Manchester United are then at home to (currently) managerless Southampton before heading off to play Steve Bruce’s newly-promoted Hull.
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The Clarets also end their Premier League campaign at home when they welcome West Ham United, while they are also at home on Boxing Day, to Middlesbrough, and New Year’s Eve, to Sunderland.
Mourinho and Guardiola wont have to wait long to meet each other.
Liverpool have what looks like an even tougher start, with games against Arsenal, Tottenham, Leicester and Chelsea all coming in the first five weeks of the season. Also, hosting Manchester United is a key match for Guardiola’s side before they face Liverpool, Arsenal, and Chelsea in back-to-back matches between March and April.
Champions Leicester City will begin their Premier League title defence with a trip to newly promoted Hull City on 13 August.
“We know we need to start better than we did last season and everything we do in pre-season will be geared towards making that happen”. At Anfield, Manchester City looked embarrassing in a 3-0 defeat at the hands of the Reds.
Adding those rankings up and dividing by seven to represent the number of games each team will play by the start of the October global break then provided an average position for each clubs’ opponents.
Middlesbrough’s start is the 12th toughest thanks to meetings with Stoke (9th), Sunderland (17th), West Brom (14th), Palace (15th), Everton (11th), Spurs (3rd) and West Ham (7th).
Nothing is ever won on the fixture list, but the order of it can shape the season and play a role in motivation for the campaign ahead, and it certainly will for Liverpool once again.
While opening day will give us some answers, we will find out more as the season rolls through the late months of the year and into 2017. United’s home game with Hull has already been moved back a day, to February 1.
Hodgson said he had been impressed with the players who had not yet featured in the tournament, including Vardy, but said he was happy with the team that started against Russian Federation.
Last season, Leicester defeated Manchester City 3-1 at the Etihad in a surprising contest which solidified Leicester’s dominance against the top teams in England.
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“Last season was unbelievable and it’s going to be another huge challenge to defend our title”, said City captain Wes Morgan.
