FIXTURE HOT TAKES

COULD HAVE BEEN WORSE

The fixtures have landed.

I don’t want to bore you with chatter about dates, so I’ll just give you some hot takes.

• Not as bad as last season.

• Man City and Liverpool weren’t treated any better than Arsenal.

• City will have a very weird preseason, so that could be advantageous to Arsenal if they go far in the Club Cup.

• Premier League frontloaded big games, presumably to get people hooked early after the ratings dip.

• Frontloading games doesn’t do it for me. Shouldn’t we want the big games to be played with fully fit teams in their stride?

• Manchester United is a tough fixture in your mind, but they are in a mess, so you should be looking at that date as Arsenal starting against a team that finished 15th.

• Regardless, we always struggle against them, so getting three of our big away games done in the opening two months is good times.

• 5 points from the opening 3 fixtures would be really good.

• December is pretty decent, bar Aston Villa showing up against us twice.

• February games against Spurs and Chelsea will be wedged between Champions League games. That means we’re playing two tough teams and they have no advantage against us.

• The last month of the season will be against On The Beach FC teams.

• November games wedged between international breaks are against London teams, so no extensive travel required.

• Man City in April could be extremely interesting if the Premier League announces an end to their charges… it could also be really fucking depressing.

• No Boxing Day game and a 7-day break in December could be MASSIVE for Arsenal. Liverpool got that last season.

• If you’re being cruel, you could say that Arteta doesn’t tend to start dropping players until November, so getting our big games done with a fully fit squad will be advantageous.

The reality of Premier League-winning seasons is you need to get off to a decent start, stay within spitting distance, and don’t let your games get derailed in the early months by the draconian punishments that are dished out to clubs for new rules refs don’t understand, that get canned after Arsenal become the case study in why the rules were stupid.

This fixture list also ratchets up the heat on Andrea Berta to get moving on those bids. We don’t have any distractions. Let’s get the bodies in. Don’t waste time on flaky butterflies like Rodrygo. Start the season stocked like a pro boozer’s beer fridge. Make sure he got the memo on training intensity and rotation policies.

Ok, that’s me done. Speak soon. x

Fixture list

AUGUST
Sun 17 Manchester United (A)
Sat 23 Leeds United (H)
Sat 30 Liverpool (A)

SEPTEMBER
Sat 13 Nottingham Forest (H)
Sat 20 Manchester City (H)
Sat 27 Newcastle United (A)

OCTOBER
Sat 4 West Ham United (H)
Sat 18 Fulham (A)
Sat 25 Crystal Palace (H)

NOVEMBER
Sat 1 Burnley (A)
Sat 8 Sunderland (A)
Sat 22 Tottenham Hotspur (H)
Sat 29 Chelsea (A)

DECEMBER
Wed 3 Brentford (H)
Sat 6 Aston Villa (A)
Sat 13 Wolverhampton Wanderers (H)
Sat 20 Everton (A)
Sat 27 Brighton & Hove Albion (H)
Tue 30 Aston Villa (H)

JANUARY
Sat 3 Bournemouth (A)
Wed 7 Liverpool (H)
Sat 17 Nottingham Forest (A)
Sat 24 Manchester United (H)
Sat 31 Leeds United (A)

FEBRUARY
Feb 7 Sunderland (H)
Wed 11 Brentford (A)
Sat 21 Tottenham Hotspur (A)
Sat 28 Chelsea (H)

MARCH
Wed 4 Brighton & Hove Albion (A)
Sat 14 Everton (H)
Sat 21 Wolverhampton Wanderers (A)

APRIL
Sat 11 Bournemouth (H)
Sat 18 Manchester City (A)
Sat 25 Newcastle United (H)

MAY
Sat 2 Fulham (H)
Sat 9 West Ham United (A)
Sun 17 Burnley (H)
Sun 24 Crystal Palace (A)