Premier League 2022/23 fixture release: FPL reaction

The fixtures for the 2022/23 Premier League season have been released this morning.

Manchester City begin their title defence with a tricky-looking trip to West Ham United, while Liverpool are at Fulham on the opening weekend.

The new campaign starts on Friday 5 August with Crystal Palace v Arsenal, a fixture the Eagles won 3-0 in the season just gone.

Tottenham Hotspur’s home game against Southampton is also among the most eye-catching match-ups of Gameweek 1.

Newly promoted Nottingham Forest and Bournemouth face Newcastle United and Aston Villa respectively in their 2022/23 curtain-raisers.

SEASON TICKER OVERVIEW

Our Season Ticker has been updated both on the sidebar and in our Premium Members Area, with all 20 Premier League clubs sorted by fixture difficulty in the first six Gameweeks in the graphic above.

The tickers are customisable, too. You can sort by difficulty, rotation pairings and ‘relative’ difficulty (something that factors in the strength of the team), while you can also remove clubs and Gameweeks from the outlook, add your own difficulty ratings, sort by home/away matches and filter by attack/defence.

BEST AND WORST FIXTURES: FIRST SIX GAMEWEEKS

City and Liverpool’s opening six-match runs are arguably the best in the division.

The reigning champions are the only Premier League team who avoid a ‘big six’ side in the first six Gameweeks, with home fixtures against Bournemouth, Crystal Palace and Forest in Gameweks 2, 4 and 5 standing out especially.

The Reds’ only encounter with one of the half-dozen ‘elite’ teams in the first seven Gameweeks is against far-from-convincing Manchester United in Gameweek 3.

Arsenal avoid any other ‘big six’ club in the first five Gameweeks, with a trip to Old Trafford following.

Spurs have a mixed bag, with away matches at Chelsea and West Ham punctuating easier-on-paper tests against Saints, Forest and Fulham. Manchester City then await in Gameweek 7.

Chelsea similarly meet Spurs and the Hammers but also enjoy clashes with Leeds and Southampton.

United may be ones to avoid at first, with Liverpool, Leicester and Arsenal up in the first six weeks.

It’s a bit of a baptism of fire for the newly promoted clubs, who are languishing at the wrong end of our newly updated Season Ticker.

Fulham and Bournemouth have it especially tough, each meeting three big-six sides in their opening half-dozen Gameweeks.

FIXTURES: INTERNATIONAL BREAKS, WORLD CUP INTERLUDE AND MORE

Unlike in previous seasons, we’ll get a total of eight Gameweeks before our first international break in September.

That will be our one and only short hiatus before the Premier League pauses for over six weeks to accommodate the World Cup.

Gameweek 16 on the weekend of November 12/13 is the final one to take place before attention switches to Qatar, with FPL resuming on Boxing Day with Gameweek 17.

Back-to-back rounds then follow on December 31 and January 2 before another temporary break for the FA Cup third round.

The season ends on Sunday 28 May, with Brentford v Manchester City, Chelsea v Newcastle, Leeds v Spurs and Southampton v Liverpool among the final fixtures of 2022/23.

We’ll be taking a more in-depth look at the teams with the best and worst fixture runs as the day goes on.