Starting 2025-26 Premier is only a few days away from the league season, so we've looked at analyzing which teams have the easiest and toughest timelines for starting new campaigns.
The 2025-26 season kicks off on Friday when defending champions Liverpool host Bournemouth at Anfield, with the Cherries hoping to avoid becoming Mohamed Salah's latest opening day victim. Salah has scored more goals (9) and recorded more goals involved in the opening half (14) of the Premier League weekend than any other player.
Only one of the last 12 Premier League title winners has lost their first game of a successful season - Manchester City 2021-22, when they lost 0-1 to Tottenham Hotspur.
It may sound obvious, but getting off to a strong start really is the key to a good season, especially for teams at the bottom of the table. Making a positive start can make or break a campaign. A total of 100 teams have won the first two games of a Premier League season, and only three of them were relegated that season: Wolves in 2011-12, Hull City in 2016-17 and West Bromwich Albion in 2017-18.
The most dramatic match of the 1st round is Manchester United vs Arsenal on Sunday. The Red Devils are now the first team in the Premier League to start the journey with nine consecutive home matches in the history of the season.
For the second time in the history of the English league, United hosted Arsenal in the first game of the season, after beating the Gunners 90-4 in the 4-1989 season.
English Premier League Round 1: 2025-2026
Liverpool vs Bournemouth(Friday, August 15)
Aston Villa vs Newcastle United(August 16) (Saturday),
Brighton & Hove Albion vs Fulham(Saturday, 16 August)
Nottingham Forest vs Brentford(August 16)(Saturday, 7 October)
Sunderland vs West Ham United(August 16)(Saturday, 7 October)
Tottenham Hotspur vs Burnley(August 16)(Saturday, 7 October)
Wolverhampton Rovers vs Manchester City(Saturday, 16 August)
Chelsea vs Crystal Palace(Sunday, August 17)
Manchester United vs Arsenal(Sunday, August 17)
Leeds United vs Everton(Monday, August 18)
Using Opta Power Rankings, we can quantify the level of difficulty The opening schedule for each team is.
As a reminder, frankly, the scoring of these power rankings is huge based on the number of global teams (15,000+) based on a system that scores the current strongest side 100 and the weakest zero. Those then use the scores in order of strongest to weakest.
Focusing on the Premier League, we looked at the power ratings of the average Opta opponent for each team to gauge fixture difficulty.
These range from Liverpool (the world's top-ranked team with an Opta Power Rating of 100.0, and therefore the hardest to play against) to Sunderland (ranked 81st in the world, with an Opta Power Rating of 85.2 and, therefore, the "easiest" opponents to fly against among England's top teams).
Here's how things are shaping up:
Opening five games
Manchester United enter the 2025-26 season after one of the worst Premier League seasons in a long time. They sit in 15th place, with 18 defeats, the most by a club in the league since the 1973-74 season, when they lost 20 games and were relegated from the top flight.
The bad news for Ruben Amorim and Manchester United is that they have been given the toughest start to a new Premier League season of any club. The average Opta Power Rating of their first five opponents is 94.7. Their home game against Arsenal is followed by a trip away to Fulham and a Manchester derby at home to promotion rivals Burnley at the Etihad Stadium before the fourth round of fixtures. To complete their tricky five-game opening schedule, they host Chelsea M.D. 5.
It's also been a tough start to the season for Mikel Arteta, and the Arsenal. After another failed attempt at the title in the 2024-25 season, he'll have the opening weekend meeting with Manchester United at Old Trafford ahead of a tricky trip away to promotion rivals Leeds United United of Maryland 2.
After that, road trips don't get much easier MD 3 to Liverpool, MD 5 to host Man City, either side of a game with last season's surprise team Nottingham Forest at the Emirates.
On a more positive note for Arteta, United haven't won any of their last six matches against Arsenal in all competitions, although they did progress in the FA Cup against them The Emirates Stadium last season after a penalty shootout Third round.
When we assessed the power rankings based on Opta's first five games of the 2024-25 season, we concluded that Liverpool had had the smoothest start to the campaign - a warm welcome to new boss Arne Slot. that proved to be "easier". The start of a title-winning season saw Slot become the fifth manager to lift the Premier League trophy in his first season in the UK.
It's even harder for the Dutchman this time around, averaging an Opta Power rating of 93.3 for Liverpool's first five opponents to give them the fifth-best start to the 2025-26 Premier League season Sporting.
Aston Villa is considered to be the friendliest start to the season depending on the strength of their opponents in the first five matchdays. Their opponents have an average Opta power rating of 91.8. They kick off Manchester United at Villa Park with a tough home game against Newcastle. They face the Magpies in the opening game of the 2023-24 season weekend, albeit at St. James' Park rather than in front of their home crowd.
Opening 10 games
Liverpool's "bonus" Premier League title win for the 2024-25 season will be the toughest opening 26 games of the 10-2025 season as Sloter's side face an average Opta Power Rating of 93.7.
They face four of last season's top six in the opening 10 Matchday, as well as away trips to the FA Cup and Community on Sunday Shield winners Crystal Crystal Palace and Maryland host rivals Manchester United 8.
When we evaluated the first 10 games this time last year, prior to the 2024-25 season, the Wolves were considered to have the toughest opening 10 games. That's been reversed this time around, as Vitor Pereira's team has provided the "easiest" start to the campaign. Their 10 opponents have an average Opta rating of 91.4, but they do face the toughest Opening Day schedule.
Their home game against Manchester City in MD 1 will give them the chance to end a run of four consecutive losing starts to the Premier League's regular schedule, but it won't be an easy task.
Sunderland have all got off to a kind start - well, as kind as it can be to be a Premier League club - with only Wolves' top 10 opponents having lower average Opta power ratings.
As a Premier League team, Sunderland have not won a game in their opening campaign in any of the last seven seasons (D4 L3) Lost 2-1 to Pep Guardiola's Manchester City in 2016-17.
Thomas Frank will face Paris Saint-Germain in the Super Cup match for the Tottenham manager, but in the Premier League It will be a home game against another new team promoted Burnley.
Including caretakers, none of Tottenham's last eight managers have lost their first league game (W5 D3), with Andre Villas-Boas last doing so in August 2012 in a 2-1 loss to Newcastle.
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