Early thoughts: Ranking Liverpool's first five Premier League fixtures

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Photo: @LFC

The Premier League fixtures for the 2025/26 season were released on Wednesday, June 18.

Premier League champions Liverpool, who blew teams away last term, have some work on their hands as they look to defend their title for the first time.

Out of the 38 matches they will be playing in the 2025/26 season, we attempt to rate the Reds' first five matches and how they could shape their season.

Liverpool's First Five Premier League Games of the Season

The Reds will begin their defence of the Premier League title with a home game against AFC Bournemouth. It is also the season's curtain raiser, and it will be played on Friday, August 15, at Anfield.

After hosting the Cherries, Arne Slot's side will travel to face Newcastle United before hosting Arsenal in their last game in August. The next two games in September will be against newly-promoted Burnley at Turf Moor and Everton in the first Merseyside derby of the season at Anfield.

Apart from the fixtures against Newcastle and Arsenal, the other three should be straightforward for the Reds. Out of those five games, three will be at home at Anfield, while the other two will be trips to Newcastle United and Burnley.

Although Liverpool finished the 2024/25 season with no wins in four Premier League games, Bournemouth should not trouble them in their first outing of the new season. The Reds, under Arne Slot, lost just one Premier League game at Anfield last season – to Nottingham Forest. The curtain raiser against Bournemouth should be an easy win for the Reds.

In the past meetings between clubs, the Reds have won each of the past five. The Reds have also not conceded in any of the past three meetings. With the game set to be played at Anfield, everything is pointing towards a winning start for the Reds.

The second league game of the season for Liverpool will see them travel to St. James' Park to face Newcastle United in front of a packed crowd, and the atmosphere is expected to be electric. Liverpool will look to avenge the Carabao Cup defeat when they make the trip to Tyneside. Before that defeat at Wembley, the Magpies had last defeated Liverpool in 2015.

It is the match day three encounter against Arsenal - another title contender - that is expected to raise the roof early on in the new campaign. Liverpool three away a two-goal lead in the last meeting at Anfield, but they were champions elect already. Liverpool have only beaten the Gunners once at Anfield since 2022.

Out of the available 15 points, if the Reds can get at least 10 points, it will be considered a good start. However, if they manage to take all the maximum points, it will send a signal of their readiness to defend the title to other contenders.

Preparations for the New Season

Unlike last summer, the Reds have been active in the transfer window. Arne Slot is focused on replacing the players who have left the club and those who might be leaving before the end of the window.

Trent Alexander-Arnold remains the biggest exit from Anfield this summer, as he went ahead to join Real Madrid. Goalkeeper Caoimhin Kelleher left for an initial £12.5m with performance-related add-ons could take the eventual fee to £18m.

In terms of the arrivals, Liverpool have moved swiftly to replace Alexander-Arnold with Jeremie Frimpong from Bayer Leverkusen, while Florian Wirtz has also completed a British club-record move to Merseyside, and Milos Kerkez is expected at Anfield from Bournemouth as the club's new left-back.

Shortly after signing his deal with the club, Wirtz told Liverpoolfc.com:

I feel very happy and very proud. Finally, it's done and I was waiting for a long time – finally it's done and I am really happy.

I'm really excited to have a new adventure in front of me. This was also a big point of my thoughts: that I want to have something completely new, to go out of the Bundesliga and to join the Premier League.

I will see how I can perform there. I hope I can do my best. I also spoke with some players who played there and they told me that it's perfect for me and every pitch is perfect, you can enjoy every game. I'm really looking forward to playing my first game.

On the other hand, key players like Mohamed Salah and Virgil Van Dijk have also signed new deals at Merseyside.

The current Golden Boot winner told Liverpoolfc.com in an exclusive reaction:

Of course I'm very excited. We have a great team now. Before also we had a great team. But I signed because I think we have a chance to win other trophies and enjoy my football.

It's great, I had my best years here. I played eight years, hopefully it's going to be 10. Enjoying my life here, enjoying my football. I had the best years in my career.

I would like to say to [the fans], I am very, very happy to be here. I signed here because I believe we can win a lot of big trophies together. Keep supporting us and we'll give it our best, and hopefully in the future we're going to win more trophies.

Pundit Thumbs Up Liverpool Transfers

Assessing Liverpool's movement in the transfer market so far, Neville, speaking on It's Called Soccer podcast, said:

I think when you're talking about winning the league, what is it that improves you?

I mean, the only thing that's going to improve you when you win the league is signing world-class players, or players that have got the potential to be world-class players. So signing Wirtz is fantastic.

Frimpong and then there's talk of Kerkez as well, deals with their right and left-back situations.

So, to get those three done, if they were to get those three done quite quickly, would be smart business. But I wouldn't have expected anything else from Liverpool.

Maybe slightly surprised that they've gone so heavy on Wirtz in terms of the fee. They don't normally go that big, but Slot deserves it, by the way. He waited 12 months for a player to sign.

With the summer business done, fans should be interested in Liverpool tickets for the forthcoming season.

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