Man Utd good? Arsenal bad? We reveal the Premier League teams with the greatest chance of a positive run of results
The Premier League is heading into a busy period of action, with 10 Matchweeks from now until the end of November that will shape the table and take us past a third of the season. Here, we look at which teams have the best, and worst, next 10 fixtures.
Who has the hardest fixtures?
On paper, AFC Bournemouth have the hardest run, followed by Arsenal, Brighton & Hove Albion and Newcastle United. That's according to the Fixture Difficulty Ratings (FDR).
The FDR, a tool used in Fantasy Premier League, ranks fixtures from one (easy) to five (hard), with green indicating easier matches and red showing tougher ones. The FDR gives Bournemouth's next 10 fixtures an average score of 3.2, given they face Chelsea, Liverpool, Arsenal, Aston Villa and Manchester City in that time. Brighton, Arsenal and Newcastle, who are currently third, fourth and fifth in the table, have the next-hardest fixtures, with an average rating of 3.1.
Brighton host Ipswich Town and Nottingham Forest in their next two matches but then play Chelsea, Tottenham Hotspur, Newcastle, Wolverhampton Wanderers, Liverpool and Man City back-to-back. Arsenal's next two matches are away against Spurs and Man City. Then, between Matchweeks 9 and 11, they play Liverpool, Newcastle and Chelsea. That could spell trouble for Arsenal, who are heading into that run with injury doubts over Martin Odegaard and Riccardo Calafiori, while Declan Rice has a one-match suspension and new signing Mikel Merino has a fractured shoulder.
Advantage Man City and Liverpool?
The top two, Man City and Liverpool, are given an average FDR score of 2.9, meaning they have slightly easier fixtures than their title rivals and have the chance to build a points gap at the top. Man City do face Arsenal and Newcastle in their next three matches but then have a run of playing Fulham, Wolves, Southampton, Bournemouth and Brighton. Liverpool play Forest, Bournemouth and Wolves in their next three. But in Matchweeks 8-9 they face Chelsea and Arsenal, while in Matchweek 13, the very end of November, they host Man City in a match to mark on your calendar.
Each team's FDR score (worst to best)
Everton and Ipswich have best fixtures
In terms of who has the easiest fixtures, it is Everton and Ipswich Town, two teams in the bottom four, who have the best opportunity for a positive run of results in their next 10 outings. They are each given an FDR score of 2.4. Everton play all three promoted teams in their next 10 fixtures, while their hardest match according to the FDR is their next one, at Aston Villa. Ipswich's hardest match is at Spurs in Matchweek 11 but their next fixture is away to Brighton, which may be tougher than the FDR suggests given the Seagulls' unbeaten start to the season under new head coach Fabian Hurzeler.
Man Utd have good run
The FDR says Manchester United have the third-best run of fixtures, with an average score of 2.5. Man Utd are sitting in 14th place with three points from their first three matches, having lost to Brighton and Liverpool in their last two. They now embark on a run where they face Southampton, Crystal Palace, Brentford, West Ham United, Leicester City, Ipswich and Everton, giving manager Erik ten Hag a chance to lift his team up the table.
Premier League table as it stands
European ties add extra difficulty
The seven clubs competing in European competitions in 2024/25 face the added challenge of juggling UEFA Champions League, Europa League, or Conference League matches with their Premier League fixtures. In the next 10 Premier League Matchweeks, there are FIVE European match rounds for teams in the Champions League and Europa League, and FOUR for Chelsea in the Conference League. Arsenal, for example, have a Champions League trip Atalanta sandwiched between their next two Premier League matches at Spurs and Man City, and another fixture at Inter Milan between visits to Newcastle and Chelsea in November. You can see below how all of the 2024/25 season's European dates fit around Premier League matches.