Photo by ISIPhotos.com
By JUSTIN FERGUSON
After a busy international break, the top leagues from all around the world are back in action on a jam-packed Soccer Saturday.
The English Premier League’s spotlight match Saturday will be Everton vs. Chelsea, which will be televised on NBC here in the United States. Chelsea ended their winless run at Goodison Park last season, and the Blues will be eyeing to start a streak against Everton in Saturday’s match. With only four goals through its first three league matches, the Chelsea attack will have to step it up against an Everton squad that has posted back-to-back scoreless draws.
Elsewhere in England, Arsenal fans will get their first look at superstar signing Mesut Özil as the Gunners hit the road to take on winless Sunderland. Manchester United will most likely debut their newest signing Saturday when former Everton midfielder Marouane Fellaini enters Old Trafford for the first time as a Red Devil.
In Germany, second-place Bayern Munich will look for all three points against third-place Hannover 96 at the Allianz Arena. The defending champions steamrolled Hannover in both of their matches last season, but their opponents on Saturday have won back-to-back matches heading into this big Bundesliga matchup.
The Derby d’Italia will resume Saturday as Inter Milan heads to Turin to take on traditional rivals Juventus. Carlos Tevez has scored three goals in three matches for his new club, and the former Manchester City forward will go toe-to-toe with an Inter defense that has not surrendered a goal in their first two Serie A matches.
If you will be watching today’s action, please feel free to share your thoughts, opinions and some play-by-play in the comments section below.
Enjoy the action (Today’s TV schedule is after the jump):
7:45am – NBC Sports Network – Manchester United vs Crystal Palace
9:30am – GolTV – Bayern Munich vs Hannover 96
10am – NBC Sports Live Extra – Aston Villa vs Newcastle United
10am – NBC Sports Live Extra – Fulham vs West Bromwich Albion
10am – NBC Sports Live Extra – Hull City vs Cardiff City
10am – NBC Sports Live Extra – Stoke City vs Manchester City
10am – NBC Sports Live Extra – Tottenham Hotspur vs Norwich City
10am – NBC Sports Network – Sunderland vs Arsenal
10am – beIN Sport en Español – Atlético Madrid vs AlmerÃa
12pm – beIN Sport – Inter Milan vs Juventus
12pm – beIN Sport en Español – Levante vs Real Sociedad
12:30pm – NBC – Everton vs Chelsea
2pm – MLS Direct Kick – Montreal Impact vs Columbus Crew
2pm – Univision Deportes – Ajaccio vs Evian TG
2pm – beIN Sport – Barcelona vs Sevilla
4pm – UniMás – DC United vs Los Angeles Galaxy
4pm – beIN Sport – Villarreal vs Real Madrid
6pm – Univision Deportes – Veracruz vs León
6pm – Univision – Cruz Azul vs Tigres UANL
7pm – MLS Direct Kick – New York Red Bulls vs Toronto FC
7:30pm – MLS Direct Kick – Philadelphia Union vs Houston Dynamo
8pm – Univision Deportes – Monterrey vs Pachuca
8:30pm – MLS Direct Kick –  Chicago Fire vs New England Revolution
9pm – MLS Direct Kick – Colorado Rapids vs Dallas FC
10pm – Univision Deportes – Chiapas vs Atlas
10:30pm – MLS Direct Kick – Chivas USA vs Portland Timbers
10:30pm – MLS Direct Kick – San Jose Earthquakes vs Vancouver Whitecaps
Hold that 0-0 result Stoke…. Arsenal is pulling away now
Man, Ozil is good.
Commentators claim he was well onside but Ramsay looked off to me, no?
no…he was on. It was a perfectly time run,
Altidore made a mistake going to Sunderland with the lack of service Sunderland provides and the lack of respect the refs gives him, I’m thinking he will be lucky to score 5 goals this year.
G*dd*’mmit ref! You just ruined America!
That made me spit out my DD coffee (w “turbo shot” of course). Cheers
LOL, more like he is reminding us of American Refereeing
Sunderland beginning to look like the team they have the potential to be if they can fit the pieces together.
That was a travesty.
Altidore robbed of the goal on the advantage. Barely crossed the line but Sunderland could have used that goal
Nooooooo!! Jozy’s goal waived off! No advantage played. Jozy finally showing his strength, overpowering the helpless defender waterskiing behind him.
Why is Altidore not taking that free kick?
UGH. Terrible non-advantage call takes away an Altidore goal. He got fouled, scored anyway… but it’s called back.
Really enjoyed him picking Ozil’s pocket earlier.
How is that not a red if it was worthy of being called back? I can’t tell when he blew the whistle but it must have been after jozy beat his man.
Noooooooo! Stupidest frickin’ call everrrrr!!! Jozy is a beast.
Well that’s a goal in my mind
GODDAMN JOKE OF A REFEREE
Shades of MLS
If that is a European striker (cough Lukaku cough) the ref waves on and it’s a goal. Effin ridiculous. Altidore beasted Sagna.
Ummm… How’s about playing advantage ref?
Zero reason to not play advantage
How is that not a goal
thats a goal !
Well that was absolute horrible officiating
Jozy just got robbed!!!!
Well that was a screamer by Ramsey. Commence the gushing by match commentators for Arsenal’s “best” player.
Sunderland has no idea what keeping your form means. Fletcher is just all over the place. Di Canio should remind him that he is supposed to play off Jozy.
Well at least sunderland showed signs of life for a good 15 minutes or so before going back to being sunderland.
Jozy and Fletcher aren’t communicating together. Playing on top of each other instead of with each other.
Sunderland is clearly still figuring out their spacing and where eachother is going to be on the pitch. It’s especially noticeable in this match because Arsenal is dominating the ball and the Cats get so few chances. I really like what Ki gives them, though. He clearly has good ideas on the ball. Once he, Jozy, Giaccherini and Fletcher have some time together, they could develop something.
And the lack of spacing is noticeable when Sunderland attackers make the same runs into the Arsenal box leading to a lack of passing options.
Nice work from Jozy there shielding the defender to win the corner… and as I write he comes back to strip the ball, starting a counter. Despite the dearth of chances on goal, he is certainly the only Sunderland player that is *consistently* creating positive play.
Jozy with some nice backtracking to win the ball and start a dangerous counter.
Jozy wanted that 5 seconds earlier but its one he maybe still should have gotten. Get’s the corner though.
I honest to gosh really would love to eat crow at the end of this game for my comment below, would love to see Sunderland come back and win 🙂
Now there we go. Actually trying to win the ball back.
Let’s keep it in perspective, guys. Sunderland is a bottom-half team playing Arsenal, one of the most talented teams in the world. They were always going to struggle. Don’t draw too many conclusions from this game.
Feel bad for Jozy, b/c this is Hull City all over again. If he score more than 5 goals this season it will be a miracle. AZ got paid, but Jozy made a terrible mistake.
At this point I have to hope for lots of action during the transfer window in January and a new coach to replace DiCanio.
Hope I’m proven wrong, but several games into the season, I don’t see it changing.
Jozy to Sounderland….. When challenging yourself goes terribly wrong.
It’s amazing. The Sunderland fans look at this and say to themselves “you know what the problem is? The forward hasn’t a goal. Sure, we haven’t held onto the ball for more than 5 minutes and there’s absolutely no support going forward but blame the forward. He’s a donkey.”
well, i switched to Sunderland-Arsenal at about 35 minutes after watching Stoke-Man City, and gotta say: Sunderland blows. When Jozy made the move there in the summer, I thought it was a good deal. But with each passing week it is looking like a catastrophic mistake. The team looks un-coached, no energy from the fans at all, with good reason with the team playing so bad.
On the other hand, Stoke is looking great today against Man City, with a totally electric atmosphere in the stadium and Stoke playing attractive soccer and Cameron looking solid at (in position) at right back, with a great dribbling action inside from the wing toward the box. It’s funny, when there was that rumor in the summer that Stoke was looking at Jozy, most of thought that would have been a bad move. Now, I think Stoke would have been perfect for Jozy.
Well if Sunderland never presses to get the ball back, Arsenal’s never gonna give it to em.
If a MLS team were to play in the EPL they would look like Sunderland, I feel sorry for Jozy. This move is just awful.
26% possession for Sundlerland says it all
euro….
I’ve never actually sat out and watched Ozil play before but holy crap, he’s the real deal. Whatever Arsenal paid for him, it will be worth it.
I was thinkin the same thing. Don’t get to see much of La Liga; therefore, I’ve only seen Ozil play a few times with Germany. Every touch he has is on point. Looks like he may work out well for Arsenal. Sunderland’s midfield looks horrid.
I’ve watched him play a lot, and I couldn’t believe it when “the special one” reduced his playing time last year…and not surprised that his ex-Real teammates were upset he left.
They call him The Ghost, cause he looks like he’s slowly just floating around.. and then boom.. he’s by you
Not the toughest of competition today, but Arsenal is a different team with Ozil out there. Dominated the 1st half.
I am noticing that Jozy is constantly telling his teammates to pressure when they don’t have the ball and he is making the effort to do it. I was just thinking maybe he sees the success of it with the USMNT and he wants to translate that over to his club. I am not sure if the coach is telling his team to press because pretty much no one besides Jozy is doing it. They are letting Arsenal control the ball as much as they want.
Ozil is really good at soccer
This is awful, awful soccer. Why am I even watching this? Di Canio will have them relegated by the winter break.
I mean honestly, you’re going to concede a man advantage in the midfield…. against Arsenal? I don’t care what you intend to do with your formation, but this is silly.
There is nobody there to mark Ozil. The commentators are just openly laughing at it.
Lol sometimes commentators just say dumb things…
“Not sure why Altidore didn’t run to that near post right there”
Uh idk dude, Mayne because the other forward was 5 yards in front of him already making that run?
How about “not sure why Fletcher pulled up on that run he could have challenged for the ball”.
Relegation!
Is anybody else having audio issues with the NBC app? I’m not getting any sound out of it on my iPhone or iPad
No but it keeps jumping back and forth in increments oh five minutes
and Newcastle waltzes through 4-5 AV defenders and leaves Guzan blameless on a goal.
Great strike from Jozy from far out, well saved.
Altidore with a good rip from distance. Maybe that will help with confidence.
That was much better. Cracking shot on goal the moment it gets to him.
That was scary looking!
Sunderland midfield can’t get a whiff
Yuck yuck yuck Jozy
altidore needs to play faster
Completely agree with this comment. Jozy seems a half-step behind on his runs, a half second delayed with his first touch, and a half-beat slower in his reactions.
This is not another narrative accusing him of laziness. Last year’s performance in the Netherlands and his recent form for the USMNT is clear evidence that he has a fantastic work rate. Rather, its a critique of his awareness of the demands of the Premier League. Defenders are unbelievably fit and technically skilled, closing down space much quicker than in the Dutch league. (Remember videos from Jozy’s performance last year when he had wide open space to barrel down the field and latch onto crosses.) In the Premier League, Jozy has to move with an added urgency.
There is a simpler explanation.
Sunderland have not played together a lot and when you are unfamiliar with your teamates everyone’s timing is bound to be off.
Cameron gets another turn at right back, one more opportunity for experience.
Jozy starts for Sunderland. Will also finally play with another striker in Fletcher, so that’s good.
Still doubt they see much of the ball against Arsenal.
I’d like to propose that Manchester United be referred to as the ‘Soft Reds’. And Ashley Young be renamed simply ‘Dirty Diver.’
I second that.