Anyone game for some vital fixture list statistics?

Now that the Football League and the Premier League have completed the extraordinarily complicated process of compiling next season’s fixtures, it’s time for some fate-bating statistics. And who better to provide them than our trend-spotting chums at chickendinner:

1. The last five newly-promoted teams to kick their season off at home all avoided defeat, which is good news for Wolves who open against West Ham.

2. However, the last four to start away from home have all lost. That doesn’t bode well for Birmingham and Burnley, who start at Manchester Utd and Stoke.

3. Chelsea have won their opening game in each of the last seven seasons and this year they kick-off their campaign at home to Hull.

A chance to get excited months before anything actually happens

Tottenham have finally been granted their wish to kick-off a Premier League campaign at home but Liverpool will be the visitors for their first opener at White Hart Lane since 2004.

Spurs fans can take some comfort though from the fact Arsenal have been given a challenging away game on the opening weekend against Everton.

Wolves are the only promoted side who start at home - against West Ham - and the last five to have done so have avoided defeat. Every new arrival who has opened their campaign on the road over the last three seasons has lost and Birmingham and Burnley face tough trips to Man United and Stoke.

The Gunners face Chelsea, Liverpool and Man City very early on

Anyone who likes to believe that fixtures really are generated over a five minute period just before they are announced had their vision crushed twice yesterday - first by the BBC revealing how they are collated and then by Sky Sports News, who leaked Arsenal’s first six matches.

A graphic displaying their supposed opening games* was briefly flashed on screen and they won’t be too happy with them. Instead of starting at home - as they have done in 13 of the last 17 seasons - they kick off away to West Ham and face Chelsea, Liverpool and Manchester City before the end of September.

The Gunners made a mess of a far easier start last season but can take comfort from the fact that on the four occasions that they have begun a Premier League campaign away, they have won the title twice and finished second twice.

*Of course, it’s also possible that they are a fabricated set that were created for a mock-up that should never have been aired.

He would love it if Fergie stopped criticising refs! Love it!

Liverpool are sitting pretty three points clear of the table ahead of this weekend’s games, but the pressure to stay at the top seems to getting to Mr Benitez. We all know he’s as mad as a box of frogs, but we’ve never seen him get quite as worked up as he did in a press conference earlier today.

Rather than talk about the upcoming Stoke game, Rafa chose to lay into Sir Alex, even suggesting that the powers that be should let Fergie write the fixture list to stop him complaining about it.

Benitez started his rant by condemning Ferguson’s lack of respect for referees:

“I want to talk about facts. I want to be clear, I do not want to play mind games too early, although they seem to want to start.

“During the Respect campaign - and this is a fact - Mr Ferguson was charged by the FA for improper conduct after comments made about Martin Atkinson and Keith Hackett.

“He was not punished. He is the only manager in the league that cannot be punished for these things.

“How can you talk about the Respect campaign and yet criticise the referee every single week?

“We know what happens every time we go to Old Trafford and the United staff. They are always going man-to-man with the referees, especially at half-time when they walk close to the referees and they are talking and talking.

“All managers need to know is that only Mr Ferguson can talk

The opening day results suggest a stormy path for ‘Arry

As the folks at Match of the Day kept stressing, it’s very difficult to tell how a team will fare in the coming season based on the opening matches. However, the chaps at chickendinner have donned their lab coats and booted up the huge science computer, and it looks like Portsmouth may not be enjoy another top eight finish this season..

» Portsmouth were bottom after one game in 2005-06 and ended up finishing just above the relegation zone in 17th.

» West Ham were relegated after starting the season with a 4-0 loss in 2002-03. Also, in the

It’s time to start looking forward to football again

On what the BBC are dubbing ‘one of the the most eagerly awaited days on the domestic calendar’, the FA have announced the next season’s fixtures. Aside from King Kev’s visit to Old Trafford, there’s not much happening on the opening weekend:

Opening weekend fixtures - Saturday, 16 August

Arsenal/ West Brom
Aston Villa/ Man City
Bolton/ Stoke
Chelsea/ Portsmouth
Everton/ Blackburn
Hull/ Fulham
Man Utd/ Newcastle
Middlesbrough/ Tottenham
Sunderland/ Liverpool
West Ham/ Wigan

Also, there are no games scheduled between 28th December and 10th January - surely they haven’t done away with the New Year fixtures?

See the full 2008/09 fixture list here.