Premier League fixtures to be released on Thursday

 The fixtures for the 2020-21 Premier League season will be released at 09:00 BST on Thursday.

A shortened top-flight campaign is set to start on 12 September and finish on 23 May 2021.


The new season will be five weeks shorter than usual because of the late end to 2019-20 due to the coronavirus pandemic.

As a result, the Premier League has scrapped its winter break because of fixture congestion.

Premier League clubs involved in the latter stages of European cup competitions will be given a delayed start to the 2020-21 season.

Manchester City reached the quarter-finals of the Champions League, while Manchester United reached the semi-finals of the Europa League.

Both clubs will not be in action on the opening weekend, but Wolves - who reached the quarter-finals of the Europa League - will.

City and United will have fixtures listed for the opening weekend when they are released on Thursday but they will be moved as a result of the agreement among all Premier League clubs for every squad to get a minimum of 30 days between their final game of the 2019-20 season and their first of the new campaign.

Fixtures for the Championship, League One and League Two will be released on Friday at 09:00 BST.

Analysis

Both Manchester clubs were knocked out of Europe last weekend, four weeks before the new campaign. It means, in theory, City could play on 15 September, with United in action the following night.

However, these dates clash with the EFL Cup second round, which Wolves are in after their failure to secure a top-six spot.

It is understood both Wolves and Chelsea felt they should have been given a delayed start on the basis their preparation for the new season would be severely hampered by the international break.

As City and United enter the EFL Cup at the third round stage on 22 September, with the fourth round the following midweek, the scope for re-arranging games is severely limited.

Tottenham are already aware if they get through the second qualifying round of the Europa League on 17 September, they will be involved in European competition and the EFL Cup during the following week and - potentially - the week after.

With Champions League and Europa League group games arranged for October, November and December, there are no spare midweek dates for the Premier League to slot spare fixtures into until the end of January.


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