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Amidst the Copa America Centenario, European Championships, and Alexis’ blinding volley from last night, you lot may have forgotten about fixture day. I’m kidding, of course. I’m sure most of you also anxiously stayed up ‘til 4 a.m. EST, refreshing their Twitter feeds. No? Okay then, moving on.
Last year’s loss to West Ham United on opening day was quite a shock to the system, given Petr Cech’s shaky performance. This year, we were all hoping to face a Premier League minnow, if you will, come August 13th. Unfortunately for us, the FA had other things in mind.
Here are all the fixtures from Matchweek 1:
Champions @LCFC begin their Premier League title defence at @HullCity
— Premier League (@premierleague) June 15, 2016
Here are your Matchweek 1 #PLfixtures... pic.twitter.com/rWw4Sk4MLv
Yeah. The Emirates plays host to Jürgen Klopp’s Liverpool on opening day. It’s definitely the most interesting match of the day - apart from Chelsea and West Ham’s London derby, and maybe Everton - Spurs.
Anyways, if you thought things were going to get easier from there, you're not in luck. Arsenal then travel to the King Power stadium to take on last season's champions Leicester City. Although it’ll be a difficult one, we all know what happened the last time the two faced each other, let alone the Gunners’ last trip to Leicester.
You can take a look at the rest of the list here:
Here's @Arsenal's full @premierleague fixture list for 2016/17. What do you think, Gooners? Which games stand out? pic.twitter.com/3PXI4FVfqj
— Arsenal FC (@Arsenal) June 15, 2016
As you can see, it does get a little easier from there, but not for long. Arsenal close out September against newly-appointed Antonio Conte’s Chelsea. The Gunners face relatively easy opponents during the month of October. The season's first North London Derby will be on November 5th at the Emirates. After the international break, Arsenal travel up north to face Jose Mourinho’s new-look Manchester United (the return of #handshakegate?).
The Christmas period also looks easy, as does January; Arsenal will play Chelsea again in February. From there, it’s definitely make-or-break. The Gunners play Liverpool and Leicester back-to-back in March, Manchester City and West Ham back-to-back in April, and then Spurs and Manchester United back-to-back in the final few weeks. The season finale will be against Everton at home.
The full fixture list is available on the Premier League's website.