Depending on your point of view and perhaps your level of interest in the Premier League, it either seems like just yesterday that the domestic football season concluded, or it seems like the wait for the release of next season’s fixtures has been interminable. Certainly, in a summer without a major men’s senior tournament, this event takes on a little extra importance and, along with the gossip and rumour of the transfer window, helps break up the downtime between seasons.
Anyway, however you look at things, the 2024/25 campaign in the English top flight concluded just a few short weeks ago. But now eyes are very much on the 2025/26 season, with the fixtures released and fans up and down the country making a note of the key matches in their calendars. The new season remains just under two months away (at the time of writing) but even so, the countdown is now very much on.
More fixtures than ever before will be televised in the campaign ahead, so at this stage we cannot be 100% certain beyond the opening weekend of the season. The games selected for live broadcasting beyond that will be revealed in phases in the weeks and months ahead, so most of the dates below will change. Nonetheless, let’s take a look at some of the key games that the fixture computer has thrown up.
Opening Weekend
📣 ANNOUNCE 2025/26 PREMIER LEAGUE FIXTURES 📣
— Premier League (@premierleague) June 18, 2025
Given the first 10 fixtures are the only ones we can be absolutely certain of in terms of the day, date and time they will take place, that seems a very good place to start. The opening “weekend” will be one of a number of four-day affairs this term, with champions Liverpool getting things underway on Friday night and last season’s Championship winners, Leeds, finishing things off on Monday when they host Everton.
- Liverpool v Bournemouth – Friday, 15th of August at 8pm
- Aston Villa v Newcastle – Saturday 16th of August at 12.30pm
- Brighton v Fulham – Saturday the 16th of August at 3.00pm
- Nottingham Forest v Brentford – Saturday the 16th of August at 3.00pm
- Sunderland v West Ham United – Saturday the 16th of August at 3.00pm
- Tottenham Hotspur v Burnley – Saturday the 16th of August at 3.00pm
- Wolverhampton Wanderers v Man City – Saturday the 16th of August at 5.30pm
- Chelsea v Crystal Palace – Sunday the 17th of August at 2pm
- Man United v Arsenal – Sunday the 17th of August at 4pm
- Leeds v Everton – Monday the 18th of August at 8pm
The biggest game is probably Mancehster United v Arsenal, with Aston Villa v Newcastle also an exciting clash that may be pivotal in the top-four battle. Sunderland probably have the easiest game of the newly promoted teams, though Leeds will also be happy to have a home match first up.
Tough Start for Red Devils
Fans of many clubs will believe they have the toughest start to the season but according to Opta, it is Man United who have the hardest five fixtures to begin the 2025/26 campaign. The Red Devils face the Gunners to begin, as stated, then travel to Fulham before a home clash with Burnley, a trip to the Etihad for the Manchester derby, and then a game at home against Chelsea.
Assessing what is a hard and easy fixture is not straightforward, especially given the strange table we ended up with last term. Is a game against Spurs hard or easy? They are historically a strong Premier League outfit and last season won the Europa League – but they finished 17th in 2024/25. Similar can be said about Man United, who were 15th and made the Europa final. At the other end of the table, are Nottingham Forest to be feared given they were in contention for a top-three finish for much of last season, or will they revert to type?
The start to the season is perhaps most important for the three PL new boys as it gives them a chance to build some confidence or, alternatively, have the wind very rapidly sucked from their sails. Opta reckon that Burnley have the fourth-easiest first five games but we prefer Sunderland’s.
The Black Cats are red-hot favourites to go straight back down to the Championship, having come up through the play-offs and sold one of their best players (Jobe Bellingham). However, three of their opening five matches are at home, against West Ham, Brentford and Villa. They travel away to Burnley and Crystal Palace and with a bit of luck they might just pull off a decent start and give themselves a fighting chance of staying up.
The Big Games to Look Out for in 2025
Depending on who you support there are different ideas of what is a big game but the following are ones that may be of at least some interest to most fans. That said, these are provisional, ahead of TV rearrangements, whilst the fact that so many clubs (a massive nine out of 20) will be in European action too, further complicates matters and will probably necessitate a number of late changes.
- 23rd of August, Everton v Brighton – first competitive game at Everton’s new stadium
- 30th of August, Liverpool v Arsenal – first key battle of the title race
- 13th of September, Man City v Man United – first Manchester derby of 2025/26
- 20th of September, Liverpool v Everton and Arsenal v Man City – Merseyside derby at Anfield and another potential title six-pointer
- 18th of October, Burnley v Leeds – last year’s Championship top two play in potential relegation six-pointer
- 8th of November, Man City v Liverpool – huge clash at the top end of the action
- 22nd of November, Arsenal v Spurs – north London derby
- 29th of November, Chelsea v Arsenal – London rivals battle it out and could be crucial in the battle for the championship too
- 13th of December, Sunderland v Newcastle – first PL North East derby for several years
Last Weekend of the Season
There are so many huge games set to take place between the 2025 highlights above and the final weekend. However, if we fast-forward to the final weekend of the Premier League season, scheduled to take place on the 24th of May 2026, we can guess what might be crucial fixtures. The most obvious candidate for a pivotal clash is Burney v Wolves and it would be a big surprise if at least one of those clubs is not involved in the relegation slugfest.
Man City host Villa, Liverpool are at home to Brentford, Sunderland welcome Chelsea, Arsenal travel to Palace and Newcastle are at Fulham. Who knows where the real drama will unfold though, but we sure can’t wait to find out.