Man City's first six fixtures compared to Premier League rivals

So who will they batter first? Manchester City ended up winning the Premier League with a few games to spare last season despite Arsenal putting up a good fight for much of the campaign.

Having secured that title - a fifth in six years - the Cityzens went on to win the FA Cup and Champions League to become only the second English team to complete the full treble.

Given Pep Guardiola is sticking around as manager, there's no reason to believe City will not be just as good once again. They are the benchmark in football worldwide and their Premier League rivals will be praying they get off to a poor start in 2023/24.

Below are Man City's opening six Premier League matches and how they look compared to their main rivals.

Man City's first six fixtures

City have got a very favourable-looking start to the season and it seems realistic that they could be sat on 18 points after six games.

Going away to Vincent Kompany's Burnley on the opening weekend will be very interesting, and the Newcastle game is one they will have to take extremely seriously.

Beyond that, Man City will not fear any of Sheffield United, West Ham, Fulham or Nottingham Forest. It would be a massive surprise if Man City dropped any points against those opponents and they will likely have asserted some dominance over the Premier League early on.

Man Utd's first six fixtures

If Man Utd do not start the season quickly, they could find themselves with a lot of ground to make up.

Regardless of how the summer pans out, Man Utd have to be aiming to win the title. They almost certainly can't beat Man City over the whole season, but it has to be the initial plan.

With two games against Tottenham and Arsenal to deal with, as well as potentially very tricky fixtures against Wolves and Brighton, it's really hard to imagine United being level on points with City or ahead of them after the first six games of the season.

Liverpool's first six fixtures

They may have had a pretty terrible campaign on the most part last season, but like Man Utd, Liverpool's initial aim has to be winning the title. That means beating Man City over 38 games but, much like Man Utd, Liverpool have got a tougher start to the season.

They visit both Chelsea and Newcastle in their opening three games on top of matches against Wolves, West Ham and Aston Villa, all of whom have the potential to cause any team problems.

It would be a great achievement for Liverpool to be within three points of Man City after the first six matches.

Arsenal's first six fixtures

Having led the 2022/23 Premier League title race for so much of the season, Mikel Arteta and Arsenal will be plotting over the summer how they can go one better when top flight football resumes.

A strong start similar to their 2022/23 effort will do them the world of good, but that will have to be coupled with an excellent second half of the season, which the Gunners failed to accomplish last time out.

The task is that much easier with a very good first set of three games to begin with, but then things get quite a bit harder. They could keep pace with Man City by beating Nottingham Forest, Crystal Palace and Fulham, but would need wins against Manchester United, away at Everton and in the north London derby to stay near the top of the table during the early stages of the campaign.

Newcastle's first six fixtures

Newcastle will want to improve on last season's fourth place finish, though a small section of the fanbase will be eyeing a Premier League title challenge as rivals to Man City if they attract one or two of the star names they're being linked with this summer.

If they are to do that, they will need to show their credentials very early on. The Magpies have got some tough games to start with, going away to Man City and then hosting Liverpool. Brighton and Aston Villa will also be difficult opponents.