Manchester City kick off their title defence against West Ham

Manchester City have learnt who will kickstart their title defence in the 2022/23 season after the Premier League fixtures were announced today.

Although every club will play each home and away throughout the season, today always marks the day when football fans can plan their away trips or look forward to the fixtures against their rivals.

There was early speculation when a picture on social media supposedly showed the first eight rounds of the fixtures with City facing up against Aston Villa at home. Doubts around those leaked fixtures appeared to be true with the fixtures different to the official list.

City will start with fixtures against West Ham United at the London Stadium before a home game against newly-promoted, Bournemouth. Away to Newcastle and home to Crystal Palace will fill up the rest of the August calendar.

There was an early indication that Bournemouth will also be the first fixture for the Premier League champions after the Premier League’s account accidentally tweeted in response to Erling Haaland’s official signing. That also appeared to be not true.

The most important games that most Cityzens look forward to is the Manchester derby. Although relatively one sided in the last two years, the game remains a high spectacle within the season especially now there is much promise as Erik ten Hag looks to revitalise the clubs fortunes.

The first fixture will be played at the Etihad on the weekend of 1 October while the away game will be scheduled for 14 January (potentially subjected to change for TV).

Losing the title by one point will likely spur Liverpool on to go one better this year with the mouthwatering fixtures to be played on the weekends of 15 October and 1 April. This will be a repeat of the glorified friendly between the two sides in the inaugural curtain raiser, Community Shield, with Anfield hosting the first of the two league fixtures.

A potential chance to see the Premier League’s two most exciting strikers with Erling Haaland and Darwin Nunez coming up against each other.

A notable change to the fixture schedule this year as the FIFA World Cup in Qatar will enforce a month break at the end of November, before returning to the domestic game on Boxing Day (26 December).

A chance that many stars will be missing in action or nursing hangovers providing their national team emerges victorious in the Middle East and brings the golden trophy back home.

Now the fixtures have been released, Pep Guardiola will be plotting the route to another title come May.