Yes, I know, I know – it doesn’t matter when we play them; we’ve got to play ‘em all in the end / at some point and there are no “easy games”. Some, on the other hand, really do put a microscope over the fixture list as soon as it comes out and scrutinise it far more than I do; especially those who ‘factor in’ where certain league clashes lie in & around Champions League matches, which is fair enough and well done to them for doing so.
Why Crazy? Well, for those football fans who have been living in a cupboard for a good while now, the season starts early, finishes late and has a 6-week break for the 2022 World Cup; a World Cup that will see most of our lads running around in still-very-warm temperatures after leaving chilly ol’ England in November and after 2 Covid-hit seasons that have seen squads depleted and fixture lists condensed / extended; as well as having just performed in the flippin’ Nations League competition after another long, hard 2021/22 campaign.
Yeah…well done footballing authorities; very well done indeed.
The start
I think it’s fair to call all of our August AND September matches our ‘opening fixtures’, don’t you? If so, I think we’ve been dealt a fairly good hand. 8 games, 4 at home and 4 away.
Of course, West Ham opening at home will want to put on a good show for their fans and they did frustrate us twice on their own patch last season; ending both league & cup games with a draw in ‘the 90’. Of course also, like everyone else, they’ve yet to finish adjusting their squad so I don’t know how strong they’ll be but they did end last season like a Giraffe on roller skates.
The rest of our opening 2 months is then made up of:
- Bournemouth at home (newly promoted)
- Newcastle away (finished 11th last season)
- Palace at home (finished 12th last season)
- Forest at home (newly promoted)
- Villa away (finished 14th last season)
- Spurs at home (finished 4th last season)
- Wolves away (finished 10th last season)
October (and November)…
Hopefully we’ll come ‘out of the blocks’ flyin’ and land, following those 8 games, in fine fettle…because in the month where the clocks eventually go back; the first few fixtures are real ‘testers’.
The first two are at home which, on the face of it, sounds good doesn’t it? However, the first of those will see Pep’s first test against Manyoo’s new Manager, Erik ten Hag; whilst the next home fixture is against a side who held us to 2 draws in the league last season, Southampton. If we do struggle against either or both of those then up next are:
- Liverpool away (finished 2nd last season, as if you needed reminding)
- Arsenal away (finished 5th last season)
By this time of the season, however, we’ve usually ironed out any little, early-season glitches (I’m hoping there are none, of course) and have really gained some traction / momentum. Those 4 fixtures that I’ve just mentioned will test that theory for sure.
After that, for the remainder of October AND into November (leading right up to the World Cup break), we have:
- Brighton at home (finished 9th last season)
- Leicester away (finished 8th last season and really tested us on their patch in September 2021)
- Fulham at home (newly promoted)
- Brentford at home (finished 13th last season)
Perhaps Leicester away aside, that’s a really good final few games for us to have going into the mid-season break, in my humble opinion.
Boxing Day restart – December & January.
There are 37 days between 26th December and the 31st January and after a 6-week lay-off, I fully expected to see us come back to face a cram-packed fixture list. Of course, we do have the 3rd-round of the F.A. Cup and possibly a League Cup fixture to consider too…but I was shocked to see only 5 league fixtures in those 37 days! They are…
- Leeds away (finished 17th last season)
- Everton at home (finished 16th last season)
- Chelsea away (finished 3rd last season)
- Manyoo away (finished 6th last season)
- Wolves at home (finished 10th last season)
I’d call that…”mixed”, with a tinge of tough about it.
At this stage – and this is, I’m sure, going to be on the minds of all concerned, staff and fans alike – everyone is going to wonder how their teams will restart following the World Cup. Injuries, physical fatigue, acclimatisation to such varied temperatures and the mentality of players; including those who may come back ‘buzzing’ or deflated, depending on how their country’s campaign went and the part they-personally played in it.
All these and more will be factors in-how everyone comes back from international duty and if the majority of the players in those 5 teams that I’ve just mentioned come back well; then we’d better be ‘on it’ too.
February & March
Every league game is vitally important, of course – we won the last league campaign by just 1 point having lost only 3 games from 38!
But I see February & March as a time to really put our foot down on the accelerator:
- Away at Spurs (finished 4th last season)
- Home to Villa (finished 14th last season)
- Away at Forest (newly promoted)
- Away at Bournemouth (newly promoted)
- Home to Newcastle (finished 11th last season)
- Away at Palace (finished 12th last season)
- Home to West Ham (finished 7th last season)
Is that a set of fixtures for us to really ‘get our teeth into’? Spurs away is rarely easy and they often have a knack of getting one over us, he types with slightly-gritted teeth. Palace too, on their day, have a nasty habit of nabbing points off us.
However, and this is no disrespect to the rest whatsoever, we should be looking at taking maximum, or at least near-maximum, points off the other 5 sides at those various venues (hopefully all-7 in those two months, of course).
The ‘run in’
Is it fair to call both the months of April & May, ‘the run in’? I think so…and there are a lot of fixtures to end on, especially if you squeeze in possible Champions League games too!
I think it can be summed up like this:
The tougher-looking games are all at home while the less threatening-sounding-fixtures, in theory, are away.
10 games; 5 at home, 5 away:
- Liverpool at home (runners up last time, of course)
- Southampton away (finished 15th last time)
- Leicester at home (finished 8th last time)
- Brighton away (finished 9th last time)
- Arsenal at home (finished 5th last time)
- Fulham away (newly promoted)
- Leeds at home (finished 17th last time)
- Everton away (finished 16th last time)
- Chelsea at home (finished 3rd last time)
- Brentford away (finished 13th last time)
WAY before those sides have finished buying and selling players for the up & coming campaign; a wild, ‘stab in the dark’ from me suggests that we’ll get around 26 points from 30 in that lot. Please don’t hold me to it at this stage, however…
I’ve already suggested that this could be one crazy, second half of the season following the World Cup break…but I just hope that is all the interference we have to put up with.
With Covid-19 cases already on the rise in the UK, at least…IN FLIPPIN’ JUNE following more & more large, public gatherings as well as two more Omicron variants called BA.4 & BA.5; who knows what we’re yet to face as we head into another campaign of football that’s largely played in the seasons of autumn & winter. I really do hope not - I’m just sayin’ - because if it does and we start to see fixture cancellations as we have had in the past; then ‘God knows’ when we’ll finish the season; one that’s currently planned to be completed as late at 28th May, domestically at least. 🤞
Thanks, as always, for ‘tuning in’…
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