The fixtures are out, and as usual they have been met with fury and rage across the Premier League footballing spectrum, despite the fact that everyone plays everyone, home and away.
Of course, that’s a slight dismissal of their significance. When you play a team can have an effect on how you get on. A tough opening cluster of games can set you up nicely if you manage to hit the ground running, or it can leave you needing to play catch up. That scenario is, funnily enough, exactly what Everton are facing this coming August…
Indeed, the first 10 games of the new campaign see the blues play all of last season’s top 7 teams. That’s quite a start, and the optimists amongst us will point to an opportunity to steal a march on the teams we should be fighting with, especially as 4 of those 7 games are at Goodison, including Liverpool and United back to back.
What it does mean though is that, more than ever, we can’t afford to faff around in pre-season this time. Whatever the reasons for last year’s shambolic schedule, 5 games was simply nowhere near enough preparation. You’ll struggle no matter who you play if you don’t prepare properly, but this will be magnified even more with our fixtures this time round. Pre-season will be absolutely pivotal.
Should we emerge from those first 10 fixtures with a respectable amount of points (and who knows, maybe even progress in the League Cup), the run to Christmas seems relatively straightforward, before the obligatory festive period trip to the North East on Boxing Day. January then provides some stern examinations with Spurs at home; then City and Chelsea away in the space of 4 days. Throw the FA Cup third round in there as well, and all of a sudden January looks like it could be placed in the ‘season defining’ category.
The last 3 or 4 games could also prove to be tricky assignments, with fixtures against Palace, Bournemouth, Leicester and Norwich to round off the campaign; all teams who could potentially be battling relegation.
Overall, in what will undoubtedly prove to be a pivotal season for Roberto Martinez, the fixture computer could probably have been kinder in its distribution of the tougher games. Traditionally slow starters anyway, Martinez must get pre-season right this time in order to give us something to play for going into Christmas and beyond. Neither he, nor the players, has the luxury of hiding behind the European football excuse next campaign, or entering the season off the back of a major international tournament for that matter. Consequently, they must start delivering from the word go, otherwise questions will rightly be asked.
