It’s the Manchester derby, UNITED against CITY, but it’s certainly a strange one. Both of these clubs are in a bad way, though that means something different to each of them. City have fallen from champion grace but are still battling for a Champions League place. United, on the other hand, are 13th in the league with eight matches left to play.

It’s an incredible state of affairs for one of Europe’s true superclubs, and on this week’s show, the brilliant Carl Anka of The Athletic suggests that United are becoming something like the Dallas Cowboys: a giant global sporting institution that’s lost its magic. We got into how the Red Devils spent their way into this mess, how City have become a team with a soft underbelly, and why this Sunday’s encounter may be a meeting of the legless midfields.

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And as always, for kickoff times and storylines on all the other matches worth your time this weekend, check TheFootballWeekend.com.

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The international break is over, and club football returns with the Gran Derbi: REAL BETIS vs SEVILLA.

This is one of the most vibrant rivalry matches in world football, Spain's greatest local spat, a true expression of Seville's colorful culture: the freewheeling social scene fueled by ubiquitous outdoor dining and Sevillanos who are impressively direct with one another; the searing heat of Andalusia; the close quarters in which the two sets of fans live, including in split households; and a rich history featuring the Romans, the Moors, Christian kings of all stripes, and the dictatorship of Francisco Franco after the Spanish Civil War.

This derby has boiled over at times, but more than anything it's defined by the (mostly) good-natured banter of the street, known as guasa, and a stubborn refusal from both sides to drift towards the corporatism that has come to define the modern game. They're desperate to beat each other and, perhaps as importantly, see each other suffer. In recent years, Sevilla have become the Europa League masters, seven times champions since 2006, in what is a considerable shakeup of the dynamic here. For a while, neither of them won much of anything, and the whole ethos of Real Betis is built around manque pierda — something like, "even when they lose." Betis are the better off this season, though, gunning for European football next season year behind the talismanic talents of Isco, who not so long ago had a short and disastrous spell at Sevilla. He could be the difference-maker this Sunday, though this week's guest predicts Betis could still fall prey to their own inferiority complex in this fixture.

That guest is Colin Millar, news writer for The Athletic and author of The Frying Pan of Spain, a book on the history of this rivalry. He lived in Seville himself and has all kinds of insight into what this one means.

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And as always, for kickoff times and storylines on all the other matches worth your time this weekend, check TheFootballWeekend.com.

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There's a Super Sunday on the horizon, with tasty matches back-to-back all day long. Arsenal-Chelsea, title clashes in Italy and Spain. As always, you can get the lowdown on all the matches worth your time this coming weekend at TheFootballWeekend.com.

But there’s one headliner here, because there's a trophy up for grabs: It's LIVERPOOL vs NEWCASTLE at Wembley Stadium, vying for the League Cup.

It could be a nice tonic for the Reds after their untimely exit from the Champions League in midweek, while a trophy — any trophy — would be extremely timely for the Magpies. Newcastle United have not won a piece of major silverware since 1969. Their victory in the Inter-Cities Fairs Cup came a month before the moon landing.

Here to preview this one is Laurence McKenna, Liverpool fan and sharp football observer across all kinds of platforms, not least his channel on YouTube. You can find him on the socials @Lozcast.

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