Once again, the fixtures list is not particularly kind to Sunderland.
Very well, we all hope we won’t need points for anything other than European qualification at the end of the season, but Chelsea isn’t a great place to have to go if anything does depend on the outcome. And Man City away for the opening game sounds like a home banker unless Big Sam gets his squad fired up to pull off a surprise.
Here is the list, proivisional of course given the greed needs of broadcasters. Sixer will take a more detailed look …
Sat Aug 13 Manchester City A 3pm
Sat Aug 20 Middlesbrough H 3pm
Wed Aug 24 EFL Cup 2
Sat Aug 27 Southampton A 3pm
Sat Sep 10 Everton H 3pm
Sat Sep 17 Tottenham Hotspur A 3pm
Wed Sep 21 EFL Cup 3
Sat Sep 24 Crystal Palace H 3pm
Sat Oct 1 West Bromwich Albion H 3pm
Sat Oct 15 Stoke City A 3pm
Sat Oct 22 West Ham United A 3pm
Wed Oct 26 EFL Cup 4
Sat Oct 29 Arsenal H 3pm
Sat Nov 5 A.F.C. Bournemouth A 3pm
Sat Nov 19 Hull City H 3pm
Sat Nov 26 Liverpool A 3pm
Wed Nov 30 EFL Cup 5
Sat Dec 3 Leicester City H 3pm
Sat Dec 10 Swansea City A 3pm
Tue Dec 13 Chelsea H 7.45pm
Sat Dec 17 Watford H 3pm
Mon Dec 26 Manchester United A 3pm
Sat Dec 31 Burnley A 3pm
Mon Jan 2 Liverpool H 3pm
Sat Jan 7 Emirates F.A. Cup 3
Wed Jan 11 EFL Cup Semi-Final (1)
Sat Jan 14 Stoke City H 3pm
Sat Jan 21 West Bromwich Albion A 3pm
Wed Jan 25 EFL Cup Semi-Final (2)
Sat Jan 28 Emirates F.A. Cup 4
Tue Jan 31 Tottenham Hotspur H 7.45pm
Sat Feb 4 Crystal Palace A 3pm
Sat Feb 11 Southampton H 3pm
Sat Feb 18 Emirates F.A. Cup 5
Sat Feb 25 Everton A 3pm
Sun Feb 26 EFL Cup Final
Sat Mar 4 Manchester City H 3pm
Sat Mar 11 Middlesbrough A 3pm (Emirates F.A. Cup 6)
Sat Mar 18 Burnley H 3pm
Sat Apr 1 Watford A 3pm
Tue Apr 4 Leicester City A 3pm
Sat Apr 8 Manchester United H 3pm
Sat Apr 15 West Ham United H 3pm
Sat Apr 22 Arsenal A 3pm (Emirates F.A. Cup Semi-Final)
Sat Apr 29 A.F.C. Bournemouth H 3pm
Sat May 6 Hull City A 3pm
Sat May 13 Swansea City H 3pm
Sun May 21 Chelsea A 3pm
Sat May 27 Emirates FA Cup Final
Last season you would have said Leicester A Norwich H Swansea H and Villa A was a relatively easy start with 8+ points guaranteed. We got 2 so take nothing as read.
Next season on paper you would expect four wins out of the first four home games with at least 12 points from the first 7 games. Then Stoke away is winnable too. 15 points from 8 games would be top 6 form.
I’m hoping we can see the end of season momentum carry over to the new one but I’m too long in the tooth to get carried away.
I’m looking forward to the first few games but there’s still that little niggle that I will coming away from the Boro and Everton matches disappointed.
I can’t think of a better time to play Manchester City. First up before Guardiola has them properly organised for PL. And Chelsea at the end? We’ve done well playing them at the end recently and they’ll probably have nothing to play for then anyway.