Another interesting weekend is in the offing for the Bank of Valletta Premier League with four matches considered to be the highlight of the full programme.

This will be the last batch of matches - round 6 - before the next international break for the away matches against Kosovo and Azerbaijan in the UEFA Nations League.

Leaders Gzira seem to have a good chance of extending their lead at the top. At present they have collected 13 points from the five matches played. They are followed by Balzan and Sliema on 12, Valletta, Hibernians and Birkirkara on 9, Hamrun 8, Mosta 7, Floriana and Tarxien 6, Qormi 4, St Andrews 3, Pieta 2 and Senglea 1.

I expect Gzira to beat Qormi but their immediate followers, Balzan and Sliema, face a tough time when playing against Valletta and Hamrun respectively.

In other matches, the Hibs-Tarxien derby should be another highlight this weekend.

The other matches are Pieta-Mosta, Floriana-Senglea and Birkirkara-St Andrews.

Gzira are the talk of the town at the moment. They are still unbeaten and have been going from strength to strength.

They should not find any difficulty in disposing of Qormi who are finding the going quite tough in the Premier Division.

In their last match they lost 3-1 against Floriana after having suffered a 6-0 defeat to the champions, Valletta, in the previous round.

 

TOP MATCH

The top match of the weekend, however, is the Balzan-Valletta encounter which is being played this evening at the National Stadium.

The two teams will be seeking to extend their current positive run.

Balzan have gone through four consecutive wins after their initial defeat at the hands of Birkirkara. They have been quite impressive scoring 13 goals and conceding four overall.

On the other hand, Valletta had started on a negative note with two defeats from two matches, but then recovered to win the last three matches, the last one convincingly against bottom club Senglea (6-0).

In these matches, both teams have shown that they are well equipped to be challenging once again for the league title and they will certainly be eyeing three very important points this evening.

Sliema will be hoping to extend their positive run and add another victory to their tally as they meet mid-table placed Hamrun Spartans.

The latter have made quite a successful start to the season with two wins, two draws and one defeat.

The Blues will, however, have to be very cautious as I consider the Wanderers as the real revelation side this season.

John Buttigieg's boys have given their fans a lot of satisfying moments so far with four victories and one defeat. Moreover, they have been impressive and won their matches convincingly.

Although they start as favourites to win the three points, they cannot take the Spartans for granted.

 

THE DERBY

Another highlight this weekend is the derby between neighbours Hibernians and Tarxien Rainbows.

The Paolites obtained a 2-0 win against St Patricks with two late goals, while the Rainbows suffered their third defeat - 3-1 - against Sliema Wanderers.

As usual, like all other derbies, this will be a keenly contested encounter with both teams eyeing the three points for various reasons.

The Paolites want to remain close to the leaders while the Rainbows need the points to move further up the table, further away from the relegation zone.

In the other matches, I expected the Pieta-Mosta encounter to be another close match in which newcomers Pieta will be going all out to win their first match this season.

Mosta have done relatively well so far and have been a tough nut to crack for all opponents.

On their part, Pieta have given all opponents a good run for their money.

In the other matches, Floriana and Birkirkara are expected to run out winners when facing Senglea and St Andrews respectively.