More concerned about Spurs, Arsenal and Chelsea all falling within the first 5 games of the season, though they are all at home. We play Liverpool at Anfield followed by City at home in October. November and December look like months where we should amass a large number of points, so if we go into those months amongst the leaders, we will be looking strong.
I've not seen the fixtures yet but by the sounds of that we could get most of our toughest games out of the way early
that concerns me really as we don't usually start off that bright, and we have a glut of new players they will not have had any real time to be bedded in, but if we can takes points and lose the autumn could be fruitful, and it means that we play those teams after Christmas and not in the run- in when things can get a bit tasty
Sat 13 Aug - West Bromwich Albion (A) Sat 20 Aug - Tottenham Hotspur (H) Sat 27 Aug - Arsenal (H) Sat 10 Sep - Bolton Wanderers (A) Sat 17 Sep - Chelsea (H) Sat 24 Sep - Stoke City (A) Sat 1 Oct - Norwich City (H) Sat 15 Oct - Liverpool (A) Sat 22 Oct - Manchester City (H) Sat 29 Oct - Everton (A) Sat 5 Nov - Sunderland (H) Sat 19 Nov - Swansea City (A) Sat 26 Nov - Newcastle United (H) Sat 3 Dec - Aston Villa (A) Sat 10 Dec - Wolves (H) Sat 17 Dec - QPR (A) Wed 21 Dec - Fulham (A) Mon 26 Dec - Wigan Athletic (H) Sat 31 Dec - Blackburn Rovers (H) Mon 2 Jan - Newcastle (A) Sat 14 Jan - Bolton Wanderers (H) Sat 21 Jan - Arsenal (A) Tue 31 Jan - Stoke City (H) Sat 4 Feb - Chelsea (A) Sat 11 Feb - Liverpool (H) Sat 25 Feb - Norwich City (A) Sat 3 Mar - Tottenham Hotspur (A) Sat 10 Mar - West Bromwich Albion (H) Sat 17 Mar - Wolves (A) Sat 24 Mar - Fulham (H) Sat 31 Mar - Blackburn Rovers (A) Sat 7 Apr - QPR (H) Mon 9 Apr - Wigan Athletic (A) Sat 14 Apr - Aston Villa (H) Sat 21 Apr - Everton (H) Sat 28 Apr - Manchester City (A) Sat 5 May - Swansea City (H) Sun 13 May - Sunderland (A) That's the full list there. First 10 games are tough but after Feb 11 (Liverpool at OT) the run in looks pretty forgiving, all in all.
Looks pretty decent all in all. Not too happy about having three of the top five, plus Bolton and Stoke away, in our first six fixtures. We're gonna need to hit the ground running if we're to take more than 11-12 points from those six games. I'm also hoping we can avoid the post Xmas slump we hit this year, cos we again have Bolton, Stoke and three of the top six in the space of five games. But if we can come through those tricky patches we should be in good shape for the run in. Like merry says, as long as we're in with a shout after the Liverpool game in Feb we should have a great chance of #20!
The Xmas period and the run in look like the less difficult fixtures which bodes well although with the front loading of tough fixtures we might be playing catchup - probably chasing Chelsea again and Man City, their first sets of fixtures are pretty forgiving until the end of October and November respectively (apart from playing us). If we're up there by the end of Feb, we've got a great chance.
United's away games from January onwards look tricky. However I feel City will definitely be the happier of the teams looking at the fixtures. There are some mouth-watering games in August-September which makes a change, usually the games are dross up until about October.
This fixture list is worrying, seeing that the big games vs the top team in the second half of the season is mostly away. Seeing that we usually find form in the 2nd of the season the big games at the start is worrying.
lol we (Bolton) have got August 13 QPR (A) 20 Man City (H) 27 Liverpool (A) September 10 Man Utd (H) 17 Norwich (H) 24 Arsenal (A) October 1 Chelsea (H) Beat that for a start to the season
the only concern would be to play arsenal,chelsea and spurs all at home in the first 5 games,would have prefered to at least have one of them away,but thats the way it is and imo we will be alright
If we are top before this bit, i say we have a good chance to stretch our lead during this time and get it more or less wrapped up.
I would remove Everton away from that list if I were you. We have a wretched recent record there and struggle to beat top 10 teams away from home. Take Everton out of there and it's a nice run of matches, as (hopefully crucially) is our run in. I think having the toughest first 10 games in the season imaginable will help us when we inevitably click through the gears. It's a good fixture list (if such a thing exists) imo.
