Five Cantonas

The fixtures are out, and they’re quite kind to us, all told.

Manchester United will open away to West Brom, followed by home games against Spurs and Arsenal. Arsenal, for their park, visit us on the pack of a trip to Newcastle and the visit of Liverpool, meaning that they could conceivably be bottom of the table after three games. That would rule.

Chelsea visit Stoke on the opening day, whilst City have got Swansea at home.

Our run-in is the bonus, however. Of our last ten games, our hardest game is City away, followed by Everton and Villa at home. If we can put ourselves in as good a position next spring as this spring, then we should be confident of turning 19 into 20.

As we can see, most of our highlights are grouped towards the start and middle of the season, with a bastard run just after the halfway stage when we visit Newacstle, Arsenal, Chelsea and Spurs in the space of eight games, with Liverpool at home thrown in for good measure.

Good form around that time is going to be absolutely VITAL, especially considering the easier games we have in our run-in.

I already feel that those eight games are going to be the biggest of the season. Of course, that only applies if we can put ourselves into a decent position in the first place, but given our moderate first half of the season, there’s no reason why we shouldn’t be.

Interestingly, the two huge games from our run-in last season, Arsenal and Chelsea, are two of our first five games.

What do you think? Decent run at the end of the season? How many points will we have when we welcome Chelsea? Leave a comment, or discuss this with me on Twitter @FiveCantonas.