Premier League Fixtures: Who Has the Toughest Start to 2026-27?

The 2026-27 Premier League fixtures have just been released, so we’ve looked at the schedule to analyse which teams have the easiest and toughest starts to the new season.

Premier League fixture release day spells the start of the new season and gets fans excited about the upcoming campaign.

This year’s fixture release is slightly overshadowed by the small matter of the 2026 FIFA World Cup being in full flow, but nonetheless it’s a day for supporters of Premier League clubs to get all giddy, even if the first games aren’t for another two months.

Fans of the three promoted clubs, Coventry City, Ipswich Town and Hull City, can mark their calendars with landmark dates for the season. Of course, games are likely to be moved for TV coverage, but the list at least gives a rough idea.

The 2025-26 season gets kicks off with Arsenal vs Coventry City at Emirates Stadium on Friday 21 August in a fascinating curtain raiser that pits the Premier League champions against the winners of the Championship. No chance, then, for Coventry to ease their way back into top-flight action following 25 years away.

Arsenal won 1-0 at Manchester United on the opening weekend of 2025-26 before going on to win their first league title in 22 years. That means just one of the last 13 Premier League title winners have lost the opening game of their successful campaign – Manchester City in 2021-22, who lost 1-0 at Tottenham Hotspur.

Getting off to a strong start is key to a good season. For teams expected to be near the bottom of the table at the end of the season, making an encouraging or demoralising start can make or break a campaign.

Overall, 103 teams have won their opening two games to a Premier League season, and just three of those have ended up being relegated that campaign: Wolves in 2011-12, Hull in 2016-17 and West Brom in 2017-18. Spurs did come close to becoming the fourth last season, however, eventually securing survival on the final day.

Arguably the other most eye-catching fixtures of Matchday 1 see promoted Hull City host Manchester United on Saturday 22 August, before Sunday’s action concludes with Newcastle United welcoming Liverpool in what will be Andoni Iraola’s first competitive match in charge of the Reds.

Premier League Matchday 1 Fixtures: 2026-27

Arsenal vs Coventry City (21 August)
Brentford vs Tottenham (22 August)
Everton vs Crystal Palace (22 August)
Hull City vs Manchester United (22 August)
Ipswich Town vs Sunderland (22 August)
Nottingham Forest vs Leeds United (22 August)
Brighton & Hove Albion vs Aston Villa (23 August)
Manchester City vs Bournemouth (23 August)
Newcastle United vs Liverpool (23 August)
Fulham vs Chelsea (24 August)

Using the Opta Power Rankings, we can quantify how easy (or difficult) each team’s opening schedule is.

As a reminder, these Power Rankings rate a frankly enormous number of teams (10,000) across the globe based on a system that scores the current strongest side 100 and the weakest zero.

Those scores are then used to rank the teams in order of strongest to weakest.

Focusing on the Premier League, we looked at the average Opta Power Rating of each team’s opponents to measure fixture difficulty.

These range from Arsenal (the number one team in the world with a Opta Power Rating of 100.0, and therefore the hardest to play against) to Hull City (ranked 164th in the world with a Opta Power Rating of 82.2 and therefore the ‘easiest’ team to play against in England’s top flight).

Here’s how things shape up.

The Opening Five Games

The team with the ‘kindest’ opening five fixtures are Manchester United (average opponent rating of 89.3). Remarkably, for the first time since the 2016-17 season, the Red Devils start with an away game, but it is at least against the lowest-ranked side in the league in Hull City. Michael Carrick’s men then host more promoted opposition in Ipswich Town, before travelling to Everton.

A Manchester derby awaits after that, before a trip to Fulham. It’s therefore far from an ‘easy’ start, but Carrick has been handed a good chance to continue the momentum United ended 2025-26 with under him now he’s got the permanent job at Old Trafford.

Newcastle United and Liverpool face each other at St. James’ Park on the opening weekend, where Alexander Isak and new Reds signing Victor Muñoz – who had looked Newcastle bound – should get an interesting reception. After that, though, both seemingly have a kinder run than most others.

Eddie Howe’s men also host Bournemouth and Hull in their first five, along with away clashes with Tottenham and Leeds United.

Iraola’s first home game in charge of Liverpool is against Nottingham Forest, before taking on Ipswich (A), Fulham (H) and Bournemouth (A).

In terms of difficulty, Arsenal and Manchester City supposedly have identical starts in their first five, both facing opponents with an average Opta Power Rating of 90.9. After the champions host Coventry, they have a tricky game at Aston Villa, followed by Chelsea (H), Sunderland (A) and Brighton (A).

Pep Guardiola’s replacement, Enzo Maresca, starts with a home game against fellow new arrival Marco Rose and Bournemouth, before taking on Crystal Palace (A), Coventry (H), Man Utd (A) and Sunderland (H).

As for the toughest first five, we’re afraid that’s awaiting Rose. Bournemouth have been handed a tricky start to life after Iraola, though three of their first five games are at least at home. As mentioned, they begin with a trip to Man City, before facing Everton (H), Newcastle (A), Brentford (H) and then the intriguing prospect of Iraola’s Liverpool at the Vitality Stadium.

Sunderland also have a tough start, with Arsenal and City in their first few games, while it’s quite the comeback to the Premier League for Coventry. Frank Lampard’s men start away to Arsenal, the highest-ranked team in the league, before hosting Hull, the lowest-ranked, and then heading to Man City, the second-highest ranked.

Hull (92.1) and Ipswich (91.7) don’t have it quite as tough in their first five, but both still have fixtures in the harder half of the league, as do Spurs (92.2), with Roberto De Zerbi hoping to get off to a good start after just about keeping them up last season.

Xabi Alonso has been dealt a ‘mild’ start, shall we say, with Chelsea apparently having the 10th toughest first five fixtures. They begin with a west London derby, where he might face former Liverpool, Spain and Real Madrid colleague Álvaro Arbeloa, who is being linked with the vacant Fulham job. They also travel to Arsenal in their third fixture, which will be a big early test for Alonso’s adaptation to the Premier League.

Aston Villa face the Gunners prior to that on Matchday 2 and have a similarly mixed opening five games. Unai Emery’s side begin at Brighton, also having trips to Hull and Tottenham.

If five games isn’t enough for you to judge how well your team might start, though, let’s look at the first 10.

The Opening 10 Games

The picture changes quite considerably for a few teams between the opening five, and Matchdays 6 through 10.

Brighton were already pretty high up this particular table over the first five matchdays, but they shoot to the top for the overall look at the opening 10 MDs because they face Liverpool and Man City (both away) back-to-back across MD8 and MD9.

That promises to be a gruelling couple of weeks for the Seagulls, whose average opponent rating across their first 10 matches is 92.6.

Liverpool and Leeds join them on 92.6 as well.

For Liverpool, that is reflective of a particularly tough-looking run from MD6 to MD10; they were deemed to have the third-easiest start through MD5, but tussles with Man City (MD6) and Arsenal (MD9) crank things up a notch – though at least both matches will be at Anfield.

There’s an argument Leeds’ outlook could actually be tougher than that of Liverpool or Brighton. Arsenal (A) and Man Utd (H) back-to-back won’t be easy, but then there’s also a chance Tottenham (H) on MD10 will be trickier than the Opta Power Rankings suggest; after all, it’ll be partially taking into account their form in 2025-26, and they’ll surely be a better team this time around (though we probably said the same this time last year…).

While Coventry have the most difficult start of the three promoted teams when looking at the first five MDs, Hull (average opponent rating: 91.9) go above them through the first 10. That clearly isn’t helped by a trip to Arsenal on MD10, but they do face each of the other promoted teams as well, so there will be opportunities to get points on the board.

When it comes to easiest opening 10 fixtures, Man Utd (av. opp. rating: 90.6) are still there or thereabouts over the first 10 MDs, though they go from easiest to fourth easiest.

Nevertheless, there are caveats. As mentioned, the Power Rankings arguably see Tottenham (MD6) as being poorer than they’ll be; Leeds away (MD7) is pretty much always an uncomfortable one for United; Chelsea at Stamford Bridge (MD9) could be tougher than the current rankings reflect; and Aston Villa (MD10) are good opposition. And then there’s the aforementioned derby on MD4.

It’s Fulham (av. opp. rating: 90.1) who replace United as the team with the easiest start when looking at the full first 10 matchdays, and that’s because they have a pretty favourable sequence from MD6-MD8, facing all three of the promoted teams in succession.

Otherwise, they’d probably have one of the toughest starts given they face Chelsea, Liverpool, Man Utd, Villa and Newcastle before MD11. That they don’t come up against either Arsenal or City in that run has counted in their favour, though.

Speaking of Arsenal (av. opp. rating: 90.2), the defending champions are also deemed to have one of the easiest starts through MD10; they only face two of last season’s top six, and also host two of the promoted sides (Coventry – MD1, Hull – MD10).

So, can the Gunners propel their title defence by making the most of a seemingly straightforward start? Will Man Utd get off to a flyer to position themselves as early title challengers? Could Liverpool make a statement by brushing off a tough opening slate?

Whatever happens, we’re certainly already looking forward to it.

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