Premier League Fixtures Announced

By: Ian Rose | June 16th, 2008

For those of you who are already tired of international football, well, first of all, shame on you because Euro 2008 has been a great tournament (refereeing aside). But, second, we do have some news that will cheer you up. The Premier League, the most arrogantly named league in football history, has announced their 2008-09 fixture schedule.

Two-time defending champions Manchester United open their season at home, hosting Newcastle on Saturday, August 16th. That’s right, two months exactly from today. Two months until all twenty Premier League sides open their campaigns in simultaneous matches, 3pm on Saturday, as football should be.

Premier League new boys Hull City will play their first match in the league at home, hosting the team that just barely escaped the drop last season, Fulham. It is only the first of 38 fixtures for both, but might be a vital one for two sides likely to be fighting for survival later in the season.

Arsenal has arguably the easiest start of the big four, hosting West Brom on opening day then traveling to Craven Cottage to face Fulham a week later. Chelsea starts off against FA Cup winners Portsmouth, before going to a surprisingly tough fixture historically for the Blues, away at Wigan. Liverpool gets started at the Stadium of Light against Roy Keane’s Sunderland, though it would be a very long bet to try and predict what eleven Black Cats will actually take the pitch.

Two months to wait, until we begin to ask ourselves again whether any team can break the Big Four, meaning there’s probably about four months to wait before we realize, once again, that no one will.

Complete fixture list from the BBC here.

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Category: World Football

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Ian Rose

Nice dig, Matt ... I probably deserved that. Though if I were to ever touch an England shirt, my grandfather would surely wake from the dead to beat me with a spoon or something.
Matt

Yes, there are about three teams in it...the rest are in a playoff to stay out of League 1...lolz!
Rob

Tis, surely no more arrogantly named than La Liga, Serie A or anything else really. Besides, The Jocks have thier own "Premier League" no? ;)
Matt

Boy oh boy, the guy gets onto the front page and forgets about the SPL...I hear they're having a sale on Gerrad English National Team kits Ian...(jokes)
Lucas

The 4th division in the US is called the Premier Development League. Arrogant bastards... :D
Ak

Yeah, hang on; why's "premier league" arrogant? Premier, after all, is just a fancy word for "first", which is no different to any of the other European primary leagues. Maybe if they coined it now I would be more cynical in it's connotations; but back in the early nineties it was just a marketing term in order to attract TV money: nothing to do with international elitism (which would have been a bit rich back then).

Second latic on Liverpool. (By the way, everyone'll read that as "are all atic from the south", and then wonder what "atics" are, you know.)
areallaticfromthesouth

Arrogantly? The Premiership IS the BEST League in the World. After all, the best players want to play there, unlike the MLS!!!

Forget the big four, there is only three and that doesn't include Liverpool!!!
Matt

Ah good, Scottish League at noon to make room for Man U to hump Newcastle by 3...Boo Sentanta, BOO!