Izuchukwu Okosi
Champions Manchester City will begin their Premier League title defence with a fixture against West Ham away on the opening weekend of a 2022-23 Premier League campaign that will include a mid-season break for the World Cup in Qatar.
The Premier League body on Thursday announced the fixtures for the 2022/2023 season.
Join our WhatsApp ChannelThere will be no top-flight games after the weekend of 12-13 November until 26 December because of the World Cup.
The first fixture takes place on Friday, 5 August when Crystal Palace host Arsenal.
Liverpool play at promoted Fulham, with Nottingham Forest at Newcastle.
Forest are back in the Premier League for the first time since 1998-99.
The World Cup, which will feature both England and Wales, starts on 21 November. The final is on 18 December, eight days before the Premier League season resumes.
There are no meetings between the Premier League’s so-called ‘big six’ on weekend of 12-13 November – the one before the World Cup – following a request by the Football Association.
England will meet up on 14 November before flying to Qatar the following day.
Special arrangements have been made to allow more time between games played across the three festive match rounds.
This will allow squads greater time to recover. Previously clubs were given a minimum of 48 hours between matches.
After fixtures on 26-27 December, the following match round will be played across 29, 30 and 31 December. The New Year match round will be played on the 2, 3, 4 and 5 January.
First round of fixtures in full
Friday, 5 August
Crystal Palace v Arsenal (20:00 BST)
Saturday, 6 August
Fulham v Liverpool (12:30)
Bournemouth v Aston Villa (15:00)
Leeds United v Wolverhampton (15:00)
Leicester City v Brentford (15:00)
Newcastle United v Nottingham Forest (15:00)
Tottenham Hotspur v Southampton (15:00)
Everton v Chelsea (17:30)
Sunday, 7 August
Manchester United v Brighton (14:00)
West Ham United v Manchester City (16:30)
Izuchukwu Okosi is a Nigerian sports and entertainment journalist with two decades of experience in the media industry having begun his media journey in 2002 as an intern at Mundial Sports International (MSI) and Africa Independent Television (AIT), owners of Daar Communications Plc.
