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By Anthony Nlebem.
The 2023/24 Premier League season begins with a round of matches this weekend as Champions Manchester City travel to Burnley, Nottingham Forest face Mikel Arteta’s Arsenal side at the Emirates Stadium on Saturday. Also, a mouth-watering Sunday cracker between Chelsea and Liverpool at the Stamford Bridge.
Here, MoneyCentral takes a preview of some of the Big Premier League fixtures.
Burnley vs Man City
English Premier League Champions Manchester City begin their title defence on Friday night against newly promoted side Burnley at Turf Moor stadium.
Pep Guardiola’s men go into the new campaign off the back of an unforgettable treble-winning season, and their first hurdle to yet more history this time around comes in the shape of one of the club’s greatest-ever players – Burnley boss Vincent Kompany.
Kompany won 10 major trophies as a City player but will be in the opposition dugout after leading the Clarets back to the top-flight in his first season as their manager.
Burnley have moved to address the step-up in quality by being busy in the transfer market, bringing in Zeki Amdouni, James Trafford, Jordan Beyer, Dara O’Shea, Michael Obafemi, Luca Koleosho, Nathan Redmond, Lawrence Vigouroux, Jacob Bruun Larsen and Sander Berge for around £75m in total.
Pre-season results have largely been good as those new arrivals attempt to get on the same page before the real business begins, with a 2-0 defeat to Genk the only blot on their copybook from five outings.
Kompany will know better than most that his side could hardly have been given a more difficult test with which to start life back in the Premier League, but the Turf Moor crowd will be in full voice under the floodlights and the hosts will hope that could spur them on towards an eye-catching upset.
Recent history is firmly against the Clarets, though, with Man City winning 15 and losing none of the last 16 meetings between the two sides, the last 11 of which have been by a whopping aggregate scoreline of 40-1.
Indeed, Man City have scored five goals or more in five of those last 11 meetings, while Burnley’s last goal against Friday’s opponents came in December 2019 – eight meetings ago.
Arsenal vs Nottingham Forest
Following their brilliant pre-season outing, Arsenal begin their bid for the Premier League title when they host Nottingham Forest on Saturday at the Emirates Stadium.
Forest finished in 16th place in the Premier League standings and were impressive towards the end of their campaign.
Arsenal, on the other hand, secured a second-place finish in the EPL table last season and have improved over the past year. The Gunners won the FA Community Shield in their previous game and will be confident ahead of this match.
Chelsea vs Liverpool
Both teams will aim to bounce back from disappointing Premier League campaigns as they kick off the new season with a blockbuster clash at Stamford Bridge on Sunday.
Sunday’s showdown at Stamford Bridge offers the Blues an opportunity for a fresh start under new manager Mauricio Pochettino.
Pochettino’s arrival, designed to raise Chelsea from last season’s ashes, has renewed optimism in west London following a humiliating 12th-place finish in 2022/23, the club’s second-worst in the Premier League era.
Without the distraction of European football for the first time in the 21st century, the Argentine tactician’s only assignment will be to reignite the Pensioners’ top-four ambitions.
Jurgen Klopp’s side finished outside the top four last term and ended up missing out on any silverware.
A late rally saw Liverpool finish in fifth.
But their campaign still looked like a roaring success when compared to the poor show at Stamford Bridge as Chelsea stumbled from one crisis to another.
The last four Premier League meetings between Chelsea and Liverpool have ended in 0-0 stalemates.