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New fixtures? Another season? Are you kidding me? You mean they haven’t just cancelled football after the greatest thing that could ever happen—Liverpool winning number six in Madrid—happened? Fine. I guess we’ll just have to go again and try to win some more stuff.
The Premier League put out their fixture list today, and we’ll give you all the nitty-gritty, which may or may not involve the FA’s computers, which themselves may or may not be Skynet, doing their worst to Liverpool in an attempt to rob us of our Fowler-given glory.
More seriously, the art of scheduling 96 teams across the top 4 flights of English football is an impressive task. In accounting for all 2,036 matches, it must avoid giving any one team more than 3 home or away matches in any 5-game set, and no team should play more than 2 matches home or away on the bounce. It also must account for local rivals, eg., keeping Everton and Liverpool away from Merseyside on the same day. And finally, the rules dictate that all teams should have home and away matches on either side of FA Cup fixtures.
At least that’s how it starts, as in the second half of the season the FA rips up its well-laid plans in a fit of hysteria after cup replays and necessary fixture postponements stack up, making it all one big hot mess.
In addition to the normal Premier League business, Liverpool will also be dealing with fixture congestion surrounding our European and FIFA WORLD CUP commitments, and from the two domestic cups. Hopefully entering the coveted Pot 1 in the Champions League draw will reduce the odds of another “Group of Death” nightmare, and increases the possibility of rotating players just as the holiday fixture is heating up in the league. Also, in an added twist, the FA is giving a two week break after the holiday fixtures, off-set and split evenly among the teams, because Fowler forbid they miss out on even a single weekend of that sweet, sweet TV revenue. Oh, and it’s a leap year.
Anyway, let’s start off with the biggest, if not the best: the Derbies.
The Big Ones
Merseyside Derbies:
- December 4th (Home) “Merry Christmas, Everton”
- March 14th (Away)
- October 19th (Away)
- January 18th (Home)
The Best of the Rest
- August 24 - Arsenal (H)
- September 21 - Chelsea (A)
- October 26 - Tottenham (H)
- November 9 - Manchester City (H)
- January 11 - Tottenham (A)
- April 4 - Manchester City (A)
- May 2 - Arsenal (A)
- May 9 - Chelsea (H)
And now, because we can’t play Manchester City week-in, and week-out to the benefit of everyone, here’s the full schedule with the Stokes Burnleys of the world:
The Full Schedule
August
9 - Norwich City (H)
17 - Southampton (A)
24 - Arsenal (H)
31- Burnley (A)
September
14 - Newcastle United (H)
17-18 Champions League Match
21 - Chelsea (A)
28 - Sheffield United (A)
October
1-2 Champions League Match
5 - Leicester City (H)
19 - Manchester United (A)
22-23 Champions League Match
26 - Tottenham Hotspur (H)
November
2 - Aston Villa (A)
5-6 Champions League Match
9 - Manchester City (H)
23 - Crystal Palace (A)
26-27 Champions League Match
30- Brighton and Hove Albion (H)
December
4 - Everton (H)
7 - Bournemouth (A)
10/11 Champions League Match
14 - Watford (H)
21 - West Ham United (A)
26 - Leicester City (A)
28 - Wolverhampton Wanderers (H)
January
1 - Sheffield United (H)
11 - Tottenham Hotspur (A)
18 - Manchester United (H)
21 - Wolverhampton Wanderers (A)
February
1 - Southampton (H)
8 - Norwich City (A)
22 - West Ham United (H)
29 - Watford (A)
March
7 - Bournemouth (H)
14 - Everton (A)
21 - Crystal Palace
April
4 - Manchester City (A)
11 - Aston Villa (H)
18 - Brighton and Hove Albion (A)
25 - Burnley (H)
May
2 - Arsenal (A)
9 - Chelsea (H)
17 - Newcastle (A)
Overview
Liverpool have a manageable beginning to the season, and a relatively kind holiday fixture list. However, the end of the season—Arsenal away, Chelsea home, Newcastle away—is a real bitch. Hopefully we’re out of sight by then, yeah?
Also, the draw is a little tricky in spots, with Champions League matches before Chelsea away, Manchester City at home, and in between Manchester United away and Tottenham at home. The good news is that February, March, and April (Manchester City aside) are decent, which should be helpful if we go deep in the Champions League for a third year on the bounce.
The post holiday break comes at the end of January, but not before a difficult patch of Spurs away, United at Anfield, and Wolves away.
It still seems a long way off, but these next two months are going to fly by. Hopefully it’ll be another season to remember!