Chelsea‘s 2-1 win over Crystal Palace last Saturday was the first of 13 matches the Blues will end up playing between October 1 and November 12. Most of their biggest English rivals will end up playing 12 matches in that span.
Borussia Dortmund will have crammed in a DFB-Pokal match, four huge Champions League battles, and matches against Der Klassiker rival Bayern Munich, Bundesliga leader Union Berlin and local rivals Bochum and Borussia Monchengladbach.
Barcelona will have played 12 matches, squeezing in October 16’s El Clasico around a trio of vital Champions League matches (two against Inter Milan, one against Bayern Munich), the first of which they lost on Tuesday.
Welcome to “Hell Month.” (We’re going with that because it sounds better than Hell Six Weeks.) With two-thirds of Champions League, Europa League and Conference League group-stage matches, nearly every major European derby — starting with Manchester City and Manchester United last weekend and rolling from there — and a countless number of huge league battles all crammed into an abbreviated timeline thanks to the impending World Cup pause, this could be the most important and exhausting month (or so) of club play the sport has seen.
We already saw some telling league matches last weekend, and Matchday 3 of the Champions League has come and gone, but my own head was beginning to swim with all of the important matches coming up. I figure yours might be as well. So let’s step back for a moment and take stock. What huge matches are happening, and when? What will be decided by the time the eyes of the soccer world turn to Qatar in mid-November? What questions will get answered? And what teams will we learn the most about as these weeks continue to unfold? Here’s a look at some of the most interesting storylines:
