Opta rank all 20 Premier League clubs – Who has the toughest early fixtures for 2025/26 season | OneFootball

Which Premier League clubs have the easiest starts to the season?

Whilst at the other end of the spectrum, which Premier League clubs have the most difficult starts?

Yesterday we saw the 2025/26 Premier League fixtures released.

Newcastle United starting off next season with Villa (A), Liverpool (H), Leeds (A), Wolves (H) and Bournemouth (A).

In those five equivalent matches in 2024/25, Newcastle United picked up eight points, as United lost away at Villa, got draws at home to Liverpool and away at Bournemouth, won against Wolves at home, whilst winning all six games home and away against the three promoted clubs.

Anyway, from a more neutral stance, Opta has ranked the difficulty of the first five PL fixtures for all 20 Premier League clubs .

According to Opta’s model this is how it ranks in difficulty from top to bottom…

Newcastle United ranked as only having the seventh most difficult opening five fixtures.

Not so sure about that, especially when three of the five are away from home and one of the two at St James’ Park is against the reigning champions!

I think certainly away at Villa and then home to Liverpool, difficult to believe Newcastle United could have been handed a much more difficult opening pair of fixtures.

Of course, with that comes opportunity. If say Newcastle got a draw at Villa and then won at home against Liverpool, or indeed four points from an away win and a draw at home, then what a great platform to attack the follow games.

I think as well when talking about difficult opening fixtures, it depends what the cut off point is, because if you then make it based on the first six games of next season, for NUFC it brings in Arsenal (H) as an extra difficult looking match against last season’s runners-up.

September Sat 13 Wolves (H) Tues 16, Wed 17 and Thur 18 – Champions League Matchday 1 Sat 20 Bournemouth (A) W/C Mon 22 Sept – League Cup third round Sat 27 Arsenal (H) Tues 30 and Wed 1 Oct – Champions League Matchday 2

October Sat 4 Nottingham Forest (H) Sat 18 Brighton (A) Tues 21 and Wed 22 – Champions League Matchday 3 Sat 25 Fulham (H)

November Sat 1 West Ham (A) Tues 4 and Wed 5 – Champions League Matchday 4 Sat 8 Brentford (A) Sat 22 Manchester City (H) Tues 25 and Wed 26 – Champions League Matchday 5 Sat 29 Everton (A)

January Sat 3 Crystal Palace (H) Wed 7 Leeds United (H) Weekend of Sat 10 – FA Cup third round Sat 17 Wolves (A) Tues 20 and Wed 21 – Champions League Matchday 7 Sat 24 Aston Villa (H) Wed 28 – Champions League Matchday 8 Sat 31 Liverpool (A)