Premier League fixtures 2022/23: What chance your team is at home on the opening day?

Andy Schooler
13 June 2022

Which team has played the most opening-day games at home in Premier League history? And what factors lie behind that statistic? Andy Schooler takes a look...

With the 2022/23 Premier League fixtures being revealed on Thursday (June 16), one question football fans are asking right now is 'will my team be at home on the opening weekend?'

There's always something special about the first game of a season and it's arguably better with the roar of your own stadium echoing in the background.

But what chance does your team have of landing that home game?

50-50, you say? Well, the theory that it's simply random is just a myth.

While a computer does run the fixtures through a quirky piece of software, Premier League rules allow clubs to request home or away games on certain dates. They are not always accommodated - and a plethora of requests would likely not go down well at PL HQ - but some are.

This factor can, to some extent, explain the data in the table below which shows how often clubs have played their first match of a Premier League season at home.

Team	Home	Away	Home %
Brentford	1	0	100%
Bournemouth	4	1	80%
Arsenal	20	10	67%
Everton	19	11	63%
Chelsea	18	12	60%
Manchester United	18	12	60%
Leicester	9	7	56%
Newcastle	15	12	56%
Crystal Palace	7	6	54%
West Ham	13	13	50%
Leeds	7	7	50%
Southampton	11	12	48%
Liverpool	12	18	40%
Fulham	6	9	40%
Brighton	2	3	40%
Wolves	3	5	38%
Aston Villa	10	17	37%
Manchester City	9	16	36%
Tottenham	9	21	30%
Nottingham Forest	1	4	20%

Who's played at home the most?

While the data involving Brentford and Bournemouth clearly isn't a great sample size, it's notable that long-term members Arsenal, Everton, Chelsea and Manchester United have all played their first match on home turf at least 60% of the time.

Of those sides to have played at least six seasons in the Premier League, Arsenal have had the most opening-day home matches - 20 out of a possible 30. Or, to put it another way, 67%.

Everton (63%) aren't far behind and neither are Manchester United.

Hat-trick for Fernandes
FOUR assists for Pogba

The perfect opening day for Man United

FT: Man Utd 5-1 Leeds

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That helps explain why Tottenham, Liverpool and Manchester City have all played considerably more away games on matchday one than they have home matches.

Local rivals are rarely allowed to play at home on the same weekend, largely for policing reasons.

So, with Arsenal having the best percentage for home fixtures, it's no surprise to see Tottenham have the lowest such figure (excluding Nottingham Forest on the same data-sample reasons).

Spurs have played at home on the opening weekend just nine times in the last 30 years (30% of the time).

What else did we learn while looking at the opening-day venues?

Well, Man Utd are on a good run of home fixtures first up - seven of their last eight opening matches of the season have been at Old Trafford.

Aston Villa provide the contrast - they've played seven of their last eight away.

Southampton have also had plenty of early-season trips with just four of their last 16 Premier League games played at home.

In terms of geography, you could forgive Spurs fans for already buying a train ticket to Newcastle - they've played at St James' Park in three of their last 10 opening games, while they've travelled to the north-east on matchday one in five of the last 15 years.

Meanwhile, Leicester have faced Midlands opponents in their first game of the season in each of the last three years, meaning that overall their fans have only had to travel out of the region for six of their last 16 top-flight, opening-day games.