an away game. I still expect Atletico Madrid to get a win by at least two goals.

The game has just finished by a 2-2 draw. It is really unbelievable that Milan lost two points in the easiest game in their fixture. Salernitana even got ahead by 2-1 and could have really won the game as well. Jovic's goal was a life saver for Milan there in the 90th minute. I don't know how Milan couldn't beat even the last team in the standings. 

They aren't competitive for the league title this season that's for sure. Juventus and Inter will get away from them more by this week probably. The title competition is very likely to be only between these two teams considering the performances of other teams below.

What is happening in the Aston Villa - Sheffield Utd game now for real? Aston Villa are just too bad tonight.    They look like they are dominant in statistics but it is actually only on ball possession and total amount of passes. But when it comes to finishing skills or even creating many number of goal opportunities they are very bad today.

We are currently in the last ten minutes of the game and it is still 0-0. This is just the result Sheffield Utd would like in a very tough game like this. I can't believe how Aston Villa are struggling this much against the worst defense team in the league now.

I can't really say Betis are "exceptional" in general of the season. Because the number of draws they have got so far is just too many. If this continues the same it would affect their chance to qualify for European tournaments really significantly. Because Real Sociedad and Athletic Bilbao are doing much better than them these days.

I don't talk even their chance for the Champions League because I believe they don't have much chance for that by playing like this. I appreciated their getting points from Real Madrid and Girona as those two are unstoppable this season. But still Betis would make use of some more improvement to win games more often.

Stuttgart had better get prepared well for their next game because their history against Gladbach in away games isn't good at all. They won only once in many years they played against them in away games in the Bundesliga. But on the other hand Stuttgart's condition is different this season. They are much stronger especially thanks to Guirassy's huge contribution.

If he becomes a game changer as usual then they can really beat this Gladbach. Because Stuttgart have doubled Gladbach when it comes to points collected so far. Gladbach's form in last five league games isn't good at all as well.

Manchester United have a really tough fixture these days. Their next game is an away one against West Ham tomorrow. West Ham are below their opponent in the standings maybe but this shouldn't misguide you. Because their recent form is way better than the Red Devils. Bookmakers are also favouring West Ham for the win in this game.

But the gap of odds is a small one of course. This is a game that could end up with every kind of a result. West Ham have just been destroyed by Liverpool in the EFL Cup so I'm curious about their morale. But I think they won't lose this game.

It seems like Milan won't be able to get closer to Inter and Juventus by the games on this week. Because while they have a really comfortable game to play ahead the situation is the same for Inter and Juventus as well. They also have comfortable games to play so I expect all of these three teams to win their games without problem.

Juventus stumbled upon the Genoa game last week maybe but I don't think they will repeat this mistake. This is just bad for them as Inter are opening the gap whenever Juventus make point losses easily. I expect a more convincing performance in the attacking line from Juventus this time.

Betis - Girona was a balanced game in general. Girona started to accept the game in their half after getting ahead by 1-0. Betis tried to improve their attacks more in the second half and they got what they wanted in the last minutes finally. For once I thought Girona were really going to be victorious in this quite challenging away game.

In the end Real Madrid also got a 1-1 draw against Betis away recently. Girona also got the same result. If Real Madrid don't make big mistakes they should be able to beat Alaves easily. This must be enough to carry them to the top in the standings if I'm not wrong.