Gameweek 1 Preview

Saturday 15th August

Chelsea vs. Hull
Hull were one of only four teams to keep a clean sheet at Stamford Bridge last season. Geovanni has scored on the first day of the season in the previous two years.
Chelsea have scored ten goals in the last 3 opening day fixtures.
Nicolas Anelka has scored on the first day of the season in the previous two years.

Aston Villa vs. Wigan
Aston Villa have only scored one goal against Wigan in this fixture in the last 4 seasons.
Wigan have lost the opening fixture on all 4 occasions since their promotion to the Premier League. New Wigan signing Jason Scotland was second top scorer in the Championship last season with 21 goals for Swansea.

Blackburn vs. Man City
Man City have not won this fixture for the past 5 seasons.
New Man City signing Roque Santa Cruz has scored on the first day of the season in the previous two years, but will not feature here due to injury.

Bolton vs. Sunderland
Bolton have kept a clean sheet in this fixture on the past 3 meetings.
New Sunderland signing Darren Bent scored 3 times against Bolton last season for Tottenham.

Portsmouth vs. Fulham
Portsmouth have won this fixture 5 of the last ten meetings, with 3 draws between the teams.
Fulham have lost 4 of their last 5 opening day fixtures. Fulham won the fair play league last season with just 40 yellow cards and 1 red card all season.

Stoke vs. Burnley
Stoke City only conceded 15 league goals at home last season- the second lowest total outside of the top three clubs last season.
Robbie Blake had the fourth most assists in the Championship last season with 12. The previous season he was joint second, along with Wade Elliott, making 13 assists.

Wolverhampton vs. West Ham
Michael Kightly had 19 assists last season, the most in the Championship, but will miss this game due to injury.
West Ham have only lost one of their last 6 opening day fixtures.

Everton vs. Arsenal
Tim Cahill has scored in the last three seasons against Arsenal.
Robin Van Persie scored in both fixtures against Everton last season.

Sunday 16th August

Man Utd vs. Birmingham
Man United scored the most home league goals last season – 43 in total.
Birmingham only scored 24 away league goals last season, the lowest of the promoted teams.

Tottenham vs. Liverpool
Tottenham have lost the last 3 opening day fixtures. Robbie Keane has scored 3 times in 3 games in the last two seasons against Liverpool.
Fernando Torres has scored 3 times in the last two seasons against Tottenham.