Premier League schedule: Manchester United host Arsenal opening weekend, Manchester City get easy start, more

Liverpool will defend their Premier League title at home to Bournemouth in the opening game of the 2025-26 Premier League season. Newly promoted Sunderland kick off their season at home to West Ham United, while their fellow former Championship clubs Leeds and Burnley are at home to Everton and away to Tottenham respectively, the latter Thomas Frank's first game in charge.

Frank will travel to Manchester City on the second weekend of the season, but from there on out there will be a chance to build momentum with no further games against the 2024-25 top five until late November.

Perhaps the showpiece game of the opening weekend pits Arsenal against Manchester United, a game that was once a title decider, now pitting second from last season against 15th. It does not get much easier for the Gunners from their on out with their 38 game league campaign seeing two of their toughest away games in their first six.

Of course every team has to play every other home and away, but the timing of those is not nothing, affording teams at both ends of the table a chance to build some momentum that sets the tone for the season ahead. Here's what to know for those early games:

1. Man City might be able to ease themselves in...

Given their engagements in the Club World Cup this summer, which could run until mid-July, the last thing manager Pep Guardiola would have wanted is a lot of high-intensity games loaded at the front of the fixture list. That troubling scenario seems to have been avoided by Manchester City, at least in comparison with the other two teams contending for the title. Seems, however, is the operative word here. There is only one game against last season's top five across their first six games and a trip to Wolves on the opening weekend seems a reasonable way to get things started. Brighton away on gameweek three? Tricky, especially if City aren't in form, but manageable.

The real question is what sort of Tottenham and Manchester United they'll run into? After all, those were last season's 17th and 15th best sides. The former have changed in the dugout but will a preseason and one Premier League fixture be enough to get Thomas Frank's side humming? United invariably raise their game when they travel to the Etihad, where they have won twice in their last six visits, but they will have no choice but to given the disparity in quality between the two sides. Negotiate Arsenal in gameweek five and it seems relatively plain sailing until November. A chance, then, to bank some points and perhaps even open up daylight over the rest.

2. ... while title rivals need to hit the ground running

The others will do well to keep pace if City do get motoring. Liverpool begin their title defense at home to Bournemouth, from there on out it gets even trickier. A visit to Newcastle and from Arsenal rounds out August and though September looks less intimidating -- a home Merseyside derby against Everton the stand out match -- the pressure builds from there with a game at Chelsea, at home to Manchester United and at Brentford. Lucky for Arne Slot that three new players should be among the first through the door when preseason begins.

Eager readers will have noticed Arsenal's name cropping up quite often so far and boy are they in for a test from the outset. Their first six games bring trips to OId Trafford, Anfield and their own personal haunted house of terror, St. James' Park. The home games aren't much easier either with Nottingham Forest and Manchester City at the Emirates early on. On the bright side, at least they'll have got plenty of their trickiest assignments out of the way before the clocks change and it means their run in post-January looks more than manageable. Can they keep the pace so that they can exploit that in the second half of the season?

3. Not the start Amorim would want

According to Opta, Manchester United have been handed the toughest start to the season, with an average team rating for their opposition (which goes up to 100) of 94.9. To which there is, of course, one rejoinder. These charts are always tough on the little guys, the lesser teams who spent last season scrapping for their lives. It's not like they can just play themselves, is it?

Of course there's no guarantees United would win that either after their disastrous run of league form last season, 18 defeats from 38 games resulting in their worst league finish since relegation in 1973-74. That is probably not a realistic risk this season. Occupying the bottom three after they've run into Arsenal (h), Fulham (a), Burnley (h), Manchester City (a), Chelsea (h)? That certainly is.

4. Everton can settle into home

The visit of Brighton on August 23 brings with it a new era on Merseyside, the first Premier League match at the Hill Dickinson Stadium. As the likes of West Ham and Arsenal can attest, the first months in new stadia can have their hiccups along the way. The nostalgia that propelled a team through last season gives way to dislocation, the matchday routines of fans (and players) making it a struggle to generate the atmosphere of old.

At least Everton have time to work out those kinks. The first five home league games for David Moyes' side are the aforementioned Brighton, Aston Villa, West Ham, Crystal Palace and Tottenham. There are no easy matches in England's top flight, least of all for a side who has spent so long scrapping in the bottom half, but these aren't the toughest. There is time to build Fortress Hill Dickinson (sounds like something from the Revolutionary War) in time for the visit of Liverpool in mid-April.

5. Sunderland get time to adjust

As a newly promoted side, would you rather ease yourself into life in the Premier League, playing a few familiar opponents and perhaps getting some of the league's lesser lights from last season, or save those games for a time when you are more ready to take them on? Whatever Sunderland's view on the matter, it is largely irrelevant. They have got the more straightforward path out of the gates, starting their first top flight season in nine years with a home game against West Ham followed by a trip to Burnley. Not until October do they play one of the top four from 2024-25, the remaining three come in the space of a month from November 8.

Leeds and in particular Burnley can also look at their early games and back themselves to get a few points on the board early on. Perhaps that will set the stage for a season where they don't all crash back into the Championship.

Premier League opening day fixtures

All times ET

Friday, August 15

• Liverpool vs. Bournemouth (3 p.m.)

Saturday, 16 August

• Aston Villa vs. Newcastle (7:30 a.m.)
• Brighton vs. Fulham (10 a.m.)
• Nottingham Forest vs. Brentford (10 a.m.)
• Sunderland vs. West Ham (10 a.m.)
• Tottenham vs. Burnley (10 a.m.)
• Wolverhampton Wanderers vs. Manchester City (12:30 p.m.)

Sunday, 17 August

• Chelsea vs. Crystal Palace (9 a.m.)
• Manchester United vs. Arsenal (11:30 a.m.)

Monday, 18 August

• Leeds vs. Everton (3 p.m.)