While the hangover of 2012-13 EPL season would still be on your head, next season’s schedule is being made public by the league officials. It is like having a sleeping pill after taking wine; still, it is fair if you are a diehard fan of soccer especially of English Premier League. Actually, there have been many significant changes with most of the top EPL clubs as far their manager and head coach positions are concerned; hence new appointees’ first games are eagerly being waited by their fans. It would be interesting to see how David Moyes, who has been appointed as Manchester United manager after Sir Alex Ferguson retirement, starts his first campaign for defending champions along with Jose Mourinho who’s second spell at Chelsea will be tested against new side Hull City on 17 August. Both United and Chelsea will then meet with each other on 24th August at United home turf. Moyes will again be tested in next three important games where United will play against Liverpool, Crystal Palace, and their arch rival Manchester City.
Similarly, Manchester City’s new manager Manuel Pellegrini will play his first match in charge against Newcastle at the Etihad Stadium while his first clash with arch rivals will on 21 September. The whole schedule looks to be in harmony with other international events, but there is one major fault that could affect English national team’s chances to qualify for next year’s world cup as two of the most popular EPL matches will be played just before of England’s crucial world cup qualifiers against Moldova and Ukraine in early September, and this is where English FA is not happy with the just released schedule. In fact, FA’s representative held two long meetings with EPL officials before they published their fixtures to avoid any conflict between club matches to that of their international matches.
At the moment, England has not qualified for the next world cup and its chances are largely depended upon how it performs in those crucial matches, and if EPL doesn’t make any adjustment to their collided matches, it would be a great conflict of interest between clubs and England’s national team coz clubs would not like to release their big players for international duties.
So, it’s time to set reminders for all the important fixtures under your bookmarks and make it sure you are not going to miss any of those. Here are the opening day fixtures for EPL’s 2013-14 season:
17 August 2013
- Arsenal v Aston Villa
- Chelsea v Hull City
- Crystal Palace v Tottenham Hotspur
- Liverpool v Stoke City
- Manchester City v Newcastle United
- Norwich City v Everton
- Sunderland v Fulham
- Swansea City v Manchester United
- West Bromwich Albion v Southampton
- West Ham United v Cardiff City