Adedapo Adesanya
By Adedapo Adesanya
As the English Premier League is set for resumption on September 12, the fixtures for the 2020/2021 season have been released on Thursday by the organisers.
For the opening week, newly promoted side Leeds will travel to Anfield on Saturday, September 12 to face the current champions, Liverpool, while fellow new boys Fulham will host FA Cup champions Arsenal in an opening weekend London derby with West Brom taking on Leicester City at the Hawthorns.
Elsewhere on the opening weekend, Crystal Palace will tackle Southampton at Selhurst Park, Tottenham will host Everton and West Ham will slug it out with Newcastle at the London Stadium
Manchester City versus Aston Villa and Burnley versus Manchester United have been postponed to allow City and United extra time to recover from their recent European campaigns, which abruptly ended last weekend, just four weeks before the 2020/21 Premier League season begins.
Due to this, Manchester City’s first game will be at Wolverhampton Wanderers on September 19, while Manchester United will lock horns with Crystal Palace at Old Trafford on that same weekend.
Also, Chelsea, who will travel to Brighton, and Wolves, who begin with a trip to Sheffield United, because of their European involvements, which ended around a week earlier than the Manchester clubs, will play on Monday, September 14.
After their first game with Leeds on the first day of the new season, Liverpool will first face a tough test with Chelsea away, Arsenal at home and Aston Villa away before a Merseyside derby with Everton at Goodison Park on October 17. Their first showdown with Manchester City comes on the weekend of November 7.
Arsenal, after a trip to Fulham on the opening weekend, will face hard-hitting away games against Liverpool, Manchester City, Manchester United, Leeds and then north London rivals Tottenham on December 5.
Having both sat out the opening weekend, Manchester City and Manchester United will clash in Manchester derbies scheduled for the weekend of December 12 and March 6, 2021. United’s first meeting with fierce rivals Liverpool comes on January 16 at Anfield, with the return fixture at Old Trafford their fifth-from-last on May 1.
Chelsea will travel to Liverpool on the second weekend of the season and will play at Manchester United at the end of October following a second international break. Frank Lampard’s side has also been given a headline-grabbing fixture on Boxing Day with a trip to Arsenal and will begin 2021 with a clash against Manchester City on January 2.
The Premier League 2020/21 season will start on Saturday, September 12 and finish on Sunday, May 23, 2021, exactly 19 days before the rescheduled Euro 2020 tournament kicks off.
The season will begin behind closed doors but some spectators could return to venues on a socially-distanced basis later in the year.
The new season, which had to start late because of the coronavirus disruption, will comprise rounds of fixtures across 32 weekends, five midweeks and one bank holiday. This is different from the normal season of 34 weekends, three midweeks and one bank holiday.
