If the Club World Cup is not capturing your interest and even Florian Plettenberg is not providing transfer updates for your team, you might have been eagerly anticipating the release of the Premier League fixtures.
On Wednesday morning, all 380 fixtures for the 2025–26 season were unveiled, and while some were quick to express their indifference towards the announcement—”everyone plays everyone, innit?”—it is undeniable that the scheduling of matches holds significance.
The sequence of your team’s fixtures is crucial.
As we review the list of matches, our attention typically gravitates towards the beginning and the conclusion, before we fill in the gaps with key fixtures that occur in between.
You may have been taken aback and informed your family that there are currently no fixtures scheduled for Boxing Day.
The beginning of the season is where the most excitement resides, as teams are eager to achieve strong starts that will set them up favorably for the remainder of the season.
In response to this excitement, Opta has assessed the difficulty level of the opening five fixtures for all 20 Premier League teams in the upcoming season.
Opta utilized their Power Rankings to assess the difficulty of each team’s fixtures.
These Rankings evaluate thousands of teams globally on a scale from zero (weakest) to 100 (strongest).
Consequently, all Premier League teams possess scores towards the higher end of this scale, and Opta calculated the average scores of each team’s first five opponents to yield an average rating.
As a result, it seems that the location of a match, whether at home or away, does not influence these average ratings or the overall ranking.
Nonetheless, it is undeniable that Manchester United—the most successful team on opening day in Premier League history—and Arsenal have both been assigned challenging starts.
The two clubs will compete at Old Trafford on matchday one before facing two additional members of the so-called ‘Big Six’ within their first five matches.
United will visit their neighbors, Manchester City, on matchday four before welcoming Chelsea, while Arsenal will travel to the champions’ home and then host Manchester City.
The Gunners will also contend with a Nottingham Forest team that significantly surpassed expectations last season.
They are two of three teams that will encounter three ‘Big Six’ members in their opening five matches, with newly promoted Burnley being the other.
Interestingly, Opta ranks the Clarets’ start as the fourth ‘easiest’ in the league, despite their matches against Tottenham and Manchester United away, as well as Liverpool at home.
It is important to note that Spurs and United’s Opta rankings would be relatively low due to their disappointing domestic seasons in 2024–25.
Both teams are anticipated to show improvement in the upcoming term.Bournemouth’s initial five matches are justifiably ranked as the third toughest, as they will face Spurs and Newcastle at home, but must travel to Liverpool and Brighton.
The champions will commence the season on Friday Night Football against the Cherries, who are expected to look quite different from their 2024–25 form, before heading to St.
James’ Park and hosting Arsenal in their first five games. The first Merseyside derby of the season is scheduled for matchday five at Anfield.
At the opposite end of the spectrum, Aston Villa supposedly have the tamest opening act.
They begin with a tricky game against Newcastle at Villa Park, but will be expected to claim close to maximum points from their next four against Brentford (A), Crystal Palace (H), Everton (H) and Sunderland (A).
The Bees don’t appear such an awkward opponent heading into the new season after losing Thomas Frank, whose Tottenham team host Burnley three days after the UEFA Super Cup final.
Spurs, who have the 12th most difficult set of opening fixtures, visit Man City, West Ham and Brighton.