The new fixture list will be announced in a few a days. In the meantime, there have been some significant developments.

Firstly, there'll be a winter break from 2019-2020 onwards.

The Football Association, Premier League and EFL have today announced a new annual Mid-Season Player Break, starting from the 2019/20 season. pic.twitter.com/lBCDUgkQH5

— BBC Sport (@BBCSport) June 8, 2018

I've long advocated this, so I'm pleased we'll be trying it out.

For UK based viewers, the significant news is that Amazon purchased the remaining TV package and will start showing 20 games per season from 2019 onwards.

Amazon breaks Sky and BT's hold on Premier League rights with streaming deal https://t.co/GytkMxgKMn

— Guardian sport (@guardian_sport) June 7, 2018

They'll be showing all 10 games from one bank holiday, and another 10 games from a random mid-week round. Prime members won't have to pay extra.

Pretty sure the Prime stuff has been confirmed Jay.

Free for Prime members AFAIK.

Yeah I read yesterday that it's free for Prime members, so 7.99 a month.

They have a pretty meh package tbf. But I imagine it's just the start of things to come.

Fully agree with the mid season break even if I enjoyed the congested fixture schedule.

I just checked and you're all correct.

More details on the winter break:

- Will be in February, so all the festive fixtures will remain unchanged
- Break will be staggered across two weeks, with five games on the first weekend and five games the following weekend
- FA Cup 5th round will now be mid-week and no longer have replays

well, nevermind then. I figured it made sense to have it during the regular festive season.

Cardiff and Fulham expected to do decently this upcoming season or fight a relegation battle? know nothing of them last season but I expect Wolves to do well.

This is a pretty good compromise all things considered.

Although it does consolidate one thing, February is the worst month of the year imo.

Firenze wrote:Cardiff and Fulham expected to do decently this upcoming season or fight a relegation battle? know nothing of them last season but I expect Wolves to do well.

I think Fulham will do well, expect Cardiff to suck though.

It's the best we could hope for because a lot of people were against scrapping the Boxing Day/New Year's day game and moving the FA Cup third round. At least this way the players get a weekend off after the annual pile-up.

As for Fulham and Cardiff: Fulham have a decent squad and a great coach, but I worry they'll be too open (basically another Blackpool or Bournemouth). Cardiff have the worst squad in the league but they're basically 2008 Stoke under Pulis so I wouldn't be surprised if they did well.

The first round of Premier League fixtures:

Arsenal vs Manchester City
Bournemouth vs Cardiff
Fulham vs Crystal Palace
Huddersfield vs Chelsea
Liverpool vs West Ham
Manchester United vs Leicester
Newcastle vs Tottenham
Southampton vs Burnley
Watford vs Brighton
Wolves vs Everton

Will have the first five for the top six + Newcastle in a few moments.

First five games:

Arsenal

Man City (H)
Chelsea (A)
West Ham (H)
Cardiff (A)
Newcastle (A)

Chelsea

Huddersfield (A)
Arsenal (H)
Newcastle (A)
Bournemouth (H)
Cardiff (H)

Liverpool

West Ham (H)
Palace (A)
Brighton (H)
Leicester (A)
Tottenham (A)

Manchester City

Arsenal (A)
Huddersfield (H)
Wolves (A)
Newcastle (H)
Fulham (H)

Manchester United

Leicester (H)
Brighton (A)
Tottenham (H)
Burnley (A)
Watford (A)

Newcastle

Tottenham (H)
Cardiff (A)
Chelsea (H)
Man City (A)
Arsenal (H)

Tottenham

Newcastle (A)
Fulham (H)
Man Utd (A)
Watford (H)
Liverpool (A)

Bielsa joins Leeds United. Championship >>> EPL this season

Wonder how long will he last there. It's an interesting appointment though. Definitely will get people watching Leeds.

Jay29 wrote:First five games:

Arsenal

Man City (H)
Chelsea (A)
West Ham (H)
Cardiff (A)
Newcastle (A)

disgusting ffs

1 year contract with automatic extension if they get promoted

RealGunner wrote:

Jay29 wrote:First five games:

Arsenal

Man City (H)
Chelsea (A)
West Ham (H)
Cardiff (A)
Newcastle (A)

disgusting ffs

1 top 4 team, 1 top 6 team, 1 midtable team, 1 lower half team, and 1 relegation candidate. What's so disgusting about this? Seems about right to me.

BarrileteCosmico wrote:Bielsa joins Leeds United. Championship >>> EPL this season

RealGunner wrote:Wonder how long will he last there. It's an interesting appointment though. Definitely will get people watching Leeds.

BarrileteCosmico wrote:1 year contract with automatic extension if they get promoted

I'm willing to bet he will not be there on match day 1 after all. Too much can go wrong in 2 months of talking with club officials.
He seems to me like the kind of guy where one wrongly perceived word can trigger his paranoid streak

It's an initial two-year contract.

A manager who might not even turn up to work on day one at a club who sacks their manager every three months and has one of the nuttier owners in England. It's either going to be train wreck or something beautiful.

Also, imagine Bielsa's pressing being used for a 46 game season when it can barely be sustained for 38 games

The first batch of live matches have been announced. The opening weekend:

Friday, 10th August

Leicester vs Man Utd - 20:00 (Sky)

Saturday, 11th August

Newcaslte vs Spurs - 13:00 (Sky)
Wolves vs Everton - 17:30 (BT)

Sunday, 12 August

Liverpool vs West Ham - 13:30 (Sky)
Arsenal vs Manchester City - 16:00 (Sky)

What about Chelsea chaos ?
It's incredible for a top team but we don't know exactly who is next coach. 9 July.
Team looks like abandoned from Abramovich , doesn't it ?

Everton just smashed some Austrian farmers 22-0.

Cenk Tosun with four goals, Ademola Lookman with three, Kevin Mirallas (remember him?) with five and Oumar Niasse with another four. Keane, Baines, Holgate, two from Vlasic and an own goal, as well.

Only 25 days remaining in the English transfer window and some teams have yet to make a signing

The full of list of transfers so far:

https://www.transfermarkt.co.uk/premier-league/transfers/wettbewerb/GB1/plus/?saison_id=2018&s_w=s&leihe=0&intern=0

Tottenham, Burnley and Everton are the only clubs still to sign a player.

Biggest spenders:

Liverpool - £112m
West Ham - £85.5m
Manchester United - £74.4m
Arsenal - £71m
Manchester City - £63m

Most players signed:

Huddersfield - 7
West Ham - 7
Watford - 6
Wolves - 6
Arsenal - 5

Most expensive signings so far:

Mahrez to City - £61m
Keita to Liverpool - £54m
Fred to United - £53m
Jorginho to Chelsea - £51m
Fabinho to Liverpool - £45m

Oh wow, Huddersfield signed dortmund legend Durm

Along with

kangolo, Sobhi, Hadergjonaj(???), Bacuna(not the aston villa legend i imagine),jonas Lössl and Ben Hamer.


Can't remember a list of scrubs as extensive as this one.

straight down the championship

Meanwhile the best thing we've done is loan someone we had on loan last year.....

These *bleep* extract the joy out of everything. Getting a player we already had, but only on loan because 'we can't afford him' apparently. They're the Dementors from Harry Potter.

Expecto justloanem