Weekend predictions: Liverpool or Newcastle? Can Mourinho win first match of Madrid return?

For the opening of top leagues this week, we take you to England, Germany, Spain, the Netherlands, France and Italy. We also already have a cup final and a clash between two big clubs.

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Every week this season, I pick for you the best or most exciting games not to be missed in the world of football. From derbies to top-of-the-table clashes, relegation six-pointers to world-class players facing each other or other interesting tactical battles, there will be something for everyone to enjoy.

Big question marks for big Premier League sides
Newcastle United vs. Liverpool

English Premier League, Matchday 1
Kickoff: Sunday, 11:30 a.m. ET / 4:30 p.m. BST

On paper, this is a big game between two teams who were both in the UEFA Champions League last season. In reality, this is a game full of uncertainty.

Both sides have many question marks about them going into this new season. They both have new managers to start with. At least Liverpool's Andoni Iraola had three Premier League years of experience with AFC Bournemouth, unlike Newcastle coach Mathias Jaissle, who came from the Saudi Pro League.

Iraola is looking at completely changing the style of play and mentality from what Arne Slot did before him. It is also a big change for him: At Bournemouth, he was often the underdog team in games and could afford a less ball-dominant approach. Not at Liverpool. Jaissle's philosophy is also different from his predecessor's, Eddie Howe, even if they both like intensity.

The more worrying thing for both teams is that their teams and squads are far from complete. Newcastle have lost key players (Sandro Tonali, Bruno Guimarães, Anthony Gordon, Kieran Trippier) for a lot of money in total, but they have only replaced them with youth (Amar Dedic, Aladji Bamba, Sean Steur, Bazoumana Touré). Liverpool's recruitment process has been tough. Center back Jérémy Jacquet was signed in January but apart from him, Ronald Araújo arrived on loan from Barcelona and Víctor Muñoz was signed from Osasuna. They still need at least two midfielders and a backup striker for Alexander Isak during Hugo Ekitike's long recovery after his injury. And how will Liverpool be without Mohamed Salah? The Reds' talisman left in the summer, and despite not being great last season, he will be really difficult to replace.

MY PREDICTION: Newcastle 1-2 Liverpool. We don't really know what to expect from either side at this stage of the summer but Liverpool, even away, still have more talents and resources than Newcastle. I can see them winning this one by a narrow margin, though.

Mourinho's grand return to LaLiga
Espanyol vs. Real Madrid

Spanish LaLiga, Matchday 1
Kickoff: Saturday, 3:30 p.m. ET / 8:30 p.m. BST (stream LIVE on ESPN+)

There is only one place to start: José Mourinho. The Special One is back at Real Madrid, and just for that, you have to watch this game.

We have already seen Mou angry during Madrid's draw against Fiorentina in preseason. We have seen him happy and excited after the win against Schalke 04 last weekend. We have seen him rejecting the opportunity to sign Rodri, but keeping Vinícius Júnior at the club and promising a new golden era.

The Merengues might not be totally ready just yet, though, considering a lot of their World Cup players came back to training not that long ago. But the new signings are exciting and promising: Yan Diomande, Bernardo Silva, Marc Cucurella, Ibrahima Konaté, Denzel Dumfries and Carlos Espí. Different profiles, lots of potential.

Mourinho will have to create a team with great individual talents. He has done it before but can he still do it? Can Jude Bellingham, Vini, Diomande and Kylian Mbappé play together? Mbappé, the top goal scorer last season but incapable of taking the team to some silverware, is hungry for success.

But this first trip away in LaLiga could actually be a bit tricky. Espanyol started the season with a convincing win at home against Levante (3-0) with a brace from promising striker Roberto Fernández. They have a young attack, quick and skillful and already have better match fitness than Real Madrid, who didn't play last weekend in the league. They will make it a battle like they did two years ago when they beat Real at home.

MY PREDICTION: Espanyol 1-2 Real Madrid. The pressure on Real Madrid and Mourinho is huge, but they will cope well with it and win this game. We are all impatient to see what Mourinho will do with all his superstars, and this will be a positive first answer on Saturday.

Premier League champs begin title defense
Arsenal vs. Coventry City

English Premier League, Matchday 1
Kickoff: Friday, 3 p.m. ET / 8 p.m. BST

Twenty-two years after their last Premier League title, Arsenal finally ended their drought, and they are now going for a second title in a row.

They start the defense of their crown at home against newly promoted Coventry, and it feels like during the summer, the gap between the Gunners and the rest got bigger. Unlike Liverpool, Manchester City or Manchester United, the champions have been very efficient in their recruitment. Despite missing out on Morgan Rogers after not matching Chelsea's offer, they signed Christos Tzolis, Bruno Guimarães and (very soon) Ezri Konsa, while only Leandro Trossard left the club.

The long injury of William Saliba is a massive blow, but Arsenal's 3-0 demolition of Manchester City last weekend in the Community Shield and the form of Martin Ødegaard, Tzolis and Riccardo Calafiori showed that they are ready for whoever wants to take the title away from them.

For Coventry, starting the season with the most difficult game possible was not a gift. They will travel to London with zero pressure, though. Frank Lampard and his players were outstanding in the Championship last season and have strengthened their squad with more than €100 million spent on eight new signings, including promising young midfielder Caleb Yirenkyi and striker Sidiki Cherif. It will probably won't be enough to beat Arsenal, but could it be enough to avoid relegation?

MY PREDICTION: Arsenal 3-0 Coventry. Coventry will dream of a massive upset, like Brentford's over Arsenal a few years back (also on a Friday night to open the season) but the Gunners are ready, confident, in form and hungry. They won't let this opportunity pass, and they will get a strong win.

Silverware up for grabs early in Germany
Borussia Dortmund vs. Bayern Munich

German Bundesliga, Matchday 33
Kickoff: Saturday, 12:30 p.m. ET / 5:30 p.m. BST

We have had the Community Shield in England and the French Super Cup, now it is Germany's turn.

Bayern Munich had an exceptional season last year, winning their first domestic double in a while, so they meet Borussia Dortmund, who finished second last year, in the curtain raiser of the German season. We never take too much away from these early half-friendly, half-competitive games, but it will still be interesting to see both teams in action against each other.

Dortmund are once again probably the strongest team to try to challenge Bayern's dominance. They lost Karim Adeyemi, but they recruited well with Joey Veerman and three wonderkids in French center back Joane Gadou and two Greek internationals in winger Konstantinos Karetsas and midfielder Giannis Konstantelias while extending the contract of Nico Schlotterbeck. Niko Kovac has a better squad going into this season and should build a better team.

But so will Vincent Kompany and Bayern -- the German giants managed to keep Michael Olise for at least another season while recruiting two great players in left back Nathaniel Brown and striker Ismael Saibari. They needed to strengthen in these two positions and have done exactly that. They have a stacked squad full of talent and experience now. This is the first trophy they can win, and they will want to make a statement as well with a strong performance to start a campaign in which they want to win everything in Germany and in Europe.

MY PREDICTION: Dortmund 1-3 Bayern Munich. Bayern are again the team to beat in this game, but also in the Bundesliga and the DFB-Pokal this season. Dortmund are likely to have good moments in this game, but not enough to really trouble Kompany and his players.

Upset potential in Ligue 1?
Paris Saint-Germain vs. Stade Rennais

Ligue 1, Matchday 1
Kickoff: Sunday, 2:45 p.m. ET / 7:45 p.m. BST

This is PSG-Rennais, but it will actually be Rennais-PSG after the French league decided to move the game to Rennais and invert the two fixtures because of the bad state of the Parc des Princes pitch. The successive heatwaves this summer have killed the PSG pitch, and it would have been dangerous to make the players play on it. 

So the Parisians will travel to Brittany, and it will make the game harder for them. Rennais are usually very good at home. They have had a busy summer in terms of departures, including key players such as Breel Embolo, and arrivals including Adrien Thomasson and Eliezer Mayenda. Coach Franck Haise joined in February to replace Habib Beye and is looking at building on the sixth-place finish he and the players achieved last season. Keeping their best player, Esteban Lepaul, was very important, and they managed to do it. They will look at developing more young players from their very successful academy.

For PSG, this is a tricky game. The back-to-back European champions lost in Brittany last season (3-1) and they lost the French Super Cup against Lens last weekend (1-0) despite a decent performance. But many of their key players are not fully match fit, while Nuno Mendes, sent off against Lens, has been suspended for three games. Ferran Torres and Mika Godts, the latest recruits, should be in the squad, but Bradley Barcola, potentially on his way out, will miss out again despite not being injured, as was the case against Lens.

MY PREDICTION: PSG 2-2 Rennais. Now that the game is in Rennais, it levels the fields more, and PSG are not physically ready yet. The new home team will take advantage of that and will cause problems for the champions to earn a point.

Early test for surprise Dutch league leaders
PSV Eindhoven vs. FC Groningen

Eredivisie, Matchday 3 
Kickoff: Sunday, 8:30 a.m. ET / 1:30 p.m. BST

Nobody would have predicted at the start of the season that, three weeks in, this game would be a clash between Groningen as the leaders and PSV as the team in sixth in the table. Yet, here we are.

On Sunday, Peter Bosz and his players, ultradominant champions last season, will already be under pressure. After being humiliated by AZ Alkmaar 4-0 in the Dutch Super Cup two weeks ago, they dropped two points against Fortuna Sittard, while Groningen got two wins in two, like AZ, after two convincing displays. After finishing ninth last season and qualifying for Europe via the Conference League, Dick Lukkien and his players are aiming for more. They have a lot of talented players all around the pitch, such as Thom van Bergen, 22, who was outstanding against ADO Den Haag in the No. 10 role with a goal and an assist or David van der Werff, 21, who also scored in that game.

PSV will be the favorites, though, as everyone expects them to finally kick off their season in this clash with the leaders. They missed a lot of chances against Fortuna and should have won the game. But without star player Ismael Saibari, who left for Bayern Munich, they lacked efficiency. However, Ruben van Bommel, the son of Mark, scored last weekend, and at 22 he looks like a really good player in the making. Joey Veerman, one of the key players for Bosz, won't be there after his move to Dortmund; his replacement, Japan international Kodai Sano will have big shoes to fill!

MY PREDICTION: PSV 3-1 Groningen. In two games, PSV had 41 shots and created 5 expected goals along the way. The results have not gone their way, but this is the perfect game to respond with a dominant performance, in front of their own fans, and they will do it. They will be too strong for the surprise of the season so far in Groningen.

New faces for Serie A's title holders
Inter Milan vs. Monza

Italian Serie A, Matchday 1
Kickoff: Sunday, 12:30 p.m. ET / 5:30 p.m. BST

Inter Milan start the defense of their league title at home against Monza in a derby and with a lot of ambitions for the season.

Cristian Chivu won the league in his first year and is aiming to go back-to-back. He will have a new team to after the departure of key players such as Denzel Dumfries and Yann Sommer and the experience of Matteo Darmian and Francesco Acerbi. New faces such as John Stones, Djed Spence and the very promising Aleksandar Stankovic have arrived, but the leaders are starting with the same two up front, Marcus Thuram and Lautaro Martínez. Once again, they will be the team's main asset, in front of the midfield led by Hakan Çalhanoglu, who is still there (for now).

Inter won the league 11 points clear of Napoli and are the favorites to retain their title this year. They have looked solid in preseason, and this game against Monza at San Siro should give them an easy start. The newly promoted side is back in Serie A, a year after their relegation from the top flight. They have chosen Ivan Juric, the former Southampton and Atalanta manager, to sit on their bench for this season. He won his first game in charge last weekend in the Coppa Italia against lower-league Avellino (3-0) but this will be much tougher challenge. The objective for Juric and Monza is just to stay up. They have a young team and experience in the form of 31-year-old forwards Andrea Petagna and Keita Baldé.

MY PREDICTION: Inter 3-0 Monza. This will be tough for Monza. Inter Milan, as the defending champions, will start their campaign on a high, carrying the momentum from last season. They are once again the best team in the league and will show it straight away.