With the first month of the new season on the horizon, it’s the perfect time to look at fixtures for August in advance for planning an initial team and any transfers to be made in August. Below I’ve sorted teams with the best fixtures in August, starting with the bigger clubs who we would expect to be favourites in most games against lesser opposition. Then I’ve looked at teams with good opening fixtures who also play in the EFL Cup in August so they get an extra fixture.
Top 7 clubs in the table last season:
Liverpool (3 games)
Ipswich (A)
Brentford (H)
Man Utd (A)
Liverpool have two good opening fixtures – always nice to start against a newly promoted club and a decent home game against Brentford. Away at Man Utd is not a great third game but I’ll still be including a few Liverpool players from the off.
Arsenal (3 games)
Wolves (H)
Villa (A)
Brighton (H)
Arsenal avoid the likes of Man City, Man Utd, Spurs, Chelsea and Liverpool during August but they do have a tricky away fixture against Villa in game week 2. Other than that two home games against Wolves and Brighton look appealing.
Spurs (3 games)
Leicester (A)
Everton (H)
Newcastle (A)
Two decent opening fixtures for Spurs but it comes down to whether we trust them for consistency in performance regardless of who they are playing. I’m not overly keen on the third fixture against Newcastle either.
Man Utd (3 games)
Fulham (H)
Brighton (A)
Liverpool (H)
On paper it looks like two good fixtures for Man Utd to start the season, however, they were very inconsistent last season. I’m not sure if they will turn a corner this season and it’s difficult to pick out the point scorers (other than Fernandes) in a team who lacks that consistency.
Man City (3 games)
Chelsea (A)
Ipswich (H)
West Ham (A)
I really don’t like Man City’s start against Chelsea – although I would still expect them to win this game. I then really like their fixture at home to Ipswich and with only two transfers in between we will probably have to start with some City coverage in game week 1 anyway. West Ham away isn’t a great fixture for game week 3 either though so a bit of a mixed bag for City.
Chelsea (3 games)
Man City (H)
Wolves (A)
Palace (H)
The only way game week 1 could be more tough for Chelsea is if they were away to City rather than at home. The only player I’m currently considering on this basis is Palmer but he is very expensive. Food for thought.
Villa (3 games)
West Ham (A)
Arsenal (H)
Leicester (A)
Despite a brilliant season for Villa last time around, I don’t really like their two opening fixtures. As a result, I doubt I’ll start with any of their players.
Best fixtures from the rest:
Forest (4 games)
Bouremouth (H)
Southampton (A)
EFL Cup
Wolves (H)
Forest look to have the best opening fixtures – avoiding any of the top teams. However, as a club who finished just above the relegation zone last season it’s hard to predict whether they will get results or not.
Bournemouth (4 games)
Forest (A)
Newcastle (H)
EFL Cup
Everton (A)
Aside from the Newcastle fixture, Bournemouth have a decent run of opening games. They did OK last season with a mid table finish and there’s a couple of players we could look at early doors.
Newcastle (4 games)
Southampton (H)
Bournemouth (A)
EFL Cup
Tottenham (H)
Newcastle are the best team who haven’t qualified for Europe this season so they are worth looking at from the point of view of having the extra EFL Cup game. I do like their opening 3 fixtures on this basis so I may start with a player or two from them.
Fulham (4 games)
Man Utd (A)
Leicester (H)
EFL Cup
Ipswich (A)
I don’t like Fulham’s opening fixture away at Man Utd, however after this they’ve potentially got three nice fixtures with an EFL Cup game and two Premier League games against newly promoted teams.
