The 10 Premier League Matches You Need to See This Season

Just a few more sleeps...

The arrival of a Premier League campaign is typically accompanied by no shortage of fanfare. It is, after all, the world’s most popular division and includes some of the most fascinating personalities in the sport.

But the 2013-14 season seems to be even more highly-anticipated than usual.

Perhaps this is down to a combination of Jose Mourinho’s return to Chelsea, David Moyes’ appointment at Manchester United and the myriad transfer sagas yet to reach their conclusions—Wayne Rooney, Luis Suarez and Gareth Bale being their chief protagonists.

Whatever the case, there is a storyline for every fan; a talking-point, or several, attached to each of the 20 clubs.

And if that’s not enough, there will soon be matches. Actual matches.

Following are 10 that promise to be especially intriguing, and no doubt they will bring with them even more things to talk about, even more storylines to capture the imagination.

Just a few more sleeps...

August 26: Manchester United vs. Chelsea

David Moyes was handed a difficult start to his first Premier League season in charge of Manchester United when the schedule first came out in June.

Following an opening-weekend match away to Swansea he’ll bring his team back to Old Trafford for a Week 2 appointment with Chelsea, who just happen to have a certain Jose Mourinho at the helm once again.

The Blues will have hosted Hull the week before, and whichever side can take the three points from this match will no doubt gain an early-season advantage on the other.

September 1: Liverpool vs. Manchester United

Manchester United’s nightmare schedule will continue just six days after their Chelsea appointment when they visit Anfield for what should be a highly-competitive match against Liverpool.

It will also represent Moyes’ first return to the city since leaving local rivals Everton, so the reception he gets should be interesting.

Liverpool-United is a heated fixture at the best of times, and after opening their season with matches against Stoke and Aston Villa the hosts will get their first chance to test their young, attack-minded squad against a genuine title contender.

September 1: Arsenal vs. Tottenham Hotspur

Shortly after the final whistle blows at Anfield on September 1 the season’s first North London Derby will kick off at Emirates Stadium.

Talk about an exciting Sunday of football.

This fixture needs no introduction, but with Spurs having made a handful of summer signings to enhance their squad they’ll no doubt be looking to pull one over their archrivals, especially on hostile ground.

Of course, the Gareth Bale saga will have come to an end one way or another by the time the first ball is kicked in this match—and who knows, he may even feature in it.

September 22: Manchester City vs. Manchester United

We return to David Moyes and Manchester United’s schedule from hell.

Barely a month into his first campaign in charge of the Premier League champions Moyes will take his side to Eastlands for the season’s first Manchester Derby.

Most bookmakers have City finishing ahead of United in the table (Ladbrokes has them 9/4 to win the league to United’s 5/2), so Moyes will be hoping to prove the doubters wrong when he sends his side out against a City outfit bolstered by the likes of Fernandinho, Jesus Navas and Stevan Jovetic.

December 7: Liverpool vs. West Ham

Liverpool paid a combined £55 million to bring Andy Carroll and Stewart Downing to Anfield from Newcastle and Middlesbrough, respectively, but this summer they sold both to West Ham for fees that totalled £21.5 million.

If the financial hit wasn’t embarrassing enough a pair of good performances from Carroll and Downing in their Anfield returns would leave a lot of people at Liverpool extremely red-faced, foremost among them manager Brendan Rodgers.

Both players will be looking to stick it to their former employers—a storyline that could be one of the most intriguing of the autumn.

December 26: Manchester City vs. Liverpool

While many of Europe’s most high-profile leagues will be on hiatus over the holiday period, the Premier League will have the final few weeks of December almost exclusively to themselves.

It’s one of the most popular quirks of the English top-flight, and the congested fixture list tends to separate the wheat from the chaff.

This Boxing Day, Manchester City will host Liverpool. City will almost certainly be looking to bolster their title credentials, although Liverpool—even if not in the title race—will need these points for a push into the top four.

This could well end up being one of the most-watched matches of the season.

February 1: Manchester City vs. Chelsea

They are widely expected to duel it out for the 2013-14 Premier League title, and on February 1 they’ll meet for a second and final time when they kick off at Etihad Stadium.

For the side above the other in the standings, this match will represent an opportunity to extend their lead atop the table. For the other, it will be a rare chance to make up ground.

In other words, it will be a genuine six-pointer.

By this point in the schedule City’s summer signings will have either bedded themselves into the starting XI or glued themselves to the bench, and on the other side of the ball, Blues manager Jose Mourinho will have got the hang of his Chelsea 2.0.

The title could well come down to this.

February 8: Liverpool vs. Arsenal

Let’s call it the “Luis Suarez match.”

Whether or not the Uruguay striker left Liverpool for Arsenal, left them for someone else or remained at the club, he will be the chief talking point going into this match.

Assume for a moment that he joins Arsenal this summer. In that case, this fixture would represent his first return to Anfield since making the move. Imagine his reception.

But if he remains at Liverpool, he may end up being the difference-maker in a match against the side that was willing to break the bank to get him.

February 11: Arsenal vs. Manchester United

Last April, in his first match at Emirates Stadium since leaving Arsenal for Manchester United, Robin Van Persie’s 44th-minute penalty proved the equalizer in a 1-1 draw.

You just know it wasn’t the last time the Dutchman would return to torture his former side.

By mid-February the title contenders will be well into what former United manager Sir Alex Ferguson once referred to as “squeaky-bum time,” and this encounter could end up having a thing or two to do with the final positions.

April 5: Cardiff City vs. Crystal Palace

The 2013-14 schedule keeps the presumed title contenders away from one another during the final few weeks of the campaign, and while most eyes will be trained on the top of the table by this point of the season there will also be a relegation battle to generate a storyline or two.

Cardiff City and Crystal Palace could well be two of the sides involved in that battle, fighting for their Premier League lives as the schedule draws to a close.

This head-to-head encounter will take place on the 33rd matchday of the season, and to the victor could well go the advantage in a vicious fight for survival.