All the latest as every team plays each other. And then does it again
Premier League: Liverpool face daunting early run of away fixtures
Look at the full Premier League fixture list for the 2015-16 season
Championship: QPR open with Charlton derby after drop to second tier
And email gerard.meagher@theguardian.com or tweet @gerard_meagher
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That just about wraps things up from me but make this your first, second and third port of call for all things fixtures as plenty more will be added as the day progresses. As ever, thanks very much for reading, posting your comments and your emails and tweets. Cheerio!
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And here is the full list of Championship fixtures – there are lots of them.
Related: Championship 2015-16 fixtures: week-by-week list for the season
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Now then, I shall be signing off shortly but here are a few important dates for the diary.
19 September – After winning their opening five matches with consumate ease, Arsenal sink away to Stamford Bridge. Jose Mourinho pokes Arsene Wenger in the eye.
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As you’re digesting all these lovely fixtures, let’s keep in mind that the transfer window does not slam shut – it never closes or slips off the latch – until four rounds of matches have been played. The sharper ones among you will know that means some players could play against a club they subsequently played for. Comprende? Anywho, here’s The Rumour Mill:
Related: Football transfer rumours: Chelsea move for Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain?
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The fixtures being released is actually quite boring isn't it?
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Oh how we must all hope for some sweet September rain. West Ham v Newcastle is on 12 September. Slaven Bilic v Steve McClaren – part-time rockstar v Wally with a Brolly 2.0.
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In all this excitement we haven’t yet touched upon the fact that Manchester City 0-0 Chelsea in on the second weekend, currently 15 August but don’t be surprised to see it shifted to the Sunday. Other early matches likely to get the ‘AND IT’S LIVE’ treatment include Arsenal v Liverpool, currently scheduled for 22 August, Manchester United v Liverpool, currently scheduled for 12 September and Chelsea v Arsenal, currently scheduled for 19 September.
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How rude of me. In reeling off the key derbies, I overlooked the south coast showdown. Southampton host Bournemouth on 31 October and Dean Court will open his front door and welcome the Saints on 1 March.
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Heathcote is a Tottenham supporter and Heathcote smells a rat.
Yet again Spurs are away on the opening day (or Sunday), with the other North London team (also yet again) at home. Spurs have played away on the opening day more than any other Premier League club. This goes beyong mere coincidence; it has to be cynically deliberate. At least the last two years we played in London - now it's Old Trafford!
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Craig Wood has been in touch, and one gets the feeling he’s a Hammer. Wham of course will be relocating to the
Club Tropicana
Olympic Stadium after this season and their Upton Park swansong will be against, erm, the Swans.
@gerard_meagher Gonna be an emotional last game at Upton Park v Swansea. Shame it's not the final game of the season
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Liverpool’s trip to the Etihad is on 21 November by the by. Will Raheem Sterling be wearing Red or Blue?
Related: Manchester City make increased £40m bid for Liverpool’s Raheem Sterling
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More derby news for you now.
Burnley’s relegation back into the Championship means their fans can once again look forward to another east Lancashire clash with Blackburn on 25 October. Prior to March 2014, the Clarets had not defeated their bitter rivals in 35 years and Danny Ings, the man who delivered that long-awaited victory, has already moved on this summer. They do still have manager Sean Dyche, though, and he is unbeaten in his four derby games - indeed Burnley would have won their last two games at Ewood Park were it not for an offside, stoppage-time equaliser from David Dunn in 2013.
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The fixture list anoraks out there will be aware that the fixture list always contains the quirk of one fixture being returned as it were, a lot sooner than it feels like it should. This year it appears to be 28 December and 6 February. That is all.
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Ever wondered how the fixture list is decided in Germany? Wonder no more.
Here in Germany the fixtures are arranged in such a way that the second half of the season is the reverse of the first half. For example if Stuttgart plays the first game of the season at home to say Bremen, the first game after the winter break is Bremen versus Stuttgart. This is a much fairer system as it means that teams only have 2 home games and 2 away games in succession throughout the season. Why can't they do this in England?
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And here is the long list of all 380 Premier League matches for the 2015-16 season in which everyone plays everyone, twice.
Related: Premier League 2015-16 fixtures: week-by-week list for the season
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On the topic of derbies, the two North London clashes are on 7 November at the Emirates and 5 March at White Hart Lane.
The Merseyside showdowns are 3 October at Goodison and 27 February at Anfield.
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Plenty of comments coming in about Manchester United’s run-in – oh the optimism of you Red Devils. After heading to Tottenham to the reverse of their opening day fixture (I told you everyone plays everyone twice) they face Aston Villa (H), West Ham (A), Leicester (H), Norwich (A) and Bournemouth (H).
October however, is not so straightforward looking. Trips to the Emirates, Goodison Park, a bogey ground somewhat, are followed by the first Manchester derby of the season on 24 October.
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CIAAH has made an interesting point, I was always under the impression that one travelled ‘up’ to London. Seeing as I’m from London, I’m going to say I’m probably right …
Champions Chelsea begin their campaign against Swansea who will swan up the M4 all the way to Stamford Bridge.
Swan down the M4, surely?
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More from probable Spider Solitaire expert OptaJoe now.
2 - The last two teams to gain promotion to the top-flight for the first time (Reading and Hull) have both opened with a home win. Unfazed.
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Let’s cherry pick a few Bournemouth fixtures for you now. After hosting Aston Villa they’re off to Anfield a week later while Manchester City 7-1 Bournemouth is scheduled for 17 October and Bournemouth 1-0 Manchester United is on 12 December.
It’s worth remembering of course that a lot of these dates will change when BT Sport and Sky Sports have had their say but, just for a little while, let’s close our eyes, pretend that every match is 3pm kick-off on Saturday and imagine tuning in on the wireless.
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Now, as previously mentioned, plenty of thought goes into compiling these fixtures lists but spare another for Carlisle supporters who will be travelling in their 10s to Plymouth on 18 August, a midweek fixture, which is a 780-mile round-trip is the longest away journey in the entire Football League.
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As promised, here’s the full story on the Championship fixtures:
Related: QPR face Charlton in first match back in the Championship
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Liverpool fans, still scarred by that 6-1 defeat to Stoke and facing the prospect of returning on the opening day can at least take solace from the fact that they won’t have to go there on a wet and windy Wednesday. They cannot however, take any solace from their first seven away fixtures that reads Stoke, Arsenal, Manchester United, Everton, Tottenham, Chelsea, Manchester City. Brutal.
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Publicans around the country, I strongly advise you to order an extra barrel or two for early October.
Saturday October 3 Rugby World Cup - England-Australia Premier League - Merseyside derby & Arsenal-Man United (subject to changes)
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Back to the Premier League then now we’ve caught our breath, and how about those fixtures then? All 20 teams, play everyone, twice. Of course, some teams fare better than usual on the opening day – Chelsea for example, have not lost in their last 12 home fixtures on the curtain-raising weekend. Have a peak of this little graphic to see how this season’s 20 measure up.
With the fixtures announced, take a look at how Premier League clubs have got on over the last decade on day one. pic.twitter.com/Bb6fLV7vc1
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1 - Watford's last season in the Premier League started at Everton in 2006/07. Spooky.
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And likewise with League Two:
Teddy Sheringham’s managerial career gets under way as his Stevenage side welcome Notts County on the opening day. The former England international replaced Graham Westley at Broadhall Way as he dips his toe into management for the first time aged 49 and Ricardo Moniz’s relegated Magpies provide the opposition on 8 August.
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Here’s a quick take from the wires, we will of course revisit in bucketloads more detail.
Wigan’s attempt to bounce back from last season’s relegation starts with a 2015-16 opening-day trip to Coventry. The Latics have suffered two relegations in three years following a lengthy stay in the Premier League and Gary Caldwell will be hoping his men can get off to a winning start at the Ricoh Arena on 8 August.
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I’ll also have the full season’s fixtures for you shortly, but for those of you who cannot wait that long, here it is in full.
As feared, Stoke and Sunderland are only playing each other twice …
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League One champions Bristol City kick-off at currently managerless Sheffield Wednesday, runners-up MK Dons go to Rotherham and play-off winners Preston play host to Championship play-off losers Middlesbrough.
Paul Clement’s time at Derby will begin at Bolton, while Marinus Dijkhuizen’s time at Brentford starts at home to Ipswich. Elsewhere on the opening day Birmingham host Reading, Wolves go to Blackburn, Cardiff are at home to Fulham and Nottingham Forest make the trip to Brighton.
Tuesday 18 August sees the meeting of two former Real Madrid assistant managers in the shape of Derby’s Clement and Middlesbrough’s Aitor Karanka.
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QPR do not have to go far when the Championship kicks off on the same weekend as the Premier League, although they’ll probably a Friday night match – the Hoops travel to Charlton while Burnley and Hull, start away at Uwe Rosler’s Leeds and at home to Huddersfield respectively.
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Here is the full story of the Premier League fixtures – Hugo Lloris to face his former club on the opening weekend perhaps?
Related: Premier League 2015-16 fixture list: Manchester United open against Tottenham
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Fellow newcomers Watford and new manager Quique Sanchez Flores are at Everton while play-off winners Norwich host Crystal Palace in a Championship-looking fixtures if ever there was one.
Elsewhere, Manchester City start out on the road at West Brom, Newcastle host Southampton and Leicester and Sunderland have booked themselves the final MOTD slot with their 0-0 draw at the King Power Stadium.
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Aston Villa have been dealt a trip to the seaside on the opening weekend – they have the honour of being Bournemouth’s first ever Premier League opponents while Arsenal kick things off against Slaven Bilic’s West Ham at the Emirates.
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Starting the Premier League then. Champions Chelsea begin their campaign against Swansea who will swan up the M4 all the way to Stamford Bridge.
Manchester United host Tottenham in what, at first glance, is the most mouthwatering fixture – Louis van Gaal facing the team he says he nearly joined.
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The fixtures for the 2015-16 English domestic season are out, and it’s official, everyone plays everyone … twice! Right, I’m going to run through this very briefly league by league, encompassing the opening days, before we really get down to the nitty gritty of Accrington’s difficult November period.
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Following on from the last post, who will secure those lucky post-Europa League Thursday trips to White Hart Lane? Whose April capitulation at Carrow Road will spark the unlikeliest of survival surges from the Canaries? On what day in February will Hartlepool finally win away?
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An interesting point raised by vagnerhate in the comments, but who will it be against and where? My money is on a Saturday lunchtime collapse at The Hawthorns.
I'm really looking forward to when Arsenal's title challenge collapses this year. Last year it was matchday 5, I believe.
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What with everyone playing everyone … twice, it is of course, the opening day’s fixtures that often grab the most attention. Who will Bournemouth, riding the crest of the promotion wave, pinch a 1-1 draw off on the first weekend? Where will José Mourinho show off his mahogany summer tan on w/e starting 8 August? Who fancies a trip to the Hive to face Barnet, now restored to the Football League of course?
But there are other fixtures to keep us occupied. The official fixture list will probably say that Stoke will play Sunderland only twice but to these eyes, it always seems to happen roughly 17 times a season, often ending goalless, almost always the penultimate slot on MOTD. We’ll keep abreast of that as well as the crucial festive period, the make or break Easter timetable, the already thinking about the beach final weekend matches etc. Stay tuned, not long to go now …
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Now then. As the minutes tick by it’s worth pausing for a brief moment to ponder just how these fixtures lists are compiled. Balls plucked from buckets by former pros out of work and effectively touting themselves for managerial vacancies? No. Monkeys with typewriters? Nope. The whims of Messrs Mourinho and Wenger? Of course not. It’s far more complicated than that, it takes into account Nottingham’s Goose Fair and uses the kind of matrixes, algorithms, trigonometry, alegbra, adding up etc that would make of mockery of Spider Solitaire, on the hardest difficulty – as the Guardian’s very own James Riach found out last year.
When the Premier League and Football League fixtures for 2013-14 are announced at 9am on Wednesday, spare a thought for the individuals involved in compiling the season’s schedule.
“I don’t think people realise what goes into it,” says the Football League fixtures officer, Paul Snellgrove. “They think names go into a hat and it’s almost like a draw. Because it’s so difficult to explain it’s hard to keep people’s attention.”
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Hello world! It’s the day you’ve all been waiting for. It’s the second most exciting day of the year, after Pancake Day. It’s been a whopping 24 days since the end of the Premier League, which marked the end of the domestic football season, the FA Cup final notwithstanding. Those football addicts out there, feeding off the scraps of the Copa America, the Women’s World Cup, the Champions League final and Euro 2016 snoozefests, are due for their next big hit. It’s almost time for the full fixture lists for the Premier League, Championship, League One and League Two … AND IT’S LIVE!
Full fixture lists will be announced at 9am. Lest we forget, everyone will play everyone … twice!!!
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