Weekly matchday preview drafts for your football site

Every Tuesday at 8am, build a matchday preview blog post for my football site about my club's next fixture, and save it to WordPress as a draft so I can review it before it goes live. My club is [replace with the team you follow, for example Arsenal].

Start by resolving my club's name to its team id with the API-Sports Get Teams Information operation using the search filter. Then call List Fixtures with that team id and next=1 to get the single upcoming fixture. From that fixture, capture both team ids, the fixture id, the opponent's name, the competition (league id) and season, the kickoff date and time, and the venue. The later calls all need the two team ids, the league id, and the season.

Gather the supporting data from API-Sports. Use Get Head-to-Head Fixtures for the two clubs to summarize how their recent meetings have gone. Use Get Standings for the fixture's league and season to read both clubs' current league position, points, and goal difference. Use Get Team Statistics for each club in that league and season to describe their season form, including recent results, home and away record, and goals scored and conceded. Use Get Predictions for the fixture to see the model's view of the likely winner and the comparison percentages between the sides.

Then write a 400 to 600 word preview with these parts: a headline; a short scene-setting intro; a form and head-to-head section that weaves the standings, the season statistics, and the recent meetings into a narrative; a short players to watch note for each side; and a predicted scoreline. Only commit to a scoreline I can actually justify from the form and head-to-head evidence, and treat the model prediction as a supporting reference rather than a guarantee. Keep an editorial, reader-friendly tone and avoid betting-style language: no odds, no value bets, no tipping.

Publish the finished preview to WordPress with the Create a Post operation: use the headline as the title, the article as the content, and set status to draft. Add a category or tag such as Match Previews if it helps me keep the site organized. Leave it as a draft so I can review and edit before it is published.

If List Fixtures returns no upcoming match for my club (for example during the off-season or an international break), skip the run without creating a WordPress draft.