Stats boffins reveal the Premier League side with the TOUGHEST fixtures before the next international break as Man United face tricky tests and City have mixed run after guilty verdict
Fans of the Premier League will be filled to the brim with excitement as the top flight returns to our screens following the three-week extended international break this weekend.
However, Liverpool supporters may not share quite the same level of enthusiasm.
That is because Andoni Iraola’s Reds have not been blessed with a kind fixture list over the next month. They are deemed to have the trickiest upcoming five league games before the November break arrives, according to Opta.
The sports data wizards have rated the difficulty of every Premier League team’s matches over the next four weeks. Fulham are believed to have been handed the easiest run, while a quick glance at the teams Liverpool will face suggests they may be in for a Nemesis Inferno-level rollercoaster ride.
Their rough run begins on Sunday as they take on Manchester City at Anfield in what is set to be a monumental affair. The club’s rivalry that has grown over the past decade will come to the fore after City were found guilty of breaking financial rules. Anfield is going to be a cauldron of hostility.
However, despite the noise that is inevitably going to greet Enzo Maresca’s side, and could well cause them to crack under the pressure, they still – at this moment in time – have a team filled with quality and sit top of the Premier League with a 100 per cent record.
Liverpool’s next five Premier League games have been dubbed the most difficult in the division
The Reds resume their rivalry with Man City on Sunday in their first clash since City were found guilty of breaking financial rules
Iraola’s side then face two of the ‘Bermuda Triangle’ – where social media says points are lost and never seen again – in back-to-back games. Having already faced one of the third team in the dynamic trio, Bournemouth, they will take on Brentford away from home and then host Brighton.
Both sit above Liverpool in the table, with the Seagulls, who beat champions Arsenal in their last game, placed third and the Bees just below them in fourth after electric starts to the campaign.
The 20-time champions then host the side who took their title from them last season, the Gunners, before finishing off their nightmare spell of games away at Crystal Palace, where they were beaten by a dramatic stoppage-time winner last season. Opta has given their five fixtures a difficulty rating of 95.4.
That is one difficulty rating higher than the second-placed team in this graph, Nottingham Forest.
Forest have had a mixed start to the season, earning an impressive draw at Anfield and a win away at Aston Villa, before slipping up at home to Midlands rivals and promoted side Coventry City.
It was not the result Oliver Glasner wanted heading into a three-week break, and things may get worse before they get better with the run of games they have coming up. Forest take on Crystal Palace at Selhurst Park, host Arsenal, travel to Ipswich and Brentford and play City at home in their next five games.
Brighton and Villa are also set for a tricky run of fixtures. In addition to taking on Liverpool, Fabian Hurzeler’s side travel to the Etihad and also host one of the first ‘Bermuda Triangle’ derbies as they face Brentford.
Meanwhile, once their ears have stopped ringing after being subject to raw emotion at Anfield, City players are in for a calmer ride over the next month.
A trip to Anfield is champions Arsenal’s trickiest fixture over the course of the next month
Maresca’s men will host Ipswich in their first game back at the Etihad following the guilty verdict, before games against Villa, Brighton and Forest.
However, for their rivals across the city, Manchester United, things are not set to get any easier after a difficult start to the season, in which they have only picked up five points from a possible 15.
The Red Devils will be looking for only their second win of the season when they face basement boys Tottenham at Old Trafford on Saturday evening. That blockbuster clash is followed up by a meeting with bitter rivals Leeds United at Elland Road.
A date with bogey team Bournemouth, who United haven’t beaten since 2023, follows at the Theatre of Dreams, before a trip to Xabi Alonso’s Chelsea. They finish off their run of games by hosting Aston Villa.
Elsewhere, after hosting the Cherries, Alonso’s side have a trip to Everton and a derby with Tottenham to contend, in addition to clashes with United and Sunderland.
Champions Arsenal are judged to have a more difficult run than the Blues, but a more reasonable than Liverpool and the two Manchester clubs.
They will look to bounce back from defeat at the Amex before the break as they host Leeds this weekend, before travelling to the City Ground to face Forest. Then, sandwiched either side of the grand clash at Anfield, are dates with Everton and Hull.
The side deemed to have the easiest run is Fulham, with a difficulty rating of 91.1. That is because they face all three promoted sides – Hull, Ipswich and Coventry – in their next three matches.
Alvaro Arbeloa’s team then finishes off their run with games against Villa and Newcastle.
