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Liverpool Echo
Liverpool Echo
Sport
Connor O'Neill

Everton set for opening day new season boost after Liverpool Premier League fixture request

Everton secured their place in next season's Premier League after beating Bournemouth at Goodison Park last Sunday.

Sean Dyche’s side survived thanks to Abdoulaye Doucoure’s superb second-half strike. The 1-0 win for the Blues was enough to secure a 70th consecutive top-flight season at Goodison Park.

And even though the 2022/23 Premier League campaign has only just finished, the 2023/24 season is already fast approaching. All 380 Premier League fixtures will be released at 9am on Thursday, June 15, with the season set to get underway two months later on Saturday, August 12.

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However, Everton are expected to be at home on the opening day of the new season after Liverpool asked for next season’s opening match to be played away from home to allow preparations to be completed on their new Anfield Road stand.

Work, which began in September 2021, is on course to be finished this summer on the £80m redevelopment and will add around 7,000 extra seats, taking the ground’s overall capacity to more than 61,000.

The Anfield club made a similar request to the Premier League when they completed the new Main Stand in 2016, which followed the same process of erecting the new building behind the existing one so the ground’s capacity was not affected during the season.

"We are on track and on budget," Liverpool's vice-president of stadium operations Paul Cuttill said last month.

"The progress has gone really well, and we’re due to complete by the end of July, with a view to being ready for the first home game of the 2023/24 season.

"It’s not been confirmed yet, but we’ve asked for the first game to be away, which will mean the first home game is August 19 or 20.

"It just means we have the best possible chance to make sure the stadium is ready, that we have had test events which are licensed and good to go.

"There is an element of pitch work, to make sure it has recovered from the roof being removed and the work which takes place on the pitch during the close season."

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