So here it is – less than four weeks after the end of the last Premier League season – the fixtures for our 2015-16 campaign have been released. Liverpool fans across the world are already plotting their away days and highlighting their days out at Anfield, while we’ve picked out five key games that could define our year.
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Which matches are you looking forward to most of all? Which games do you think will most determine our finishing position in the league? If you disagree with our choices, let us know below!
Here’s our top five…
August 8th – Stoke City (A)
Our opening game of the season is a big one. We must meet the demons of last season head on and banish memories of the humiliation of our last trip to the Britannia Stadium, when we were beaten 6-1 by Stoke City. A victory would, to an extent, put things right. It would get our Premier League season off to the perfect start and ease the pressure on manager Brendan Rodgers. A defeat of any kind, let alone a repeat of last season’s result, could be completely disastrous.
October 3rd – Everton (A)
Our first Merseyside derby of the season comes mid-way through a horrible set of away fixtures. After starting the year with a trip to Stoke City, we then face Arsenal, Manchester United and Everton. Our run is then completed by matches at Tottenham, Chelsea and Manchester City. Sadly, the game against our local rivals is definitely one of the more winnable fixtures on that list. Despite their challenging nature, it’s important that we pick up as many points as we can from these games and this one is going to be marked down as a ‘must win’.
January 16th – Manchester United (H)
This is a game that everyone is always looking out for and it’s going to be just as decisive as ever. This one could have a big say over who does and who doesn’t make the top four. It also completes a challenging run of fixtures to start our New Year schedule, following games at West Ham and at home to Arsenal. It comes mid-way through the January transfer window, so a couple of new signings could potentially be on show as well, so there’s an incredible amount of intrigue around this one all round.
March 5th – Crystal Palace (A)
Selhurst Park has not been a happy hunting ground for Liverpool over the last couple of years. And with this game being sandwiched between home fixtures against Manchester City and Chelsea it will be vitally important that we pick up all three points. March is traditionally a decisive month in the race for both the title and the top four, and with a game against Southampton completing our quarter of fixtures, this is – on paper – the most winnable match on the schedule.
May 7th – Watford (H)
This is our penultimate game of the season and our final home match. We could be playing for the top four, maybe more, while our visitors are likely to be scrapping for their lives at the wrong end of the table. In short, this game is surely going to have a lot riding on it. While we might not know all that much about the newly promoted side right now, they should have very few secrets left by the time we get to this stage in the season. We did pretty well against the promoted sides last season so a repeat of that form would be most welcome.
