Can anyone stop Manchester City winning a fifth Premier League title in a row (Picture: Getty)
Premier League fans have been pouring over the fixture list after the games for the new 2024/25 season were released.
Manchester City will begin the campaign as the overwhelming favourites to win the title for the fifth season in a row.
Arsenal, Chelsea, Liverpool and Manchester United will be hoping to add significant reinforcements this summer and make fast starts, but have any of City’s likeliest rivals been handed any favours by the fixture compilers?
Opta have handily analysed the relative strengths of the opposition every team will face in their opening five matches of the news season and have come to the conclusion that Liverpool are the main beneficiaries.
The Reds begin their campaign and the Arne Slot era with a game against newly promoted Ipswich at Portman Road.
Kieran McKenna’s side won promotion last season and sealed a return to the top flight after a 22-year absence.
Slot’s side will then host Brentford before a testing trip to Old Trafford, a venue they came unstuck at twice last season both in the league and FA Cup.
Opta have analysed the opening five games of the season and awarded each team with an opponent average difficult rating (Picture: Opta)
Premier League opening weekend fixtures
Friday, 16 August
Manchester United v Fulham (20:00)
Saturday, 17 August
Ipswich Town v Liverpool (12:30)
Arsenal v Wolverhampton (15:00)
Everton v Brighton (15:00)
Newcastle United v Southampton (15:00)
Nottingham Forest v Bournemouth (15:00)
West Ham United v Aston Villa (17:30)
Sunday, 18 August
Brentford v Crystal Palace (14:00)
Chelsea v Manchester City (16:30)
Monday, 19 August
Leicester City v Tottenham (20:00)
Liverpool round off their first five matches with home games against Nottingham Forest and Bournemouth which represents an opponent average rating of 83.7, the lowest of all 20 clubs in the competition.
Of the likely title chasers, last season’s runners-up, Arsenal, have the most daunting looking run of games, as indicated by their opponent average rating of 88.7.
The Gunners open up with a relatively straightforward looking game at home against Wolves, before away trips to Aston Villa, Manchester City and Tottenham.
Games against the reigning champions and their north London rivals will be even more difficult than usual given Arsenal will have a Champions League game sandwiched in between.
There is little to split the difficult ratings of City and Chelsea, meanwhile, with the two heavyweights set to meet on August 18 in what will represent the first Super Sunday of the season.
Erik Ten Hag, the Liverpool fixture aside, will likely be relatively content with his side’s start, although they will take nothing for granted given their opening day opponents, Fulham, scored a rare win at Old Trafford last season.
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