Why Arsenal’s nightmare Premier League fixture start can fuel late title boost

The 2024/25 Premier League fixtures have been released, and Arsenal can start looking forward to what they hope will be another season challenging at the top of the Premier League.

The Gunners kick off their campaign by hosting Wolverhampton Wanderers at the Emirates Stadium on Saturday, August 17. Kickoff is at 3pm with the game not being selected for live TV coverage.

Eyes will turn to the key fixtures after that game, with Arsenal looking to get off to the best start possible. But they could be in for a more difficult start than some of their rivals.

According to the Premier League’s FPL Fixture Difficulty Rating, Arsenal have had a difficult start to the season, taking on Aston Villa, Tottenham and Manchester City away in three of their opening five games of the campaign. The Premier League rates these games as difficult, with ‘easy’ home games against Wolves and Brighton in between.

In comparison, Liverpool have had a relatively easy start. Arne Slot’s team starts their season with a trip to newly-promoted Ipswich Town, a game that is rated as ‘easy’.

In their first six games of the season, five are rated ‘easy’. The only game not colour-coded in green is their trip to Old Trafford to take on Manchester United, which is rated as medium.

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It is, however, better news for Mikel Arteta and his Arsenal team when looking at the final games of the season. Of their final seven games, Arsenal are down five easy fixtures and just one difficult one, that coming in the trip to Anfield to take on Liverpool.

Looking at Liverpool’s fixtures in comparison, in their final five games of the season, they face Tottenham at home, Chelsea away, and Arsenal at home. The fixture against Tottenham is rated as medium, while the clashes against Chelsea and Arsenal are rated as hard.

Arsenal will hope that they can take advantage of the situation when the final games of the season come around. If they can get through the so-called harder games in the first few months and still remain in contention at the top of the table, then that can give them confidence for the remainder of the season when they face, on paper, the easier fixtures.