⚽︎Friday, Dec. 1: Man City's Kryptonite

Tottenham are the bogey team for the perennial champions, but how many injuries is too many?

TFW spent this past week down in Miami with the Paramount+ crew as they presented Matchday 5 of the Champions League group stage. I took in the sights and sounds, wandered into the background of a social media shoot, and spoke with Thierry Henry, Jamie Carragher, Micah Richards, and Kate Abdo. Look out for more on that in the weeks to come.

In the meantime, it’s a tasty weekend, with a mythical 3pm kickoff for Stateside Premier League viewers on Saturday. Then Sunday serves up quite a few strong matchups, including when Tottenham visit Manchester City at the Etihad Stadium. As a reminder, THE FOOTBALL WEEKEND is hosting a second-ever watch party for that one at GMT Tavern in New York’s Greenwich Village. Doors open at 11, and you can come by before the 11:30 kickoff for a $6 pint.

Now then, let’s get to the matches.

SATURDAY

GERMANY vs FRANCE: FIFA U-17 World Cup Final

7:00am ET on FOX Sports 1

For the cradle-robbers out there, here’s a chance to check in on the bright young stars of tomorrow. Well, maybe. This tournament is not the most dependable predictor of future success, with plenty of the tournament’s past Golden Boot winners failing to make the grade at the top level. But in amongst the names lost to history are Cesc Fábregas, Carlos Vela, and Victor Osimhen, so there may be a gem or two to be unearthed in this one.

BURNLEY vs SHEFFIELD UNITED

10:00am ET on Peacock

Here’s a first episode of THE SCRAP for the 23/24 season, as two bottom-dwelling sides go at it. Everton’s 10-point decimation by the Premier League’s bookkeepers opens just a sliver of a window for one of these two to survive relegation this season, though there’s little doubt these are the two worst teams in the division. With one win each and a goal difference of -22 and -23 respectively, they’re surely not long for this highfalutin world.

Which doesn’t mean this can’t be entertaining. These two are scrapping for their lives, and that can mean goals aplenty. Lyle Foster is Burnley’s biggest threat this season, with three goals and two assists, while Oli McBurnie has two and one for the Blades. If Burnley lose here, manager Vincent Kompany—who’s so far avoided much scrutiny of any kind—must surely be in trouble. These are two of the world’s oldest clubs, and while they’ve spent a lot of time scrapping at the bottom of this league—or at the top of the Championship—in recent times, there’s rich tradition here. There’s also desperation, which can lead to goals.

Burnley captain Tom Boyle leads his team onto the pitch for their FA Cup semifinal replay against Sheffield United, 1914.

NOTTINGHAM FOREST vs EVERTON

12:30pm ET on Peacock / 5:30pm GMT on SKY Sports

Speaking of relegation scrappers: Everton. On the Match Report! podcast, both Manny and I are now on record as saying the Toffees will stay up this season via manager Sean Dyche’s seasoned know-how. The ex-Burnley man knows his way around a relegation fight, and besides, Everton already have four wins this season. That’s as many as Chelsea, Brentford, and Wolves, and one more than Forest, who look a decent outfit this season behind the forward play of Anthony Elanga and Taiwo Awoniyi and the midfield string-pulling of Morgan Gibbs-White. The latter is really finding his groove at Premier League level, offering the kind of clever attacking midfield play that’s been missing from the Everton team for years. The blue shirts run on athleticism in midfield and size all over, and they’ll need a strong performance to take points at the City Ground, where Forest have a formidable record.

NEWCASTLE UNITED vs MANCHESTER UNITED

3:00pm ET on USA (NBC Sports) / 8:00pm GMT on TNT Sports 1

It’s United v. United in the late kickoff, a boon to Americans seeking a Saturday afternoon alternative to college football. (Why not have a 3pm every Saturday, like there was during the pandemic? Your move, Premier League.) Both these sides suffered crushing disappointments under the Champions League lights in midweek, with Newcastle feeling particularly aggrieved as UEFA subsequently axed the Video Assistant Referee who wrongly awarded a penalty for handball that Kylian Mbappé converted eight minutes into stoppage time to make it 1-1 in Paris. The Magpies’ chances of escaping the Group of Death were battered in the process, and they’ll be looking for a dose of revenge here. Anthony Gordon, Alexander Isak, and Miguel Almirón make for a forward line in scintillating form, even if they’ve got some issues with simulation.

On the other side, the Red Devils are reeling from a setback of their own dastardly creation after they surrendered two different two-goal leads in the cauldron of Galatasaray’s Ali Sami Yen Stadium in Istanbul. There was a major contribution in that regard from goalkeeper André Onana (just when we finished giving him flowers on Match Report!) as the Cameroonian had a howler—debatably two. The curse of the commentator, perhaps, though he really has found better form in the Premier League. The same cannot be said for United going forward: while they’re free-scoring in the Champions League, it’s been a godawful struggle in the Prem. They’ve got 16 goals in 13 matches, dead-even with Nottingham Forest in 15th place, and they’ve only just gotten to 0 on goal difference. Still, United are—improbably—the form team in the Premier League over the last six games, taking 15 points.

Not since the days of Alan Shearer (and the early days of Roy Keane) have Newcastle entered matches against Man United with so little fear.

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