What to look out for in the first round of the Premier League
All 20 Premier League teams released their full 2023/34 fixture schedule on Thursday morning as all eyes start to turn toward the brand new campaign set to kick off in less than eight weeks.
The opening round threw up several intriguing and exciting match-ups, starting with Vincent Kompany’s Manchester City return as he takes his newly-promoted Burnley side to the Etihad on Friday, August 11th.
Elsewhere, Mauricio Pochettino’s first game in charge at Chelsea sees him welcome Jurgen Klopp and Liverpool, while Manchester United are set to close the action-packed weekend out at Old Trafford on Monday night when they take on Wolves.
With excitement already growing for the start of the new season, we at Flashscore have delved into those fixtures to highlight some of the stand-out statistics and pieces of trivia from the first round of matches.
Burnley v Man City (August 11th)
Treble winners Manchester City should be full of confidence going into the new season, especially taking on Burnley given they have won each of their last 11 meetings with the Clarets across all competitions - by an aggregate scoreline of 40-1!
But they did fail to win their first away game against a newly-promoted side last season, drawing 1-1 at Nottingham Forest in February.
Arsenal v Nott'm Forest (August 12th)
Eager to kick-start another title challenge, Arsenal fans should take comfort in the fact each of the last five head-to-head meetings between these two sides has seen the home team on the day secure victory.
The last two contests at the Emirates finished 5-0 to the Gunners, while the two recent meetings at the City Ground ended 1-0 to Forest.
Sheffield United v Crystal Palace (August 12th)
While they’ll be buzzing to be back in the big time, Sheffield United are notoriously slow-starters. They have failed to win 13 of their previous 15 opening-day league matches (D5, L8) across campaigns in the Premier League, Championship and League One.
They have, however, won three of their last four home meetings with Crystal Palace (L1).
Bournemouth v West Ham (August 12th)
Bournemouth have lost each of their last three meetings with recently crowned Europa Conference League winners, West Ham, by an aggregate scoreline of 10-0.
But Cherries' fans can cling to the fact their side has avoided defeat in their last five opening fixtures of the season across England’s top two tiers (W3, D2).
Brighton v Luton Town (August 12th)
Strangers to each other at this level, this will be just the third-ever top-flight meeting between Brighton and Luton.
The first came back in the 1982/83 season when Luton, also newly promoted that year, did the double over Brighton, beating them 5-0 at home and 4-2 on the road.
Everton v Fulham (August 12th)
Everton will want to start fast and forget their recent brush will relegation. They’ll take comfort in a positive round-one record, with last season’s 1-0 opening-day defeat to Chelsea their first such loss in 11 seasons (W4, D6).
They also sealed wins to nil in their only other two previous gameweek one top-flight matches against Fulham, although, they did come five decades ago (3-0 in 1963/64 and 1-0 in 1966/67).
Newcastle v Aston Villa (August 12th)
Champions League-participating Newcastle United have collected more Premier League points at home to Aston Villa (56) than they have against any other opponent in the competition.
Another victory against the Villians would hand the Magpies their most Premier League wins at St James’ Park against one team (currently on 16 and tied with Everton).
Brentford v Tottenham (August 13th)
Tottenham will be looking to add to an impressive record of five wins from their last six opening-round matches.
They’re also unbeaten in 14 of the last 15 clashes with Brentford in all competitions (W9, D5), however, that one defeat did come at home when the two sides last met in Spurs’ penultimate game of last season (3-1).
Chelsea v Liverpool (August 13th)
Each of the last six meetings between these two Premier League giants has finished level after 90 minutes, with the last four contests failing to produce a single goal.
Before the stalemate between the sides in April at Stamford Bridge, Liverpool had never previously drawn six competitive matches with one single opponent.
Man United v Wolves (August 14th)
Wolves are one of just three teams along with Manchester City and Nottingham Forest that Manchester United have played twice or more in the Premier League on Monday without ever beating (D1, L1).
Those two matches make up part of a sequence which has seen seven of the last eight meetings between the sides produce two match goals or fewer.
