Premier League fixtures for the 2013/2014 season are out next week. Any preference for when we play which team ? Personally I'd like us to start at home and play Utd and City away quite early in the season when they are still settling into their new set ups. Spuds at home around October seems to suit us quite nicely - another 5-2 on the cards maybe ? And also would be good to get the games against the top 4 out of the way before April next year.
I'd like us to deal with the hard fixtures relatively early. In order of difficulty I think: Old Trafford, Etihad, Stamford Bridge. If we could dispense with those 3 fixtures before say, February, that would be great. I'd like a few midtable sides first up though, nothing too spectacular. Also, we don't seem to do well at WHL these days either so that would be a good fixture to get over and done with early.
I wonder if getting those big games early would help us catch the new managers a bit cold, or whether we should play them later hoping that the wheels will start coming off. You have to think that at least one of Pelligrini, Moyes or Mourinho, is going to run into difficulty this year, it is just deciding when would be best to capitalize. I would like a soft start to the season myself. We ended the season with a 10-game unbeaten record; if we can start the season with a 10-game stretch unbeaten that 20-game run would start to get the players fired up and interested. When Juventus went unbeaten in Italy, that is what they did. They were not even top until quite late (a lot of draws), but the unbeaten run slowly built confidence and they started playing some great stuff. Then they repeated this year.
How about we play a game and predict our first 19 fixtures? :-D. So here goes mine: 1-Southampton (h) 2-Fulham (a) 3-Norwich (h) 4-West Brom (a) 5-Crystal Palace (h) 6-West Ham (a) 7-Aston Villa (h) 8- Everton (h) 9- Hull City (a) 10- Spurs (h) 11- United (a) 12- Newcastle (a) 13- Cardiff City (h) 14- Liverpool (a) 15- Swansea (h) 16- City (a) 17- Chelsea (h) 18- Sunderland (a) 19- Stoke (h)
I want our August fixtures to be absolute bankers for us as knowing us, we will get our transfer dealings done later than usual, knew signings won't have had a proper pre-season, Santi, Nacho and whoever we have going to the confederations cup probably won't be back yet and a defeat against tough opposition so early in the season could be moral sapping and the fans will be on Wenger's back big time. I have wanted the last 2 seasons to end before they even started so this time I actually want to go into August full of optimism and looking forward to hopefully a more successful year. Norwich at home and Hull away for me, please! I predict that two of our first 6 fixtures will be away at Old Trafford, Stamford Bridge, Anfield or WHL.
Anfield has usually been quite kind to us in recent years. A lot will depend on our transfer dealings, as someone else mentioned if a lot of our played are going to be involved in Confed cup action, it would be better to have a softer start to the season. My favoured set of fixtures in the first 5 games would look something like: Aston Villa (h), Southampton (a), Liverpool (a), Norwich (h), Manchester City (h)
That's an interesting one... So carrying on my prediction for the first 5 games: Villa (h) Southampton (a) Liverpool (a) Norwich (h) Man C (h) Cardiff (a) Chelsea (h) Stoke (h) West Brom (a) Manure (a) Sunderland (h) West Ham (a) Spuds (a) Crystal Palace (h) Fulham (h) Everton (a) Hull (h) Newcastle (a) Swansea (h)
Are people really trying to guess what the fixture list will be? Get out of the house people, run around, just... do something else!
I reckon you'll get someone like Hull at home opening day. I reckon I you'll get Spurs away quite early on as well, Late September with return game at Emirates in April. One or the big 6 will play each other in the first 3 games, always happens.
Don't bite my head off but it's rumoured you lot have United on the opening day (away, I think). This is based on a number of people reporting United had listed Arsenal & Villa as their first 2 fixtures upon buying Community Shield tickets.
