Premier League schedule: Manchester United host Arsenal opening weekend, Manchester City get easy start, more

Liverpool will defend their Premier League title at home against Bournemouth in the opening match of the Premier League season 2025-26. Newly promoted Sunderland starts their season at home at West Ham United, while their colleague -for example championship clubs Leeds and Burnley are at home from Everton and Road to Tottenham respectively, the first match of the last Thomas Frank.

Frank will travel to Manchester City during the second weekend of the season, but from there there will be a chance to build Momentum without further games against the 2024-25 top five to the end of November.

Perhaps the showpiece of the opening weekend Arsenal against Manchester United, a match that was once a title decision maker, is now second of last season against the 15th. It is not much easier for the gunners of their on -out with their 38 Game League campaign that sees two of their heaviest way in their first six.

Of course, every team has to play any other house and away, but the timing is not nothing, offering teams on both ends of the table a chance to build up some momentum that sets the tone for the coming season. This is what to know for those early games:

1. Man City might relieve himself in …

Given their engagements in the club World Cup this summer, which could run until mid -July, the last that manager Pep Guardiola had wanted that many games with a high intensity were loaded at the front of the luminaire list. That disturbing scenario seems to have been avoided by Manchester City, at least compared to the other two teams that compete for the title. However, it seems that it is the verb here. There is only one match against the top five of last season about their first six games and a trip to Wolves during the opening weekend seems a reasonable way to start things. Brighton away on game week three? Ticky, especially if the city is not in shape, but manageable.

The real question is what kind of Tottenham and Manchester United they encounter? After all, those were the 17th and 15th best sides of last season. The first have changed in the dugout, but will a preseason and one Premier League match be sufficient to let Thomas Frank’s side hum you? United always increases their game when they travel to Etihad, where they have won twice in their last six visits, but they will have no choice but to get the inequality in quality between the two parties. Negotiating Arsenal in Gamweek Five and it seems relatively easy to sail until November. An opportunity then, to bank a few points and perhaps even open daylight over the rest.

2. … while title rivals have to hit the ground.

The others will do well to keep pace if the city gets driving. Liverpool starts their title defense at home to Bournemouth, from there it becomes even more difficult. A visit to Newcastle and Van Arsenal round August and although September looks less intimidating – a home MerseSide Derby against Everton the striking match – the pressure builds from there with a match in Chelsea, at home at Manchester United and in Brentford. Fortunately for Arne Slot that three new players have to be through the door when the preseason starts.

Egred readers will have noticed that the name of Arsenal is popping up quite often so far and boys are for a test from the start. Their first six games bring trips to Oids Trafford, Anfield and their own personal haunted house of Terror, St. James’ Park. The home games are also not much easier with Nottingham Forest and Manchester City in the Emirates early. On the other hand, at least they have shown many of their most difficult assignments before the clocks change and it means that their run in post-januari looks more than manageable. Can they maintain the pace so that they can exploit it in the second half of the season?

3. Not the start that Amorim would like

According to Opta, Manchester United is the most difficult start of the season, with an average team assessment for their opposition (which goes up to 100) of 94.9. Where of course one has been kept. These graphs are always difficult for the little boys, the smaller teams that spent last season for their lives. It’s not like they can play themselves, right?

Of course there is no guarantees that United would win that either after their disastrous run of competition last season, 18 defeats of 38 games resulting in their worst competition finish since the relegation in 1973-74. That is probably not a realistic risk this season. The lower three occupied after they came across Arsenal (H), Fulham (A), Burnley (H), Manchester City (A), Chelsea (H)? That’s for sure.

4. Everton can settle in the house

The visit of Brighton on August 23 brings a new era about MerseSide, the first Premier League match in the Hill Dickinson Stadium. As West Ham and Arsenal can confirm, the first months in New Stadia can have their hiccups on the way. The nostalgia that a team propelled through last season makes way for dislocation, the MatchDay routines of fans (and players) make it a struggle to generate the atmosphere of the past.

Everton has at least time to work out those nodding. The first five Home League matches in front of David Moyes are the aforementioned Brighton, Aston Villa, West Ham, Crystal Palace and Tottenham. There are no easy matches in the top flight of England, the least for a party that has spent so long in the bottom half, but these are not the most difficult. There is time to build Fortress Hill Dickinson (sounds like something from the revolutionary war) on time for Liverpool’s visit mid -April.

5. Sunderland is given time to adapt

As a newly promoted side, would you rather alleviate yourself in life in the Premier League, play a few well -known opponents and perhaps get some of the smaller lights from last season’s competition, or save those competitions for a time that you are more ready to take on? Whatever Sunderland’s look at the issue is, it is largely irrelevant. They have taken the simpler path out of the gates and start their first top flight season in nine years with a home game against West Ham, followed by a trip to Burnley. Only in October do they play one of the top four of 2024-25, the remaining three come in the space of a month from 8 November.

Leeds and in particular Burnley can also watch their early competitions and support themselves to get a few points on the board in the beginning. Perhaps that will be the stage for a season in which they do not all return to the championship.

Premier League Opening Day matches

Always et

Friday, August 15

• Liverpool vs. Bournemouth (3 p.m.)

Saturday, August 16

• Aston Villa vs. Newcastle (7:30 am)
• Brighton vs. Fulham (10 hours)
• Nottingham Forest vs. Brentford (10 am)
• Sunderland vs. West Ham (10 am)
• Tottenham vs. Burnley (10.00 am)
• Wolverhampton Wanderers vs. Manchester City (12.30 pm)

Sunday, August 17

• Chelsea vs. Crystal Palace (9 hours)
• Manchester United vs. Arsenal (11.30 am)

Monday, August 18

• Leeds vs. Everton (3 p.m.)