A year ago
The Premier League continues this weekend with 27 matches across England on Saturday and Sunday.
The weekend kicks off at the Vitality Stadium on Saturday and Liverpool will keep their hopes of a top-four finish when they take on Bournemouth in today's opener. Chelsea will be looking to claim a second straight win and feed their dreams of the top four when they take on Leicester City at the King Power Stadium on Saturday.
Manchester City will be looking to close the gap with Premier League leaders Arsenal when they travel to Selhurst Park to take on Crystal Palace. Arsenal will bolster their Premier League title hopes when they take on Fulham at Craven Cottage on Sunday. Manchester United welcome Southampton to Old Trafford and are looking to recover from their recent 7-0 loss to Liverpool.
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Questions were frequently asked about Carlo Ancelotti's future when Real Madrid struggled on the pitch. The team showed a lot of promise at the start of the campaign and had not lost a game until an away defeat in Germany to RB Leipzig in the UEFA Champions League. Things have gone south for them lately.
Currently, Real Madrid is 9 points behind Barcelona in the La Liga rankings. They also lost the first leg of the Copa del Rey semi-final to the Catalan giants 1-0, also at the Santiago Bernabeu. Therefore, the Champions League could be their best hope to win the silver title this season.
The 5-2 victory over Liverpool right at Anfield has raised many hopes to be a launch pad for Ancelotti's army, which has been declining for a while. Instead, they seem to have gotten worse since that game and have won none of their previous three, drawing Atletico Madrid and Real Betis while losing to Barcelona.
Not good enough to say the least. Several Real Madrid players have been disappointing in recent weeks. And at the top of this list can name a certain Karim Benzema.
The Real Madrid superstar needs to improve over the next few weeks and matches
Benzema had moments where he couldn't play last season. It was undoubtedly the best campaign of his career, helping him win the Ballon d'Or and cementing Real Madrid's legendary status once and for all.
Benzema didn't hit those heights this time around. It's been a season full of fitness problems, leaving him unable to regain his momentum. And in recent weeks, many fans feel that he seems a bit disinterested.
If Real Madrid want to succeed this season, they will need Benzema to deliver on his promise. He is the solution to many of their current problems. The Frenchman is not only a regular goalscorer, but he also makes the best of those around him, like Vinicius Junior and Fede Valverde.
It's no coincidence that the wingers struggled while Benzema wasn't at his best, and in many ways, the team as well. Real Madrid will have some really important matches next week, and hopefully we'll see the Frenchman at his best in those games again.
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