Man City open Premier League title defence at Vincent Kompany’s Burnley

LONDON – Manchester City will kick off their bid for a fourth straight English Premier League title away to newly promoted Burnley, who are managed by their former captain Vincent Kompany.

The fixture list released on Thursday confirmed that the treble winners will visit Turf Moor on Aug 11 to raise the curtain on the 2023-24 campaign.

It will be the second time that Kompany, who won the title on four occasions as City skipper, will have faced his old side as a manager, with City

winning 6-0 at the Etihad

in the FA Cup quarter-finals in March.

Premier League debutants Luton Town

will play their first top-flight fixture since 1992 away to Roberto de Zerbi’s Brighton & Hove Albion the following day.

The most eye-catching fixture of the opening weekend will be at Stamford Bridge, where Mauricio Pochettino

begins life as Chelsea manager

against Liverpool on Aug 13, with both sides looking to bounce back after disappointing campaigns.

The Blues finished 12th in the recently concluded season and failed to qualify for European football, while

the Reds were fifth

and will play in the Europa League, missing out on the Champions League for the first time in seven seasons.

Arsenal, who suffered a late-season collapse and

finished second,

open their campaign at home to Nottingham Forest, with fellow Champions League qualifiers Newcastle United hosting Aston Villa and Manchester United rounding off the opening weekend against Wolverhampton Wanderers at Old Trafford.

Ange Postecoglou’s first game

in charge of Tottenham Hotspur

will be away to Brentford, who won 3-1 at Spurs just a month ago.

Bournemouth host Europa Conference League winners West Ham United, and Everton, looking to avoid a third straight relegation scrap, begin at home to Fulham.

City travel to the Emirates to face Arsenal in early October in a meeting of last season’s top two.

Old Trafford will stage the first Manchester derby since

City matched United’s treble-winning feat

of 1999 at the end of that month, with the champions hosting Jurgen Klopp’s Liverpool in late November.

The Premier League suggested that Eddie Howe’s Magpies are the team who face a big challenge right from the beginning.

Under the sub-head “Newcastle have toughest start?” in its article announcing the fixtures, the league said: “Fans don’t have long to wait for two of last season’s top-four teams to meet, as Man City will host Newcastle in match week 2.

“The Magpies have been given a tough start to the campaign. Their five opening fixtures are all against teams who finished ninth or higher last season. After taking on Villa and Man City, they face Liverpool, Brighton and Brentford.”

The schedule includes a mid-season break, which will take place in mid-January, with the 10 fixtures split across two weekends.

The campaign finishes on May 19, 2024. AFP