Premier League Opening Fixtures
Matches for the First Saturday of the New Season on 11th August
The opening games for the new Premier League season which starts on 11th August have been announced.The Champions face Reading while newly promoted Sunderland meet Spurs.
The new fixture list for the Premier League has, as always, produced some interesting fixtures for the opening day of the season on Saturday, 11th August, with an ironic twist in the tale for Sam Allardyce.
The new Newcastle United manager will take his team to meet his old club Bolton Wanderers at the Reebok Stadium on the opening day of the season. Having resigned from the Bolton position with two matches of last season remaining, Allardyce was quickly installed at manager at St James Park once Glenn Roeder had resigned. Bolton appointed Allardyce’s assistant, Sammy Lee as his successor and in the final two games he managed to maintain Bolton’s drive for Europe qualification. Allardyce is sure of a warm reception at Bolton where he started his playing career making almost 200 appearances over eight seasons, in two spells, and then returned in 1999 to successfully manage them for eight years.
The reigning Champions, Manchester United start their season at home to Reading the surprise team of the 2006-07 season. Managed by former united star, Steve Coppell, Reading were the only successful team of the previous year’s promoted sides, finishing just outside the European places, missing a UEFA Cup place on the last day of the season, while Sheffield United and Watford were relegated.
Arsenal, like United, start their season at home for the second successive year with London neighbours Fulham visiting the Emirates Stadium. The new Fulham boss, Lawrie Sanchez will be hoping to get their season off to a better start than last year when Fulham visited Old Trafford for their first game and suffered a 5-1 defeat after conceding four goals in the opening twenty minutes of the game. This will be no easy task for Sanchez who will have to turn around Fulham’s poor away record of last season.
Tottenham Hotspur will make the long trip to Wearside to meet newly promoted Sunderland at the Stadium of Light. This will be a difficult game for Spurs with Roy Keane having restored Sunderland to the top division after less than a full season in charge. Expectations will be high in Sunderland where the Niall Quinn/Roy Keane partnership has generated great enthusiasm and high hopes of restoring the old club to their former prestigious position.
Two clubs who suffered indifferent seasons last year will meet at Upton Park. West Ham United having escaped relegation on the last day of the season will entertain Manchester City who sacked their manager Stuart Pearce at the end of a season in which they had constantly flirted with the drop to the Championship.
Another club who gained a last day survival was Wigan Athletic and they will make the short trip to Goodison Park to play Everton. Under new manager Chris Hutchings they will be hoping to make a good start against an Everton side under David Moyes who will be competing in the UEFA Cup.
Liverpool will have a difficult start at Aston Villa where manager Martin O’Neill had put together a young team which showed improved form as the season drew to a close.
The other promoted sides have had mixed fortunes from the fixture computer. Derby County will meet Portsmouth at Pride Park but Birmingham City have to travel to Stamford Bridge to play Chelsea who will be expecting a good start to make up for last season’s disappointment of losing their title.
The final fixture sees Middlesbrough entertain Blackburn Rovers at the Riverside Stadium. Middlesbrough will look to their good home form to get them off to a good start against Mark Hughes’ strong side.
All the fixtures are provisionally arranged for the second Saturday in August but kick-off times and dates will be altered once the television companies select the games they want to televise.
The announcement of the fixtures signals that the new football season is only eight weeks away.
