LONDON, England – One thing is certain from the release of the 2024–2025 Premier League schedule: another incredible opening weekend is in store.

Manchester United’s revival under Erik ten Hag kicks off on Friday night against Fulham. Arne Slot’s Liverpool then welcomes back Ipswich Town to the summer sun at lunchtime on Saturday.

Then, in a big-ticket match that kicks off in the evening, Manchester City visits Chelsea following Brentford’s match against Crystal Palace and West Ham United’s match against Aston Villa.

The season’s opening weekend has been extremely successful, and on Monday night, promoted Leicester City will play Tottenham Hotspur.

After the 2024–25 fixture announcement, Alex Keble watches out for the following seven items.

The infamous Arsenal wobble might occur in January or at the beginning of

Before September ends, there will be games at Villa Park, the Etihad Stadium, and the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium. Arsenal has been really unfortunate.

Mikel Arteta will be put to the test greatly when he plays the two biggest games of the season—a championship showdown and a north London derby—in the span of seven days in September. Even worse, they have to repeat the same process in January after playing a match in the UEFA Champions League in between!

Arsenal experienced a difficult winter in each of the previous two seasons, which eventually lost them the Premier League title.

Arsenal won just one of five games in December of the previous season, while in 2022–2023 they had a three-match winless streak into February. If they want to eventually overtake Man City at the top, they must steer clear of a similar sequence this season.

That entails overcoming a terrible run of games when they play Villa, Spurs, and Man City in four consecutive rounds (again) in January.

That is when things are most likely to go wrong. If they manage to survive it, though, their confidence might lead Arsenal to their first Premier League victory in twenty-one years.

The will of Man City to be put to the test

Are Pep Guardiola and his squad still facing any hurdles to climb? After Man City won a historic fourth title in a row, he remained evasive regarding his future and even questioned out loud where he would get to drive for 2024–2025.

It shouldn’t take long to determine if the City is prepared for the battle. Their season’s first six games have been exceptionally challenging.

In addition to the undoubtedly difficult games against Arsenal, Newcastle United, and a retooled Chelsea, Man City will play promoted Ipswich first and will have to travel to West Ham under new manager Julen Lopetegui.

The first Sunday’s match at Stamford Bridge is very important. Given that Enzo Maresca and Guardiola have very similar tactics, there’s a decent probability the home team will get a point. If Arsenal can then win at the Etihad in September, Man City will need to win in order to avoid having a terrible start.

Even if Man City does have a poor start to the season, they usually pick up steam in the second half, thus an easy 11-game stretch presents the possibility for yet another amazing winning run.

The only games that will be difficult starting in March are Villa at home and Manchester United at Old Trafford.

Is the Ten Hag revival doomed by a rough start?

Ten Hag has been given a respite, but we can presume he has to start playing right away in 2024–2025 given that Manchester United publicly spoke with other managers during a two-week assessment process.

Ten Hag has therefore been dealt a terrible start: difficult games, but not so difficult as to make one feel sorry for them if they don’t perform up to standard.

The first game is quite straightforward: Manchester United takes on Fulham. After that, they host Liverpool then go to Brighton & Hove Albion for Fabian Hurzeler’s Amex Stadium debut.

They go to Selhurst Park, an Oliver Glasner-managed banana peel, over the course of the following four, before Spurs and Villa head into the second international break.

Man Utd never quite bounced back after losing four of their opening seven games in the previous campaign.