Fixtures out tomorrrow morning at 9am. Probably be City or Chelsea away for the opening weekend as we always seem to get a top 4 team. Boxing Day is the first round of fixture after the WC so expect us to have another away game there as well. Plus don't forget the inevitable tough run of games in April that the powers that be like to give us. I'll be hoping for someone like Southampton at home to begin with please
As we’ll have a few new players in I’d rather play Southampton at home when the new signings have had time to gel. Better to get off to a losing start against opposition we expect to lose to than lose a home game we’d potentially win if played later in the season.
Fair point but surely you can't beat getting that first win on the board ? Not saying we'd beat Saints but having a winnable fixture first up would at least give us the opportunity. Maybe the middle ground then of an away match at Wolves, Villa or Leicester ?
Everton lost 21 games last season. Villa 19 Brentford 18 (same as us) Wolves 17 Both a habit and an inevitability really
We had a good pick of fixtures last August to open with, a crap man u side, Everton and Burnley and still managed to f**k that up.
As I said at the time we did fantastically well to come back and secure draws against both Everton & Burnley. Really tough matches and in the end those points proved oh so important in us finishing above Burnley. In fact just about every time we drew a match the team were slagged off when the reality is those 11 draws were absolutely vital in keeping us up
Man Utd were excellent that day. Pogba was on fire. Everton were in the honeymoon period with Benitez and had no injuries. They started the season very well. The game against Burnley was definitely one we should have won. Rapha missed a sitter, Barnes should have seen red for an assault on Dallas. We were the better side that day. Think we played Newcastle away fairly early in a game we dominated and had a stone wall penalty turned down when James was felled. I think we have to remember that we had plenty of injuries to our spine. Imagine if we had Phillips, Raphinha, Cooper and Bamford available more. We would have been well clear. Hopefully we avoid the long injury list this season and the additions hit the ground running. Mid table isn't a dream, it's achievable. We just need a bit of luck and a fit squad.
https://www.sportbible.com/football...age-big-six-matches-before-world-cup-20220608 FA asking to 'rig' the fixture list. Where will it all end? ****s.
Yep all good and very happy with how that's worked out for us. Home on the first and last days + 2 home games over xmas & NY. Plus no nasty runs of fixtures at first glance
At the business end of the season it's important to avoid rearranged games due to the FA Cup and it looks like we've done well on that front. March 18th; Wolves (a) FA Cup Qtr Final date. April 22nd; Fulham (a) FA Cup Semi Final date. Unless of course we go on a Cup run ourselves