Premier League fixtures: winners and losers – who has the hardest start?

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FromTheSpot

·19. Juni 2026

Premier League fixtures: winners and losers – who has the hardest start?

Premier League clubs have woken up to the news of who they will be playing and when on the release of the 2026/27 fixtures on Friday morning.

Arsenal have learned they will begin their Premier League title defence against second tier champions Coventry City, who haven’t featured in a top flight game since 2001, and it doesn’t get much easier for the other two promoted sides.

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Ipswich Town host Régis Le Bris’ Sunderland while Hull City face Manchester United at the KC Stadium, confirming that all three former Championship teams will face a side playing in Europe next season.

With teams’ fates often partly hinging on how difficult certain runs of games are throughout the season, FromTheSpot analyses who’s got the better and worse deals on fixture release day.

Loser: Sunderland

You might have expected a promoted side to come up first, but based on the average of their first six opponents’ league positions last season (8.3) it’s Sunderland who have the worst start.

Ipswich Town welcome the Black Cats to Portman Road on the opening day, followed by the visit of Fulham for their first home game of the season – not the worst August on record, but it gets trickier from there.

Brentford, Arsenal, Manchester City, and Brighton all follow the first pair of fixtures. The Gunners, of course, ended their 22-year wait for a Premier League title last season and City came a close second.

Both Brentford and Brighton enjoyed strong campaigns last year, and were battling it out with Sunderland for a place in Europe – ultimately, Sunderland reached the Europa League and Brighton entered into the Europa Conference League.

But unlike last season, the trio were on level playing ground since none of them were burdened by the additional eight fixtures that are introduced by the league stages of each competition, perhaps giving Brentford an advantage.

We saw it with Nottingham Forest last season, who fell from a seventh-placed finish to 16th in the table in the span of a year and churned through four different managers.

Though we cannot expect the same chaos in the dugout at Sunderland, it is possible that their European adventure could put strain on the side that will have to rotate more often than it did in 2025/26.

However, their fixtures past matchday six do appear more lenient – in particular, the festive period – and they are not to be discounted solely for having to balance another competition next season.

Sunderland’s first five matches

August 22nd, 15:00 – Ipswich Town (a)

August 29th, 15:00 – Fulham (h)

September 5th, 15:00 – Brentford (a)

September 12th, 15:00 – Arsenal (h)

September 19th, 15:00 – Manchester City (a)

Winner: Leeds United

It would have been easy to pick Arsenal or Manchester City, who both have decent starts and some very forgiving runs throughout the fixture list. Only there aren’t many teams that they aren’t capable of brushing aside.

Instead, one team that can profit from their opening bout of fixtures and beyond are Daniel Farke’s Leeds United.

The German had to inspire his team to memorable wins against Chelsea and Crystal Palace if he was to have any hope of keeping his job after picking up just a single win between September 27th and November 29th 2025.

Following on from beating the Blues 3-1 at Elland Road, they didn’t lose again for another seven matches – a run that proved critical to their Premier League survival by the time the curtain came down on the 2025/26 season.

Football fans are well aware of the phenomenon known as ‘second season syndrome’ that saw Sheffield United relegated within a year of finishing seventh upon their return to the top flight, but the fixture list might help with that.

Nottingham Forest, Brentford, Brighton, Newcastle, and Crystal Palace are their first five opponents, making for one of the best runs to start the upcoming season.

Farke enjoyed very encouraging wins against Forest, Palace, and Brighton, and will argue that his side are more than capable of earning nine points from the 15 available at the beginning of the campaign.

Arsenal and Manchester United are their first major challenges that come back-to-back at the start of October, being two fixtures that Leeds can expect to struggle in.

While, in truth, most teams are relative unknowns until we start to see some activity in the summer transfer window, Leeds’ fixtures to open the season – and those between February and March 2027 – will certainly give them hope.

Leeds United’s first five matches

22 August, 3pm – Nottingham Forest (a)

29 August, 3pm – Brentford (h)

5 September, 3pm – Brighton and Hove Albion (a)

12 September, 3pm – Newcastle United (h)

19 September, 3pm – Crystal Palace (h)

Loser: Coventry

Not quite the game some Coventry fans might’ve hoped would be their first for 25 years.

Frank Lampard will receive the ultimate test on his return as a Premier League manager, in the form of Mikel Arteta’s title-winning Arsenal team at the Emirates Stadium.

With Guardiola now having departed Manchester, Arsenal will be more motivated than ever to build on last season’s triumph and usher in a new dynasty that the Spaniard did over his decade with six-time winners City.

The Emirates has become a fortress for Arteta, conceding the fewest goals at home (11) among all Premier League clubs last season and winning the title boasting the best defensive record after letting in just 27 goals in 38 games.

Coventry endured a slight blip in the new year and ended up running away with the Championship trophy, finishing with an 11-point gap to runners up Ipswich Town, and a similar run will cost them in the top flight. Their meeting with Arsenal, and then Manchester City two games later, could risk a complete false start.

The club’s owner Doug King shared his excitement with their first Premier League match since 2001 coming against Arsenal, despite there being some “nervous tension” around the opening game.

“What can you say – I thought it’d be a big one,” he said. “Away at the champions, what a way to start it – champions vs champions.

“There was a bit of nervous tension around. It went a bit quiet afterwards but we’ve got to play everybody twice and we’re excited to start it at the home of Arsenal.

“We’ll need our home support hugely this year. We saw what Sunderland did at home and that’s what we want to make it.”

Coventry’s first home game against Hull City, however, is quite the opportunity to get things up and running, and don’t face another club that finished in the top six following the week three clash with City until mid-December.

That being said though, Manchester United, Aston Villa, Bournemouth, Brentford, and Chelsea all await them that month, which as mentioned is a critical period during the season where, ultimately, some points must be won.

With Sunderland’s campaign last time out proving so successful despite many tipping them to finish bottom, it will be interesting to see whether Coventry can nail their recruitment and spring a surprise when the Premier League returns in August.

Coventry’s first five matches

August 21st, 20:00 – Arsenal (a)

August 29th, 15:00 – Hull City (h)

September 5th, 15:00 – Manchester City (a)

September 12th, 15:00 – Brighton and Hove Albion (h)

September 19th, 15:00 – Nottingham Forest (a)

Winner: Manchester United

Manchester United have a much nicer start the new season than Frank Lampard’s Sky Blues, with back-to-back clashes against newly promoted Ipswich Town and Hull City to get things underway.

It makes for quite the contrast to their opening day battle with Arsenal last campaign, which the Gunners won 1-0 and frustrated the Red Devils’ new-look multi-million pound attacking unit.

Their first meeting with Manchester City arrived just four games into the 2025/26 season, in which United were beaten 3-0 by Pep Guardiola’s men, and Ruben Amorim won only two of his opening six matches.

While the Manchester Derby hasn’t moved and remains set for matchday four, Michael Carrick has transformed United since he beat them on the first match of his return as interim manager.

Now the full-time boss, he might not face another real challenge until mid-November when his side play Liverpool but this does depend on whether Xabi Alonso will have been able to turn Chelsea’s fortunes around nine matches in.

Both December and May look like promising months to pick up points, also being two of the busiest in terms of the number of matches played. United’s 2026/27 fixtures definitely present an opportunity to build on last season’s success.