Wednesday, June 17, 2015

2015/16 Premier League Fixtures

2015/16 Barclay Premier League fixture list was unveiled this morning. Arsenal will host West Ham on the opening day of 8 August (subject to change, depending on TV selection). West Ham's season will be well under way by then under a new manager, Slaven Bilic, as they take part in the Europa League from the first qualifying round which kicks off on 2 July. Although we have a favourable track record against the east London side, we need to get up to speed quickly after the Charity Shield against Chelsea on Sunday 2 August.



Then, the north Londoners will make a short trip across the capital to Crystal Palace on the following weekend, followed by a home match against Liverpool.

Arsenal will finish their Premier League campaign at home against Aston Villa. Hopefully, the Gunners will be celebrating a successful season with their home crowd in the annual lap of appreciation.

The first north London derby of the season will take place on 7 November at home, second on 5 March at the White Hart Lane. We hope that Arsenal will take more points off our local rivals this time around. The 2014/15 season's just 1 point out of the the north London derbies was simply disappointing for us, Gooners.

The stand-out games are Chelsea away on 19 September, Man U at home on 3 October, Man City at home on 19 December. We play against most of our title rivals at home first, so we need to make the Emirates a fortress. These big games against title rivals are also spread out, avoiding the repeat of the 2013/14 season's runs of tough fixtures. Our penultimate game of the season is Man City away, which presents a curious resemblance to the last season's fixture list. Like last season's Man U away game in mid-May, it is most likely that this game will have a great significance in determining whether our season is a success or a failure, whatever is at stake at this time of the season.

The Premier League will welcome three new comers: Bournemouth, Watford, and Norwich City. We are glad that we have avoided facing these clubs in the opening games as newly promoted clubs are often found on a high at this stage of their campaigns, carrying the momentum from their successful previous season in the lower division. Arsenal will take on the first of these teams on 17 October at Vicarage Road.

Our annual Benidorm trip could fall on the weekend when Arsenal travel to Old Trafford. We normally choose a weekend at the end of February for this annual fixture, so this game may well become the focal point of our trip. It is a big match fitting the big occasion.

As our poor start to 2014/15 season virtually extinguished any title hopes by the end of the year, Arsenal need to get off to a good start this time around. We could be without our influential Alexis Sanchez at the beginning of the season, given his involvement in Copa America. However, in the absence of major European tournaments, hopefully most of our players will be fresh and focused for the start of their new campaign. The fact that we don't have to go through increasingly tough play-off games for the Champions League at the beginning of the next season is expected to help us significantly. We wish all the Gunners good health and every success in the new season.

August
9   West Ham United (H)
16 Crystal Palace (A)
24 Liverpool (H)
29 Newcastle United (A)

September
12 Stoke City (H)
19 Chelsea(A)
26 Leicester City(A)

October 
3   Manchester United (H)
17 Watford (A)
24 Everton (H)
31 Swansea City (A)

November 
7   Tottenham Hotspur (H)
21 West Bromwich Albion (A)
28 Norwich City (A)

December 
5   Sunderland (H)
12 Aston Villa (A)
19 Manchester City (H)
26 Southampton (A)
28 Bournemouth (H)

January 
2   Newcastle United (H)
12 Liverpool (A)
16 Stoke City (A)
23 Chelsea (H)

February 
2   Southampton (H)
6   Bournemouth (A)
13 Leicester City (H)
27 Manchester United (A)

March
1   Swansea City (H)
5   Tottenham Hotspur (A)
12 West Bromwich Albion (H)
19  Everton (A)

April
2   Watford (H)
9   West Ham United (A)
16 Crystal Palace (H)
23 Sunderland (A)
30 Norwich City (H)

May 
7   Manchester City (A)
15 Aston Villa (H)

Please click the 2015/16 tab above for the up-to-date full fixture list.