Premier League fixtures 2019-20: Season starts with Liverpool hosting Norwich
- Published
Manchester City have won the Premier League title for the past two seasons
The 2019-20 Premier League season will start with Champions League winners Liverpool hosting promoted Norwich City on Friday, 9 August.
Champions Manchester City will open the defence of their title the following day with a trip to West Ham.
Aston Villa and Sheffield United, the other promoted teams, play Tottenham and Bournemouth respectively.
For the first time in Premier League history, the clubs will get a short mid-season break in February.
The break will be staggered over a two-week period. There will be only five matches on one weekend, with the other five games from that round taking place the following weekend, ensuring that each team gets one week off.
The opening weekend will also see Manchester United hosting Chelsea on Sunday, 11 August.
The opening weekend in full
Date | Match | Kick-off time |
|---|---|---|
9 Aug 2019 | Liverpool v Norwich City | 20:00 BST |
10 Aug 2019 | West Ham v Manchester City | 12:30 BST |
10 Aug 2019 | Bournemouth v Sheffield United | 15:00 BST |
10 Aug 2019 | Burnley v Southampton | 15:00 BST |
10 Aug 2019 | Crystal Palace v Everton | 15:00 BST |
10 Aug 2019 | Leicester City v Wolves | 15:00 BST |
10 Aug 2019 | Watford v Brighton | 15:00 BST |
10 Aug 2019 | Tottenham v Aston Villa | 17:30 BST |
11 Aug 2019 | Newcastle United v Arsenal | 14:00 BST |
11 Aug 2019 | Manchester United v Chelsea | 16:30 BST |
Busy start for some teams
The season's curtain raiser will take place with the Community Shield between Liverpool and Manchester City at Wembley on Sunday, 4 August.
Liverpool and Europa League winners Chelsea will also meet in the Uefa Super Cup in Istanbul, Turkey, on Wednesday, 14 August.
Following that match, Liverpool play their second Premier League match, away to Southampton, while Chelsea host Leicester City.
Wolves could have played three Europa League qualifying matches before the beginning of the Premier League season.
Liverpool have not won the top-flight title since 1990 and they were beaten to it by a point by Manchester City in the 2018-19 season
The mid-season break in more detail
There will be a total of 380 Premier League games during the 2019-20 season.
The split of matches in February will see five matches take place over the weekend of 8 February, with the other five played on the weekend of 15 February.
All five matches on each weekend will be broadcast live in the United Kingdom.
At present, all the games are scheduled for 8 February but these will be broken up when the broadcast picks for that period are announced in mid-December.
Champions League and Europa League impact
The Premier League contingent taking part in the Champions League are Chelsea, Liverpool, Manchester City and Tottenham and they will go straight into the group stage, which starts on 17 and 18 September.
Holders Liverpool face top-flight away matches immediately before five of their six Champions League group fixtures, one of which is at Manchester United, while there are four away trips for Chelsea, one of which is at Manchester City.
City will be away three times before playing in Europe, while Tottenham will be on the road for two.
Arsenal and Manchester United go straight into the Europa League group stages, which start on Thursday, 19 September.
The Gunners have away games before four of their six group matches, including ones against Manchester United and West Ham.
Manchester United have three, including a trip to City, while, if they qualify for the group phase, Wolves will also have three.
Any other business?
The first Merseyside derby, which will see Liverpool host Everton during a round of midweek fixtures in early December, will be shown on Amazon TV, a new entrant to the list of broadcasters of top-flight games.
It will also show the Boxing Day list of fixtures and broadcast live in the UK every game over the two rounds to which they have rights.
Video assistant referees (VAR) will debut in the Premier League in the 2019-20 season.
The system was used at the 2018 World Cup, and last season appeared in the Champions League knockout stages and in selected FA Cup and Carabao Cup ties.