Matchplug

Bournemouth would welcome Manchester City for this interesting week 3 fixture as they look to maintain their unbeaten start to the league season. The Cherries beat Aston Villa 2-1 away from home in their last league game to get level on points with their visitors.

Eddie Howe has made some shrewd acquisitions in the market this summer, with Harry Wilson making an immediate impact by netting on his first start last weekend.

Manchester City was on the end of a bad VAR decision last weekend as they drew 2-2 against Tottenham at the Etihad. The Cityzens would feel hard done by and consider this game a must-win to help them keep up with Liverpool.

On their day, City are unplayable as they boast some of the best players in the world. Kevin De Bruyne looks like a player desperate to make up for a lost time and it feels like he would be key in this game.

Manchester City has won all the last 4 games against the Cherries, but the games played at the Vitality Stadium are always a tight affair and City haven’t won by more than a goal in their last two visits.

Bayern Munich would be looking for the first win of the season at the second time of asking when they visit David Wagner’s Schalke 04.

The Bavarians were held to a 2-2 draw at home by Hertha Berlin in their last league game and now have to play catch up to Borussia Dortmund who won their opening game 5-0.

Bayern was in a similar position last season and even trailed Dortmund by up to 5 points and still won the league, so their fans won’t be overly worried but they need to get their first win of the season as soon as possible.

Schalke 04 named Wagner as their manager over the summer and they would expect him to take them back into a European place by the end of this campaign.

They began their campaign with a goalless draw against Borussia Monchengladbach that was their 3rd clean sheet in 4 games and they have conceded just one goal in that period, so it would be tough for Bayern to crack them here.

Juventus begin their Serie A title defence when they visit Parma in this season opener. The Old Ladies have experienced some changes over the summer with the likes of Maurizio Sarri and Matthijs de Ligt joining them.

Juve seems to be looking to move away from the normal safety first approach most Italian teams adopt. With Sarri, they would play a more attacking based football with more emphasis on keeping hold of the ball and entertaining fans.

Sarri was vindicated during his spell at Chelsea. Prior to joining the Blues, we had branded him a trophyless manager, but he left England after reaching the final of the Carabao Cup and winning the Europa League.

At Juve, he has more support and has the luxury of playing some of the world’s best players and it would be interesting to see how they start their campaign.

Parma would be looking to end this season in a better position than they did last season and a good start here would help boost their morale ahead of the other fixtures.

They drew 3-3 against Juventus the last time both sides met in the league and a similar showing would be a major result for them.