Last Thursday morning at 09:00 hours, the Premier League fixtures for the 2023/24 season were released.
As I checked them in a service station on the A3 the first thing I realised was that my boss is giving me the first week of the season off. He is not getting any say in the matter because Bees start our 3rd EPL season at home to Spurs (Sunday 13th August), a sure-fire victory, before heading down river for the derby at Craven Cottage just 6 days later.
Fans of newly promoted Burnley will be making sure they have Friday 11th off as their heroes have the honour of hosting the first game of the new season, against the reigning champions. Taking on his old club, and current treble winners, will be a baptism of fire for Clarets manager Vincent Kompany on his first season as a Premier League manager.
They then get an easy first home game against fellow debutants Luton Town, before heading off on the road again to Villa Park to take on last seasons surprise packages.
I say easy, but Luton will also hoping that game is the easy one of their opening triplet, road trips to Brighton and Chelsea sandwich it. It’s a crying shame that Burnley will be first to experience the away end at Kenilworth Road in the Premier League, they already know what it’s like from their visit last season. The Europa Conference League champions, West Ham United, will be the first newbies to experience that joy. Brentford fans, like me, will have to wait till run-in for their trip to the road. Easy run-in for bees, final five Luton (A), Everton (A), Fulham (H), Bournemouth (A) and finish up by hosting Newcastle United.
Good to see we have 9 points guaranteed from the away trips in unlikely event of trouble.
Sheffield United fans that their team start by cutting the eagles to shreds at Bramall Lane before taking the pain to Nottingham Forest’s City Ground, on the glorious banks of the Trent, because if they haven’t got points on the board by then they’re gonna be bottom by the end of August. They finish their opening triplet by hosting the treble winners to the Lane.
Even with the early season boost that most newly promoted teams experience it is difficult for me to envision them getting a positive result out of that match. But the good news for Blades fans is that many past team has overcome a bad start to end comfortably mid-season. What many teams can’t counter is a dreadful run in performance, as everyone else around them is fighting for their lives.
There is further good news for Blades fans here as their run-in has some games that look very winnable on paper. Sure their final 6 involves visits to the G-tech, St. James’ Park and their penultimate game is away at Goodison Park, but their final 2 home games are eminently winnable. Neither Nottingham Forest nor a final day showdown with Spurs(y) will strike fear into Yorkshire hearts should they require points to stay up.
Luton have a similarly decent final 6, once you get past the trip to the Etihad that starts it off. They start their final 5 with a home battle against the swarming Bees before heading to the Wolves den, hosting the Toffees (who are notoriously awful travellers), heading out east to the Hammers home and finishing up by hosting the Cottage lot (Fulham).
So really not a bad run-in all things considered.
Unfortunately for Claret’s fans the same cannot be said of their run-in. They start by hosting a Brighton team that qualified for the Europa League this season, then face back to back away games.
The first of which is the huge 6 pointer at Bramall Lane, as mentioned above, swiftly followed by a trip to Old Trafford to face Erin Ten-Haag’s reinvigorated top-4 team.
If that end to March wasn’t daunting enough they then start April by heading home to take on Eddie Howe’s high flying Tyne-siders.
Their last 2 matches of the season look winnable enough, but even 3 points from their visit to the Spursy stadium followed by a final day victory over Forest at Turf Moor may not be enough to save them if they find themselves in a late season battle for survival.
Given how brilliantly they wiped the floor with the Championship last season, 101 points is no small feat in that division, and the togetherness evident within the group of players I fully expect them to secure survival far before the run-in rears it’s ugly head.
Come the end of the season Sheffield United will probably be safe as well, but just Luton Town’s size alone gives me cause for concern about their survival.
Town fans can take solace in the achievements of both Bournemouth and Brentford, to survive and thrive respectively, at the level to suggest that their Premier League existence may yet last longer than the one season, flash-in-the-pan, visit that many expect it to be.
The Cherries have just sacked manager Gary O’Neil as I was finishing writing this post though.
*Editor’s note: Whilst I’ve been double checking/editing the Cherries have now appointed Ex Rayo Vallecano Manager Andoni Iraola to fill their dugout role. He comes in on an initial 2-season deal as the team’s new Head Coach.
*I’m the same person both writing and editing these posts…
The Football tourist 