Liverpool begin the defence of their Premier League title with a home game against Bournemouth on an opening weekend of the 2025-26 season that sees Manchester United host Arsenal.
Arne Slot’s champions, who are likely to contain the £100m signing Florian Wirtz, kickstart the new campaign at Anfield on Friday 15 August. The following day sees Thomas Frank’s Tottenham take on newly promoted Burnley, with Scott Parker’s side handed a daunting opening set of fixtures on their return to the top flight. After the visit to Spurs come trips to both Manchester clubs and Aston Villa, as well as the visit of Liverpool to Turf Moor, all by early October.
Leeds and Sunderland, the other two sides promoted from the Championship, begin their campaigns at home to Everton and West Ham respectively, the former the first Monday night game of the new season. The day before that Arsenal visit Old Trafford, which not surprisingly has been selected for Sky Sports’ 4.30pm Super Sunday slot.
Among the other opening fixtures, Aston Villa host Newcastle in the early kick-off on the Saturday and Manchester City travel to Wolves later the same day. Chelsea, meanwhile, take on Crystal Palace in Sunday’s earlier game.
Friday 15 August
Liverpool v Bournemouth, 8pm BST
Saturday 16 August
Aston Villa v Newcastle, 12.30pm
Brighton v Fulham, 3pm
Nottingham Forest v Brentford, 3pm
Sunderland v West Ham, 3pm
Tottenham v Burnley, 3pm
Wolves v Manchester City, 5.30pm
Sunday 17 August
Chelsea v Crystal Palace, 2pm
Manchester United v Arsenal, 4.30pm
Monday 18 August
Leeds v Everton, 8pm
Everton’s first Premier League match at the Hill Dickinson Stadium comes against Brighton the following weekend, when notable fixtures include Arsenal hosting Leeds, Tottenham travelling to Manchester City and Liverpool visiting Newcastle.
It could well be a testing start for the champions, with a home game against Arsenal on the third weekend of the season, before the first international break. The first Manchester derby comes immediately after the break, on the weekend of 13 September at the Etihad Stadium. City travel to Arsenal the following weekend, which also features the first Merseyside derby of the season, at Anfield.
The weekend of 18 October includes Liverpool v Manchester United, and the weekend of 8 November brings the first meeting between Manchester City and Liverpool, at the Etihad Stadium. The first derby between Arsenal and Tottenham takes place the other side of the November international break at the Emirates. The north-east derby returns on the weekend of 13 December when Newcastle visit Sunderland.
As things stand, there are no fixtures scheduled for Boxing Day, with the first round of Premier League games following Christmas Day falling on 27 December. The Premier League has explained that this decision is in keeping with its “commitment to providing a greater rest period over the Christmas and new year period” and that some games from what is round 18 of the schedule could be moved to 26 December for “live broadcast”, adding: “Each club has a home match on either 27 December or 3 January, with travel reduced on 27 December and 30 December.”
The first weekend of the new year features the top-flight renewal of the rivalry between Leeds and Manchester United at Elland Road, while Chelsea travel to the Etihad. There follows a midweek set of fixtures that includes Liverpool’s visit to Arsenal while Fulham and Chelsea meet at Craven Cottage in a west London derby.
Notable fixtures in the second half of the season include the second Manchester derby on the weekend of 17 January and Liverpool hosting Manchester City on the weekend of 7 February. Everton fans will have to wait until the weekend of 18 April for a home Merseyside derby.
The final day of the season falls on Sunday 24 May, with most concerned presumably hoping there is more on the line than was the case on the final day of the 2024-25 campaign.
It all gets going again at Anfield, then, and for Liverpool comes the task of making a positive start and not becoming the fourth champions in Premier League history to lose their opening game of a season, the other three being Leicester in 2016-17, Chelsea in 2017-18 and Manchester City in 2021-22.
