The 2024-25 Premier League fixtures have been revealed, and there are some tremendous matches set for early in the season.
Of course, there are your traditional circled dates from the North London derby to the Manchester derby and ‘Big Six’ rivalries everywhere.
[ MORE: Premier League 2024-25 fixtures, schedule ]
We’re familiar with two of the Premier League’s new boys as Southampton and Leicester City both recently spent long runs in the top flight, but Ipswich Town bring a less familiar venue to the divison.
And we’ve at least one returning coaches, too, in Julen Lopetegui, as we wait to see what Brighton and Leicester do with their coaching positions.
Let’s take a look at 10 matches that drew our attention on fixture release day.
Ten highly-anticipated matches of the 2024-25 Premier Leage season
10) Ipswich Town vs Liverpool - 7:30am ET Saturday Aug. 17
Welcome back to the Premier League to an entire club, as Portman Road retakes the top-flight stage for Ipswich Town to welcome new Liverpool boss Arne Slot to the Premier League. Rise and shine.
9) Chelsea vs Man City on Sunday, August 18
Quite a consequential fixture for match one of the season, and at least Enzo Maresca will have some familiarity with the inner workings of the visitors. City launch a bid for more history, as no one’s won five-straight PL titles.
8) Wolves vs West Ham on April 1
Will it be a warm welcome for Julen Lopetegui when he leads West Ham into the Molineux on April Fools’ Day? It may depend how the season has gone for Gary O’Neil’s Wolves.
7) Liverpool vs Man City on November 30
Arne Slot brings lot of promise to Liverpool, and the Reds may instantly be as strong as ever given his guidance and the glut of talent acquired by Jurgen Klopp via big-spending transfer windows over the past couple of years. But we just can’t put Liverpool vs Man City any higher than this given the lack of visual evidence that Slot’s good ship Liverpool will arrive to late November with the usual stakes behind a match with Man City. The same is obviously true for Man City vs Liverpool on February 22.
5+6) Leicester City vs Nottingham Forest and Southampton vs Bournemouth
The Foxes and Tricky Trees have spent much of the last decade in different divisions — 2022-23 PL season aside — but the East Midlands derby has deep roots extending back to the 1901 FA Cup. Worth a watch come Oct. 26 and May 10.
The Saints and Cherries are celebrated as a fierce rivalry but the South Coast sides are a geographic match and Southampton would love to re-assert its regional status against Andoni Iraola and Bournemouth. (Sept. 28 and Feb. 15).
4) Man United vs Liverpool on August 31
We’re choosing the first of these rivals’ fixtures because of what it may tell us at the early stage of the season. Erik ten Hag may be well behind Liverpool boss Arne Slot on talent, at least on fixture release day, but he would love to put a marker down against Slot’s Liverpool at Old Trafford in Week 3. And both sides will be hoping that the Jan. 4 meeting at Anfield will be for league supremacy, but there’s no guarantee the stakes will be high as 2025 reveals itself.
3) Tottenham vs Arsenal on September 14
We’re choosing the first North London derby in September. Yes, Arsenal vs Tottenham will come as part of a midweek slate on Tuesday, January 14 and those often light up a work week, but Ange Postecoglou’s Spurs should be better settled in Year Two of his tenure at Tottenham and Mikel Arteta will be expecting nothing worse than the Premier League title this season. Derby wins will only help the vibes.
2) Man City vs Arsenal on September 21
Arsenal will have already gone to problematic match-up Aston Villa and played an away North London derby by the time they hit the Etihad Stadium for a third brutal away fixture of the early season. That’s when they’ll meet a reigning champion who could well be 4-0-0 if they maneuver Week 1 at Chelsea. It’s not just a litmus test of the rivals behind the last two Premier League title fights, but could be a separation game for the hosts.
1) Man United vs Man City on December 14
We were tempted to use the April date between these two at the Etihad Stadium, but that fixture may be wildly different from this one if United doesn’t fire out of the gates under Erik ten Hag. This game will come at Old Trafford and likely with an extra day or two of rest for the visitors given City’s Champions League slate compared to United’s Europa League Thursdays.