Manchester United have been handed the most nightmarish start to the Premier League season of any club, according to stats boffins Opta.
Ruben Amorim’s men will host Arsenal on the opening weekend and also have Manchester City away and Chelsea at home in their first five fixtures.
Opta use their Power Rankings database to grade the difficulty of each club out of 100, consider whether a team is playing home or away, and then given an ‘average opponent rating’.
United, who also face Fulham away and Burnley at home, have been handed a whopping average opponent rating of 94.6.
Arsenal have apparently been handed the second-toughest five-game salvo to kick off the campaign.
They kick off against United away, then play Leeds, Liverpool, Nottingham Forest, and Man City to accrue an average opponent rating of 94.
Getting off to a good start is important – Manchester City in 2021-22 are the only one of the last 12 Premier League champions to lose on the opening day, doing so 1-0 to Tottenham.
And Aston Villa and Crystal Palace will be licking their lips after being handed the easiest opening salvo of games according to Opta.
Unai Emery’s men start off tough with a home clash against Newcastle before assignments against Brentford, Crystal Palace, Everton, and Sunderland.
Oliver Glasner’s side, meanwhile, launch their campaign away at Chelsea before playing Nottingham Forest, Aston Villa, Sunderland, and West Ham.
The numbers will be slightly skewed by the fact they are both playing Sunderland, who only get a rating of 82.3 – by far the lowest in the Premier League.
Indeed, all of the ‘luckiest’ five teams in Opta’s rankings face Sunderland, who won the Championship play-offs, in one of their first five games.
Chelsea’s start of Crystal Palace, West Ham, Fulham, Brentford, and Manchester United comes in sixth-easiest but is perhaps the kindest on balance, given Sunderland’s stray score.
Meanwhile, reigning champions Liverpool have the fifth-hardest score of 93.3.
Arne Slot’s men will raise the curtain on the new season by hosting Bournemouth on Friday, August 15.
They will then play Newcastle away, Arsenal at home, Burnley on the road and Everton at Anfield.
As for Manchester City, they’re slap-bang in the middle of the grid with the 10th-hardest opening.
They have one of the easier tasks on the first weekend as they visit Wolves, but they also face Tottenham, Brighton, Manchester United and Arsenal – a run which you might think is sterner than middle-of-the-pack difficulty.
