Home of football statistics and historyManchester City will have a tough opening couple of weeks to the 2021-22 Premier League season as the schedule was published on Wednesday.
The defending champions begin their campaign with a trip to Tottenham Hotspur, whose new manager will be taking charge of the North London club in a competitive match for the first time.
City then host newly promoted Norwich City, whom they lost one of their fixtures against in 2019-20 when the Canaries were last in the topflight.
Hosting Arsenal and travelling to Leicester City come either side of the first international break of the new season. Mikel Arteta has guided his Gunners to a victory over his former boss previously, whilst Leicester are going to be expected to compete for a top four finish.
The Citizens then host Southampton before ending September at Stamford Bridge to face a Chelsea side that beat them in the Champions League final last month, and whom some believe will be genuine title contender’s next season.
Manchester City’s seventh fixture of the new season will be at Liverpool before another international break. With the majority of these games being significant, you won’t want to be missing out on the action. If you don’t have access to Premier League coverage in your own country, it’s worth checking out Atlas VPN to allow you to access live football streams elsewhere.
Currently, you should know that you can watch the games via Sky Sports, BT Sport, DAZN, or Optus Sport. Most of these platforms provide services to users in different regions. Thus, you might need to consider that before choosing one. You can also check other online streaming providers to see whether they can bring you the action from Premier League.
Although Pep Guardiola’s side currently have 14 players at Euro 2020 and a further three at the 2021 Copa America, it is worth noting that they dropped just four points from their opening 15 games immediately after the last World Cup in 2018.
Elsewhere, Brentford will become the 50th club to play Premier League football and will make their debut at home to Arsenal on the weekend of 14-15 August. The Bees gained promotion via the playoffs, 12 months after losing the same final to West London rivals Fulham.
Championship winners Norwich City host Liverpool in a reverse of their opener two seasons ago. Daniel Farke’s side were handed the short straw when the fixtures came out as that is followed by games against Manchester City (away), Leicester City (home) and Arsenal (away).
The East Anglian club took just four points from their opening 12 games last time they were in the Premier League as they looked doomed from the start. Now that the German head coach has a year’s experience under his belt his side are expected to compete much better this time around. Though they have lost influential player Emi Buendia to Aston Villa.
Thomas Tuchel hasn’t been handed a very favourable start to the new season either, one month after the European Championships finish, where he currently has 15 players on international duty. The Blues with a London derby at home to Crystal Palace, before facing Arsenal (away), Liverpool (away), Aston Villa (home), Tottenham Hotspur (away) and Manchester City (home) before we’ve even reached October.
The German coach replaced Frank Lampard at the end of January, guiding the West London club to a top four finish and lifting the Champions League trophy for the second time in the club’s history. It came less than 12 months after Tuchel finished runner up in the final to Bayern Munich, as Paris Saint-Germain manager.
Chelsea will be looking to fix their issue with finishing chances, particularly with Timo Werner missing chance after chance following his move to the Premier League last summer. Should the German international get back to his goalscoring ways, just as he had been free scoring for RB Leipzig previously, then they can be looking to accomplish more than just a top four finish in the league. They are also linked with a move for Erling Haaland.
Manchester United will welcome Leeds United to Old Trafford in their opener and fans could fancy their chances of taking a maximum 18 points from their opening six fixtures with the favourable schedule the Red Devils have been handed.
October and November will be the real test for Ole Gunnar Solskjaer’s side, whom will not only be juggling Champions League group stage fixtures, but also facing the likes of Leicester City (away), Liverpool (home), Tottenham Hotspur (away), Manchester City (home), Chelsea (away) and Arsenal (home) in quick succession.
Despite finishing second last season, the Red Devils are anything but guaranteed to finish in the top four next season. Liverpool and Chelsea have arguably improved already, Manchester City are the odds on favourites for the title, whilst the likes of Tottenham Hotspur, Leicester City and Arsenal should be pushing harder to qualify for the Champions League.
At the other end of the table, Norwich City are the bookmakers’ favourites to return to the Championship. The Canaries are closely followed by Brentford, Watford and Crystal Palace in this market.
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