While a “football” season won’t begin until next month when the Ravens and Chiefs take the field on the first Thursday of September, the semi-official opening weekend of the 2024-25 season of original ‘football’ kicks off today with the Premier League, Serie A, Ligue 1 and La Liga all in action.
All of the picks today will be from three great European league games on Monday. Sorry moms, your Saturday mornings—and probably afternoons and evenings—are ruined for a few months.
Premier League: Tottenham Hotspur vs. Leicester City, 3 p.m. ET
We’ve all heard the jokes about the Spurs and their recent trophies won and lack of player movement this offseason.
Perhaps the club’s second attempt this year under Australian Ange Postecoglou will be different?
It will take some time to see if that is indeed the case, but I would like to see them go into their first game here as excited as the travelling Spurs fans have been all season, and play against a promoted team whose new manager is without three key players, Jamie Vardy, Patson Daka and Conor Coady, through injury.
That said, the Spurs were pretty poor away from home for the majority of last season, winning just three of their final 13 games on the road, but that was all after a very good start to their travel careers (14 points in their first six trips).
However, unlike the Foxes, they come into this match relatively healthy and should include debutant Dom Solanke up front who will be looking to make a good first impression.
The scenario looks like a 2-1 win here, so pick the home team, but no clean sheet.
Spurs win and BTTS (+170 on DraftKings)
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Serie A: Juventus vs. Como, 2:45 pm ET
Last season, Juventus looked like potential title contenders before Christmas, but the situation of this legendary club completely deteriorated after the turn of the year.
As a result, coach Max Allegri was fired at the end of the season and was subsequently replaced by Thiago Motta from Bologna.
Juventus fans are eagerly awaiting a Champions League campaign, however, and not everything has been a complete mess this season, and their squad is traditionally a great pick for the opening day, having won seven of their last eight Scudetto starters.
Como, meanwhile, are back in the top flight for the first time in more than two decades and have started their season with three consecutive wins.
Would have to favour the black and white players here, but I think Como sitting back and trying to respond might make it a little difficult to score a goal.
Look at what Torino did against Milan at the weekend and you get an idea of what else it was like beyond those two super-late goals that doomed Under.
Juventus wins, under 2.5 goals (+230 on DraftKings)
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La Liga: Villarreal at Atletico Madrid, 3:30 pm ET
Atletico will begin their campaign on the road, where they will look to continue their dominance over Villarreal, and extend their unbeaten streak at the Yellow Submarine to eight in a row.
Former Villarreal striker Alexander Sorloth will be in the visiting team this time around and will certainly look to get on the scoreboard to continue Atletico’s dominance in this series, as they have avoided defeat in 11 of their last 12 meetings at all venues.
I want the visitors to make a solid start here as they look to improve on their fourth-place finish last season.
Atletico Madrid: -1.5 goals (+250 on DraftKings)
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