PREMIER LEAGUE: Which of England’s top six clubs have the worst start to the 2022/23 season?

June 23, 2022

Pulse Sports looks at the first five games of the season for each of the traditional English top 6 teams to determine who has the toughest run-in.

Looking at each team in alphabetical order, we will rate the difficulty of their opening five games to start the 2022/23 Premier League season.

ARSENAL

Mikel Arteta’s Arsenal will start the season with an away game against Crystal Palace at Selhurst Park which signals the beginning of a relatively easy run-in on paper.

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Arsenal’s first five games consist of matches against newly-promoted teams and mid-table teams which would be easy for most teams but Arsenal tends to struggle with such games.

05/08/2022 20:00 Crystal Palace (a)

13/08/2022 15:00 Leicester City (h)

20/08/2022 15:00 AFC Bournemouth (a)

27/08/2022 15:00 Fulham (h)

30/08/2022 19:45 Aston Villa (h)

CHELSEA

Chelsea will kick off their first season under new ownership with a difficult away trip to Everton at Goodison Park where a club legend Frank Lampard is in charge.

Afterwhich they play against Tottenham at Stamford Bridge, the first London derby of the season also against an ex-Chelsea title winner in Spurs head coach Antonio Conte.

06/08/2022 17:30 Everton (a)

13/08/2022 15:00 Tottenham Hotspur (h)

20/08/2022 15:00 Leeds United (a)

27/08/2022 15:00 Leicester City (h)

31/08/2022 19:45 Southampton (a)

LIVERPOOL

Liverpool have a relatively easy start to the season with five winnable games including two against newly-promoted teams, two against mid-table teams and a trip to Old Trafford.

The game against Manchester United is expected to be their most difficult especially with the Red Devils under new management so we don’t know what to expect from them yet.

06/08/2022 12:30 Fulham (a)

13/08/2022 15:00 Crystal Palace (h)

20/08/2022 15:00 Manchester United (a)

27/08/2022 15:00 A.F.C. Bournemouth (h)

31/08/2022 20:00 Newcastle United (h)

MANCHESTER CITY

Pep Guardiola’s Manchester City will kick off their title defence with a potential banana peel of a fixture, away at West Ham.

But other than that, it should be business as usual for the Cityzens with two games each against newly-promoted teams and mid-table teams, they could potentially win all five games.

07/08/2022 16:30 West Ham United (a)

13/08/2022 15:00 A.F.C. Bournemouth (h)

20/08/2022 15:00 Newcastle United (a)

27/08/2022 15:00 Crystal Palace (h)

31/08/2022 20:00 Nottingham Forest (h)

MANCHESTER UNITED

Manchester United’s new dawn will kick off at the AMEX Stadium, an away trip to Brighton where they suffered a disappointing 4-0 defeat under Ralf Rangnick last season.

It remains to be seen if Erik Ten Hag will fare any better this season, especially since his third-ever Premier League game will be at home to Liverpool, a fixture they lost 5-0 last season.

07/08/2022 14:00 Brighton (h)

13/08/2022 15:00 Brentford (a)

20/08/2022 15:00 Liverpool (h)

27/08/2022 15:00 Southampton (a)

30/08/2022 19:45 Leicester City (a)

TOTTENHAM HOTSPUR

There is a lot of optimism surrounding Tottenham ahead of next season, especially because they ended the last strongly and have done good business so far this summer.

Antonio Conte’s charges will have their mettle tested with four difficult fixtures and one unknown in Nottingham Forest who have just been promoted so we don’t know what to expect yet.