Solari hopes that his beginners luck continues as official Real reign begins

Ok. Wakey-wakey, rise and shine. Club soccer is back! 

Time to crawl back to the sofa for a four-day binging weekend of the beautiful game with not a turkey in sight.

To help things along during a post-Thanksgiving, post-international break universe, here's a Sports Burst mind-meld to bring y'all back to where we were before, starting with Real Madrid.

Santiago Solari is now the official new coach because a) he was the first choice of club president, Florentino Perez, all along or b) no-one else would do the job. 

Take your pick on that. But any hoo, Saturday's La Liga encounter at Eibar is the Argentinean's first game as official manager of Madrid and Solari will be hoping that his rookie lucky streak of four wins from four carries into the real world. 

"I am grateful and excited by this opportunity," were the words of Solari on Friday who was also asked the imaginative question of whether he would be the new Zinedine Zidane, having followed the same path as the Frenchman - main guy fired, appointed from second team with no better option. "Zizou? He's going to eat my statistical dust," boomed Solari. Not really. 

"He can't be compared with anyone else," said the Real Madrid manager, "he's a legend." 

In terms of team news ahead of the trip to the north of Spain, Nacho and Casemiro are still sidelined while Keylor Navas is a doubt for his bench-warming duties. Marcelo, Dani Carvajal and Mariano are back in action after injury. 

Real Madrid face Eibar in Saturday's early clash at 7AM ET / 4AM PT live on beIN SPORTS. 

Winter whiplash gets underway in La Liga with four teams tussling for the top

Whatever Real Madrid do on Saturday morning against Eibar, the team will not be at the top of the table. Instead, it could be any one of Barcelona, Alaves, Atletico Madrid or Sevilla in quite the wild winter weekend in La Liga. 

Indeed, Barca is going into Friday as league leaders, but the remarkable Alaves could take the spot with an away win at Leganes today in a clash that is live on beIN SPORTS ESPANYOL and CONNECT at 3PM ET / 12PM PT. 

Atletico Madrid would then have the chance to take over with a home victory in a humdinger of a clash against Barcelona on Saturday afternoon, although an injury crisis at the back could well see those plans done and dusted. After that, Sevilla is in action on Sunday with a home game against Real Valladolid. 

The Locker Room is the place to be as our panel ponder why La Liga is set to produce a classic title race this season. Tune in today at 7:30PM ET / 4:30PM PT.

PSG pair of Neymar and Mbappe winning fitness battle for Liverpool life-saver

Some rousing news for PSG fans on Friday with coach Thomas Tuchel announcing that the injured pair of Neymar and Kylian Mbappe should both be fit for the club’s huuuuuge - with cherries on top - Champions League game against Liverpool on Wednesday.

Both picked up knocks on international duty with Neymar suffering from an iffy groin and Mbappe with a hurty shoulder.

However, the vibe is definitely ‘should’. "I think - and this is my opinion, I spoke with the doctor and the players - I think they can play," said Tuchel on Friday.

One thing for certain is that the pair will be missing from Saturday’s clash against Toulouse in Ligue Un which is probably of great relief to Edinson Cavani, who might be able to see some of the ball now.

Ligue Un is off to a flier on Friday with the derby between Lyon and Saint Etienne. And with Sports Burst having lived in Lyon, it can confirm that there is no love lost between this pair who are currently fourth and fifth in the standings respectively.

That game is live on beIN SPORTS at 3PM ET / 12PM. And the XTRA is the place to be for the best of Friday’s action from around Europe.

Mourinho suggest key Man United players lack character

Jose Mourinho is going to have a little bit of explaining to do later on Friday after an interview with Univision where he accused the Manchester United grouping of Luke Shaw, Anthony Martial, Jesse Lingard and Marcus Rashford of lacking ‘character’ and ‘personality’. 

That will be an interesting weekend for the quintet. Eighth-placed Manchester United is at home to Crystal Palace on Saturday.

Chelsea has announced today that N’Golo Kante has signed a new five-year deal with the Stamford Bridge club. “Since I came, I completely improved as a player, challenged myself and got some awards I never thought about,” beamed Kante who joined from Leicester City in 2016.

Happy Jurgen Klopp was talking on Friday and part of the chat concerned another contract renewal. In this case, forward Sadio Mane. "In the past players thought they had to leave the club to make the next step. Now our boys think they can make the next step here," opined Klopp.