What to watch this weekend in the Premier League, La Liga, Serie A and Bundesliga - September 19

AC Milan vs. Juventus

A win's a win, right? Three points are three points? Well … sort of. On Saturday evening, AC Milan and Juventus meet in the San Siro. They sit in first and second place atop an embryonic Serie A. Both are technically perfect: two wins from two, six points from six. Yet — allowing for the fact that two games is a vanishingly small, hugely unrepresentative sample — both have taken completely different paths to said perfection.

Juventus, for their part, have been … well, they've been Juventus. Viewed by nearly everybody as an underwhelming, even peculiar replacement for triple-title winning coach Antonio Conte, Massimiliano Allegri has taken the wise decision not to fix what isn't broken. With much the same squad playing much the same system, the Old Lady has seen off Chievo and Udinese without conceding a goal, and goes into the weekend buoyed by a 2-0 win in the Champions League. They've not been spectacular, but there's nothing in Italy quite so ominous as an efficient Juventus team.

Milan, by contrast, have been brilliantly bonkers. Off the back of a strange and worrying summer which saw much coming and going, Filippo Inzaghi has been left with a squad that might best be described as mercurially brilliant up front and miserably unbrilliant at the back. In two games, Keisuke Honda, Jérémy Menez and the rest have combined to score eight at one end, while at the other Daniele Bonera has marshalled his men to five conceded. Perhaps a 3-1 win over Lazio is nothing to worry about, but last week's 5-4 ultra-farce against Parma was just as concerning for anybody connected to Milan as it was hilarious for the wider world.

We'll level with you here. This isn't like the old days when these were two of the most powerful sides in the country: Milan finished 8th last season for a reason, while Juventus are favourites for this because they are reigning champions, with a stronger team made out of better players. It's entirely possible that this could be a relatively dull, one-sided affair. But still. Milan were supposed to be a mess this season, and the fact that they've so far been an entertaining and winning mess gives us hope that this could turn into a proper scrap.

In any case, it's "AC Milan versus Juventus". Red and black against black and white. 18 scudetti play 30. This is a game that would be compulsory watching if it were in Serie C. We're holding out for a 4-3. We're not saying in which direction.

PSV Eindhoven vs. Cambuur Leeuwarden

Never heard of Cambuur Leeuwarden? Neither had I until this year, and I lived in the Netherlands for nine months. Which is odd, as they seem to have a rather fanatical following, nearly filling the stadium every week. It's not a huge venue, holding only around 10,000, but considering Leeuwarden has barely more than 100,000 people, that's fairly significant.

With Cambuur now third in the Eredivisie, you may think that these supporters are mere glory hunters. But they were avidly attending home matches even when the club were in the second division … which was a mere two seasons ago.

Now, they're sitting above some rather famous names. Twente. Feynoord. Ajax. Cambuur have yet to lose a game and have conceded just five goals in five matches, which is impressive considering the Dutch league seems to emphasize attacking so much that defense is a mere afterthought.

Oh, and Cambuur are a mere point behind PSV. Of course, only five rounds have passed, and the state of the Eredivisie table could change rapidly. Last season, after five games, Feyenoord were 12th, and wound up finishing second. It was PEC Zwolle that were in first, but they ended up in eighth.

But at this time last year, Twente were sitting third, and that's where they stayed. The third-place club in the Eredivisie enters the Europa League playoff round, which certainly wouldn't be a minor accomplishment for this rather small but fiercely-followed side.

There are 29 games left to play. Including, first, a tough trip to Philips Stadion, where PSV rarely dropped points last season. Yet Cambuur haven't exactly eased into this season with a series of easy opponents. They first welcomed Twente, then headed to Vitesse. Last week they dominated Groningen, who were sitting above them in the table, running out 3-0 winners.

Cambuur isn't a squad filled with high-profile players or young stars that Premier League clubs are drooling over. How many have watched Michiel Hemmen, or Erik Bakker, or Bartholomew Ogbeche? They're flying under the radar at Cambuur. But that's likely to change if this side continues to make waves in the league, particularly if they dominate against the bigger names in Holland. So use this weekend to watch this surprising side, before too many eyes start turning its way.

Manchester City vs. Chelsea

We’re going to ignore Saturday’s Premier League slate. No day which kicks off with Queens Park Rangers hosting Stoke can possibly be a good footballing day, even if both Arsenal and Liverpool feature. Instead, your England budget should be used on Sunday for what is arguably the most important fixture of not just the season so far but the whole thing: Chelsea travel to the Etihad to face defending champions Manchester City in a match that, even this early, has serious implications for the title race.

When these two sides met last year, Chelsea came out winners both times, an incredible feat considering that by the time they played the away match it was mid-February and the eventual winners had a perfect home record in the league. Now, five points ahead of City after just four games, Jose Mourinho will be looking to repeat the feat. If his side manages it, they’ll open up a healthy gap between themselves and their only serious rivals — conversely this represents a real chance for Manuel Pellegrini and company to pull closer to Chelsea and perhaps lay down a major statement.

For despite the 100 percent record, the leaders look defensively vulnerable. They’ve conceded five goals in their last two league games (they might consider themselves lucky to have limited Everton and Swansea to just the five), and with all three of John Terry, Gary Cahill and Nemanja Matic looking wobbly in the early going the likes of Sergio Agüero and Yaya Touré will surely be licking their lips.

There’ll be no such pretences for the City defenders, however. Eden Hazard was tricky enough to deal with on his own last season, but now that Chelsea have recruited Cesc Fabregas and Diego Costa to provide extra firepower precisely zero teams have found a way of stopping the Blues’ attack in full flow. That means goals, and lots of them — the last four total games that these teams have played have seen the ball picked out of the back of the net 20 times. That City's back line will be tired after the rearguard action they put up in midweek makes the task even harder.

Perhaps both managers will look to play a more solid, defensive game as they meet their most serious challengers for the title. This would be an understandable decision, after all: neither Pellegrini nor Jose Mourinho look in robust enough health to withstand the stress of a nine-goal thriller at the Etihad. But right now we can’t even be sure whether these teams are even capable of playing defensive football. So if they fail in their sacred task of blowing the doors off the Premier League weekend, at least we’ll have learned something from the endeavour.