English Premier League will soon be started. The Brentford vs Arsenal match which takes place on Saturday, August 14, 2021 a will be the opening match for the 2021/22 season. Therefore, EPL managers must prepare to reorganize their squad in order to get maximum points. Before predicting players who will be playing, it would be nice to analyze the match schedules of several teams that may have a fairly easy schedule in the early weeks.
Manchester United
Ole Gunnar Solskjaer’s team are at the top as a team with a schedule that is not too difficult in the early weeks. Manchester United will not face Big Six teams in the first five matches of the Premier League season 2021/21. Although in the opening match Man United will face Leeds United, who played quite well in the 2020/21 season, Man United has a pretty promising schedule from gameweek 2 to gameweek 5. Man United will face Southampton (Away) in GW2, Wolverhampton (Away) ) in GW3, Newcastle (Home) in GW4, and West Ham United (Away) in GW5. Last season, Man United did not lose to the five teams they will face in the early weeks.
Bruno Fernandes and Luke Shaw are the two top names of Man United players who could display terrific performance in the first match. Bruno was the midfielder with the highest MF points earned last season with a total of 244 points and in the 2021/22 season he will still be Man United’s mainstay. Luke Shaw performed well at Euro 2020 and managed to provide an assist in the last test match when Man United beat Everton.
Everton
In the first five games, Everton will not meet the Big Six teams. Despite undergoing a transition after the change of coach from Carlo Ancelotti to Rafael Benitez, the Everton players are still quite promising. Dominic Calvert Lewin, Lucas Digne, and James Rodriguez could be on the watch. In the first five weeks, Everton will face Southampton (Home) in GW1, Leeds United (Away) in GW2, Brighton & Hove Albion (Away) in GW3, Burnley (Home) in GW4, and Aston Villa (Awa) in GW5. . In addition, in GW6, Calvert Lewin and his friends will only face the promotion team, Norwich City.
Liverpool
Liverpool are quite overwhelmed to start the 2020/21 season after several of their important players suffered injuries such as Virgil Van Dijk. However, during the 2020/21 season running, Liverpool players still performed quite well in producing points, such as Mohamed Salah with 231 points (second highest points among midfielders), Sadio Mane with 176 points (fourth highest among midfielders), and their two wingbacks Andrew Robertson with 161 points (first highest among defenders) and Trent Alexander Arnold with 160 points (second highest among defenders).
In the initial five gameweeks, Liverpool will face Norwich (Away), Burnley (Home), Chelsea (Home), Leeds United (Away), and Crystal Palace (Home). Liverpool once beat Norwich 1-4 in the opening match of the 2019/20 season. Meanwhile, in the first home game, Liverpool will face Burnley who performed poorly last season where they almost got relegated. Although facing Chelsea and Leeds United can be difficult matches, Liverpool players who have attacking characters like Salah, Mane, Trent Alexander Arnold and Robertson can still be relied on.
Leicester City
Leicester City are in quite high confidence after last season they won the FA Cup title and have just won the Community Shield trophy after beating last season’s Premier League champions, Manchester City. At the beginning of the 2021/22 season, Jamie Vardy and his friends can be quite optimistic that they will only face one of the Big Six teams, Man City. However, the advantage, Leicester will face Man City at home. For the other four matches, Brendan Rodgers’ squad will only face Wolverhampton (Home) who only finished in 13th place last season, West Ham United (Away) in GW2, Norwich City (Away) in GW3, and Brighton & Hove Albion in GW5. .
Aston Villa
Despite having to lose Jack Grealish who decided to move to Manchester City, Aston Villa is still worth considering next season, especially in the first three games, they will face a team that is quite easy to deal with. In the opening match, Aston Villa will travel to the headquarters of the promoted team, Watford. The next two matches, in GW2, Aston Villa will face Newcastle at home and face another promoted team, Brentford in GW3. The names of players such as, Emiliano Martinez, Matt Targett, Ollie Watkins, and Danny Ings can be on the watch.
Besides including teams that have a fairly easy schedule at the beginning of the season, we will also include teams that have a heavy match schedule at the beginning of this season.
Norwich City
Norwich City must start the 2021/22 season with tough matches against the big EPL teams. In the first five gameweeks, Teemu Pukki and his friends will face Liverpool (Home) in GW1, Manchester City (Away) in GW2, Leicester City (Home) in GW3, and Arsenal (Away) in GW4.
In the 2019/20 season, Norwich had a poor record in the early Premier League matches where they had to lose quite heavily to Liverpool. Despite having good memories of beating Man City in the 2019/20 season, Norwich will find it quite difficult to win let alone having to compete at the Etihad Stadium and Man City are superior with the depth of the squad they have.
Chelsea
Success in winning the 2020/21 Champions League title puts Chelsea as one of the competitors for the 2021/22 Premier League title. However, at the start of the season, Chelsea had to go through tough matches. In the first six weeks, Chelsea will face the Big Six teams. In Week 1, Chelsea can breathe a little easier because they will only face Crystal Palace, who last season ended the season in 14th place.
However, in the following weeks, Chelsea will face Arsenal (Away) in GW2, Liverpool (GW3), Aston Villa (Home) in GW4, Tottenham Hotspur (Away) in GW5, lastly against defending champions Manchester City (Home) in GW6.
Leeds United
Leeds United were able to survive in the Premier League after being able to ensure themselves promotion from last season. The playing style of Marcelo Bielsa’s formation also received attention from English football lovers. In the 2021/22 season, Leeds will start the season with quite tough matches. In the next five gameweeks, Leeds will travel to Old Trafford in GW1, facing Everton (Home) in GW2, Burnley (Away) in GW3, and Liverpool (Home) in GW4. Of the four games above, defenders from Leeds will face tough challenges.
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