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Newcastle United fans saw the Premier League fixtures released on Tuesday.
Always a welcome milestone to get to in the barren summer months of no proper football.
Fans of all Premier League clubs intensely studying their fixtures, especially when it comes to how easy (or not…) the opening set of matches look.
Newcastle United have had it really tough early on, in both of the seasons kicking off under Eddie Howe, having had to play Man City and Liverpool in the opening handful of matches both seasons, plus other tricky early fixtures.
Last (2023/24) season, Newcastle United’s first five games were all against teams who had finished in the top nine the season previously.
That was the toughest start of all 20 Premier League clubs in August/September 2023.
So what is the case for August/September 2024, how do Newcastle United’s opening 19 fixtures compare to the other 19 Premier League clubs.
Interesting to see this independent analysis from The Athletic, who have looked at the early (first five) Premier League fixtures for each of the 20 clubs and ranked them in terms of difficulty.
The Athletic report – 19 June 2024:
‘Not everybody can be left pleased with how their season will begin. While every team plays the 19 others twice over the 10 months, once at home and once away, seasons can be shaped by the opening few fixtures acting as momentum builders or confidence destroyers.
So, objectively, how tough is your team’s start?
The Athletic has ranked every Premier League club’s opening five matches, based on last season’s final table. We’ve added in the three promoted sides, Leicester City (champions), Ipswich Town (runners-up) and Southampton (play-off final winners), as the 18th, 19th and 20th hardest teams to play respectively.
We’ve added it up to give each team’s start a ‘difficulty value’. The lower the score, the harder it is.’
As you can see, West Ham ranked as having the toughest start, a difficut rating of 34, as they play Aston Villa, Crystal Palace, Manchester City, Fulham and Chelsea in their first five matches.
As for Eddie Howe’s side, The Athletic rank them as having the third easiest opening five fixtures.
’18. Newcastle United
A year after being handed the most difficult start of all to the 2023-24 Premier League, coach Eddie Howe will be much happier with this set of opening fixtures as Newcastle set about trying to secure a return to European football. Taking on three sides who finished in the bottom half last season and promoted Southampton means momentum can be built quickly, even if they welcome Spurs in the middle of all that.
Fixtures: Southampton, Bournemouth, Tottenham Hotspur, Wolverhampton Wanderers, Fulham
Total ‘difficulty’ value: 64′
Southampton are one of only two Premier League clubs ranked as having an easier start than Eddie Howe’s side, ironically playing Newcastle United in their first match. However, NUFC finished highest last season of their opening five opponents
– Newcastle United, Nottingham Forest, Brentford, Manchester United, Ipswich Town. The Saints getting a Total ‘difficulty’ value of 67.
Whilst ranked as having the very easiest of starts, Liverpool play Ipswich Town, Brentford, Manchester United, Nottingham Forest, Bournemouth, with a Total ‘difficulty’ value of 72.

 
