Aldosivi v Rosario Central

This match in the Liga Profesional has a tasty edge to it, because Aldosivi signed manager Leandro Somoza, who was the manager at Rosario Central until two weeks ago. It seems pretty clear that Rosario wanted to get rid of him without paying anything extra, because Rosario had about 11 professional players at the start of the season and the rest were all young kids. With Carlos Tevez, a big name came in and suddenly there was some money available to sign new players. 

This weekend, the much-needed striker was also finally announced. Jonathan Candia came over from Huracán, where he wasn't first choice any more. He had a decent spell halfway last season, and is good for link up play with the midfielders, but he is not the goal getter who'll automatically score 10 goals a year. It still looks like Rosario can be competitive again and away at Aldosivi might be a great opportunity to get to winning ways. 

Aldosivi look poor this season. They started with the problems with former manager Martín Palermo, who left just before the start of the season. Last season's league top goalscorer Martín Cauteruccio hasn't been playing either, while he is trying to force a move to a bigger club. Last week they suffered a pretty embarrassing 5-0 defeat at Racing and they just don't seem to have the quality. With Somoza they finally have a replacement for Palermo, but I thought he didn't have much to offer at Rosario, so don't see why it really would improve Aldosivi. Rosario still have a way to go before they can compete for the top half of the table, but against a weak Aldosivi, they should be favoured to take the three points.

Newell's Old Boys v Patronato

Newell's are top of the table and that is well deserved. They haven't had the 'burden' of playing an international tournament and it has done them well. With 13 points from five games, they have been almost flawless and it has been deserved. The defence has been rock solid. They barely give away chances and only conceded one goal so far. Centre back Willer Ditta has been the key player, he has even been chosen in the South-American team of the month. Whether he played next to Cristian Lema, Victor Velazquez or both, he always stood out. 

Patronato recorded their first victory of the season last weekend (3-1 against Independiente). After the early 1-0, they were a man down for 75 minutes because of a rash challenge from Jonathan Valdez, but they kept the ranks closed and were gifted two more goals by horrible mistakes from Independiente. They did show resilience being a man down for 75 minute, but when it comes to quality, I still think they are one of the weakest teams in the league. 

Newell's signed some new players, but it seems that they won't be available yet for this game. Nevertheless, they will have the same XI available that won the last three games without conceding a single goal, so it shouldn't be an impediment for another victory in their own stadium.