What are the 23/24 opening day FPL matches?
All Premier League fixtures have been announced for the 2023/24 season and here are the opening day FPL match-ups.
After the annual tradition of fake leaks provided online humour, Thursday morning brought the real deal. Each of the 380 2023/24 Premier League fixtures have now been revealed, allowing FPL managers – if they want – to start planning for next season.
Some cynics say that analysing fixture lists is pointless because everyone still ends up facing each other twice. Yet the reality is that good and bad starts determine the futures of real-life managers, creating momentum and a butterfly effect that could change much more.
Furthermore, in FPL good and bad fixture runs are the foundations of how we rank, fare in mini-leagues and use our first Wildcard.
With that in mind, let’s look at Gameweek 1.
The opening day FPL fixtures
Fantasy Football Scout has posted the first four Gameweeks, with the year’s Season Ticker already updated.
Newly-promoted trio Burnley, Sheffield United and Luton have meetings with Man City, Crystal Palace and Brighton, whilst Arsenal host last season’s poor travellers Nottingham Forest. A very tough opening run for Newcastle begins at home to Aston Villa, with the first Sunday including Ange Postecoglou’s first match for Spurs and Chelsea versus Liverpool.
Good fixtures
Arsenal ended last season with a 5-0 home win and did the same to Forest in Gameweek 14. Steve Cooper’s side collected the fewest points, wins and goals when travelling in 2022/23, also conceding the most. Therefore it looks promising for attackers Bukayo Saka, Martin Odegaard, Gabriel Martinelli and Gabriel Jesus.
Meanwhile, Brighton are Luton’s first-ever Premier League opponent, as they themselves are about to enter new territory with European football. Head coach Roberto De Zerbi rotated a lot during the final weeks of last season, plus it’ll be interesting to see the inevitable price rises of Kaoru Mitoma, Solly March and Pervis Estupinan.
Champions Man City have the Friday night game against the Burnley of club legend Vincent Kompany. Amongst the chat about how high Erling Haaland will be priced, such a generally nice opening run for Pep Guardiola’s man won’t help deter FPL managers from beginning with the Norwegian.
Other popular players
- Elsewhere, Marcus Rashford and Luke Shaw are against Wolves at home on the Monday night
- Kieran Trippier and Ollie Watkins face each other at St James’ Park, which brings appeal to neither
- The late-season form of Eberechi Eze could continue when Crystal Palace travel to Sheffield United
- Whilst Mohamed Salah and Trent Alexander-Arnold are away to the new Chelsea reign of Mauricio Pochettino
- As for the uncertain future of Harry Kane, choosing to stay at Spurs will initially take him to Brentford
