Away again, for some unknown reason, and the 2nd leg of our Europa League play-off is on the Thursday before we face Arsenal at The Emirates. Who picks this stuff?
Yeah on paper Palace won't stand a chance in the Prem next season when you look at their squad, unless they do some major business I can see them being the whipping boys. But this is Spurs we're talking about and like I said, first game of the season is usually where we see the promoted teams play one of their best games.
At least Fergie's ****ed off now, so his lot might not get everything their own way. In the season before last Man City were away from home after all six of their Champions League games. Pure coincidence, of course.
Moyes will be lucky to win 2/5 (from the first 5 games). I'm just glad to get it out the way so refs can't screw us over like they did last season which changed the entire course of the title race. If United don't win their first game then all of a sudden the pressure is on. Man Utd v Chelsea Arsenal v Spurs Liverpool v United All in August. Looks like most clubs will be getting their business done early
Yes. Swansea join in the 3rd preliminary round, we join in the play-off and Wigan go straight into the group.
Bugger. Send the development side for the second leg then and hope we get away with it. If not, no big loss.
Have to do the business in the first leg and send the kids out for the second one. At least they shouldn't be tired at this stage of the season, and perhaps a little extra game time over Arsenal might help.
This is why we need more than a first team and a youth team. We should be able to rotate our squad for all comps we are in. If we do not have the players to do this, then we are being poorly managed.
Can't believe we're away again. It's a sick joke. At least the fixtures force us to get on with our business early on, like DL says. Ill be amazed if we leave the "necessity" signings until the end of the window. - if we do, it's likely to be even more costly than previous summers.
Easy there Roo In fairness you were at home 09/10, 10/11 and 11/12. Palace isn't the worst place in the world to go to. Not a chance Levy or Wenger are leaving business late with that NLD in August. I'd much rather start away than at home, for starters it means you finish at home on the last day.
We were away for the previous four seasons. We've been away far more often than we've been at home. I can't remember the last time that we started the season at home to a side that finished in the bottom half in the previous season. I'm pretty sure that it's never happened in the Premier League era.
I didn't realise it worked that way, but looking at our last game this year, and last years event you could be right.... Palace should be fairly comfortable.... I hope they don't get battered in their first few games though and get some points (not against us) as I really want them to stay up.
Liverpool were away 6 in a row (04-05-09/10). it seems bizarre though. In 02/03 our first 3 home games just coincidentally happened to be against 3 of the top 4. And we started away to Liverpool and home to United back to back seasons. Since then, we've had relatively comfortably starts against midtable/newly promoted teams.
I don't understand the logic of this. How do you know that playing the likes of Chelsea or Liverpool early is a disadvantage when compared to playing them at some other point in the season? The relative difficulty or ease of a fixture will depend on so many variables - none of which can be predicted in June before the season starts. The PL is not a cup competition; Utd haven't been handed a difficult draw. All nineteen other teams have to be played home and away only once in whatever order the fixtures fall. Drawing conclusions now when you cannot assess form, fitness, fatigue and all the other variables is just plain daft IMHO.
