The Premier League have released the full fixture list for the 2019/20 campaign and our Season Ticker will soon be updated with it.
It will begin on the evening of Friday, August 9 at Anfield, where Liverpool will host Norwich City.
Considering the Canaries’ poor defensive record even in their promotion-winning campaign, this fixture already looks like an ideal one for the captaincy.
Of course, that could be reliant on whether Mohamed Salah and Sadio Mané are back in full swing after competing in the African Cup of Nations over the summer.
Reigning champions Manchester City will start the defensive of their title the next day as they travel to West Ham United for the lunch-time kick-off on Saturday, August 10.
If the Hammers’ pre-season campaign suggests they have not solved last season’s problems at the back, and if predicting Pep Guardiola’s starting line-up isn’t too difficult, either Sergio Aguero or Raheem Sterling could also receive captaincy attention.
Alternatively, this could be an interesting fixture for Lukasz Fabianski at the very least, who looks likely to secure save points en masse in Gameweek 1.
Gameweek 1 fixtures in full:
Fri Aug 9 | 20:00 | Liverpool v Norwich City |
Sat Aug 10 | 12:30 | West Ham United v Manchester City |
Sat Aug 10 | 15:00 | Bournemouth v Sheffield United |
Sat Aug 10 | 15:00 | Burnley v Southampton |
Sat Aug 10 | 15:00 | Crystal Palace v Everton |
Sat Aug 10 | 15:00 | Leicester City v Wolves |
Sat Aug 10 | 15:00 | Watford v Brighton & Hove Albion |
Sat Aug 10 | 17:30 | Tottenham Hotspur v Aston Villa |
Sun Aug 11 | 14:00 | Newcastle United v Arsenal |
Sun Aug 11 | 16:30 | Manchester United v Chelsea |
Another eye-catching fixture among the opening round of matches is Saturday tea-time’s meeting between Tottenham Hotspur and Aston Villa.
The Villans arrive in the Premier League needing to make several changes at both ends of the pitch as they achieved promotion with some important loan players.
Even still, their defensive record was not hugely enviable and could allow options such as Harry Kane or Lucas Moura the opportunity to score big in Gameweek 1.
Villa’s fellow newcomers Sheffield United will begin life back in the top flight away at AFC Bournemouth.
That means the Cherries are hosting a newly-promoted team in Gameweek 1 for the second season running.
An opening weekend fixture likely to be avoided by Fantasy managers is Manchester United’s clash with Chelsea at Old Trafford.
This takes place at 16:30 on the afternoon of Sunday, August 11 and will certainly be of huge interest outside of the Fantasy bubble.
However, with both teams potentially much-changed after a busy summer, it will certainly be a hard one to predict.
Arsenal will have started their campaign earlier that afternoon as they are set to travel to Newcastle, who could have new investors by then.
Graham Potter’s first competitive match in charge of Brighton will be away at Watford, while Crystal Palace host Everton – both matches taking place on the Saturday afternoon.
Burnley and Southampton reverse their first league match of 2018/19, when they met on the south coast. This time around, the two teams go head-to-head at Turf Moor in Gameweek 1.
Two teams who could be looked to for mid-price options in 2019/20 face off on Saturday afternoon too as Leicester City host Wolves.
Looking beyond the opening weekend, both of those sides have hard to predict fixtures in Gameweek 2 too.
Leicester must travel to Chelsea while Wolves host Manchester United.
Also, both Liverpool and Manchester City, who will almost certainly contribute large numbers of players to Fantasy squads, have trickier matches on the second weekend than they had on the first.
Guardiola’s men host Spurs, while Liverpool face Arsenal at Anfield.
That said, each side has proven in the past they are more than capable of scoring against those opponents.
In fact, both Liverpool and Manchester City appear to have favourable fixtures for at least the first eight Gameweeks and we could be looking at triple-ups for each club.
Liverpool’s first eight fixtures:
- Gameweek 1: Norwich City (home)
- Gameweek 2: Southampton (away)
- Gameweek 3: Arsenal (home)
- Gameweek 4: Burnley (away)
- Gameweek 5: Newcastle (home)
- Gameweek 6: Chelsea (away)
- Gameweek 7: Sheffield United (away)
- Gameweek 8: Leicester City (away)
The hardest match within this run is probably that Gameweek 6 trip to Chelsea, although there has been plenty of promise about Brendan Rodgers’ Leicester side.
Perhaps Gameweek 8 might prove the time to move away from Liverpool assets, especially with a trip to Manchester United coming in Gameweek 9.
Manchester City’s first eight fixtures:
- Gameweek 1: West Ham (away)
- Gameweek 2: Tottenham (home)
- Gameweek 3: Bournemouth (away)
- Gameweek 4: Brighton (home)
- Gameweek 5: Norwich (away)
- Gameweek 6: Watford (home)
- Gameweek 7: Everton (away)
- Gameweek 8: Wolves (home)
Manchester City’s first eight Gameweeks also look rather favourable as a whole.
After hosting Spurs in Gameweek 2, they don’t face another member of last season’s top six until travelling to Liverpool in Gameweek 12.
Much has already been made of Spurs’ home fixtures as Watford are the only top-10 side from last season they will host before Chelsea visit on December 21.
However, it may be hard to invest too heavily in the early Gameweeks.
That’s because Spurs have away trips to Manchester City and Arsenal in their first four.
Tottenham Hotspur’s first eight fixtures:
- Gameweek 1: Aston Villa (home)
- Gameweek 2: Manchester City (away)
- Gameweek 3: Newcastle United (home)
- Gameweek 4: Arsenal (away)
- Gameweek 5: Crystal Palace (home)
- Gameweek 6: Leicester (away)
- Gameweek 7: Southampton (home)
- Gameweek 8: Brighton (away)
Those who were hoping to invest in Teemu Pukki for the start of the season may have to quell their interest.
Despite his prospects as a Fantasy option, Norwich’s first Premier League fixtures in 2019/20 are particularly nasty.
In the first five Gameweeks, they face Liverpool (away), Chelsea (home) and Manchester City (home).
Likewise, Wolves fixtures look tricky too, made perhaps harder by an earlier start to the campaign due to their involvement in the Europa League.
Manchester United (home), Chelsea (home) and Manchester City (away) are all three opponents that come after a trip to a resurgent Leicester on opening weekend.
Wolves first eight fixtures:
- Leicester City (away)
- Manchester United (home)
- Burnley (home)
- Everton (away)
- Chelsea (home)
- Crystal Palace (away)
- Watford (home)
- Manchester City (away)
4 years, 10 months ago
Very impressed that they have the new ticker up and running already - appetite partially whetted.