Coventry signed off their previous Premier League campaign with a match against Bradford City, the one team to finish below them in 2000-01. They pick up again in the top flight away to Arsenal; last season’s champions, favourites to retain the crown and the No 1 ranked side in the world according to Opta.
At least they will have played what should be the hardest fixture of their 38 first. Except that their next away trip takes them to the Etihad Stadium to face Manchester City.
Coventry’s home game with fellow promoted side Hull, which falls between these daunting trips, will feel very welcome, even if both meetings last season ended in goalless draws. It will be just as vital to the visitors. Hull begin the season by hosting Manchester United, then welcome Aston Villa to the MKM Stadium in week three.
Those sides are a step below Arsenal and City but they will be competing in the Champions League this season. While Hull’s opponents in weeks four and five are not in Europe, they are Chelsea and Newcastle. It makes for a tough opening five games before the first international break of the season.
In light of them facing big clubs who underachieved in 2025-26, a look at wage bills may be a fairer way to assess the difficulty of opponents. It does not make the opening five fixtures appear any easier for the promoted sides, who all feature in the seven hardest sets by this measure.
Opta’s average opponent rating gives Ipswich the easiest first five matches of the promoted sides. Yet unlike Coventry or Hull, their first three are all against clubs that finished in the top seven of the 2025-26 Premier League: Sunderland, Manchester United and Liverpool. However you choose to assess opposition strength, the start of the season looks ominous.
Such matches are often portrayed as unimportant to top-flight new boys. That they are a free hit, an opportunity to collect unlikely points. If you lose, so what? It’s what everyone expected anyway. Beating your direct relegation rivals is what matters. Recent history suggests the harder games are more important than cliche dictates, even if we cannot be certain at this point which clubs will be in the European qualification places next May.
Leeds took a very creditable 10 points from matches against the top seven last season. That was five fewer than Arsenal, albeit from two extra games. Seventh-placed Sunderland also did well, taking nine points from the sides that finished above them. Even Burnley, who were unable to retain their Premier League status, earned eight points in 14 clashes with the top seven.
The six promoted sides from the preceding two seasons, all of whom were relegated, did not perform as well. Ipswich won six points from the leading seven sides in 2024-25, though Leicester and Southampton took one apiece. It was a similar story the season before, as Luton claimed five points while Sheffield United (two) and Burnley (one) took very little of note from the top teams. If you are keeping count, you will have noticed each trio collectively earned eight points, fewer than Leeds or Sunderland alone last season.
Maybe this is irrelevant. Burnley’s eight points from the top seven counted for little when they took 14 from their other 24 matches. Wolves, while not promoted, had a nine-11 points split between the facing the top septet and the teams eighth or lower too. But starting badly increases pressure on a manager, no matter the level of expectation. The fixture computer has not treated Coventry, Hull or Ipswich kindly.