5 Fixtures for Manchester United to Focus on in 2016/17 Premier League Season
The fixtures for the 2016/17 Premier League season have been announced, and while attention may be fixed on the summer's international tournaments, the prospect of Manchester United's return to action is an exciting one for fans.
The forthcoming season is full of intriguing questions, and some of them will be answered in the following list of games.
There are others that could have been added—the away trip to Manchester City and the home game against Liverpool will obviously be massive games, but the derbies are represented here by the reverse fixtures.
The opening game against Bournemouth will obviously garner a lot of attention, given it is Jose Mourinho's first competitive match in charge, but it loses out on a spot here to the first home game, as that is when United's fans will be able to show their feelings about the new manager.
Arsenal away on May 6, 2017, is another that narrowly misses a place on our list. It seems reasonable to assume that both teams will have important matters to contend for by that point, though a lot can happen between now and then.
But enough of those which missed out, let's take a look at five fixtures which leap out of the list as ones to look forward to.
Incidentally, it is important to note that ManUtd.com report these dates "are subject to change."
August 20, 2016: Southampton at Home
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Jose Mourinho's first home game in charge of Manchester United at Old Trafford will be a big deal. After years of speculation, and the sense that somehow it was inevitable he would one day take charge of the Red Devils, it is actually happening.
As with anything that has been built up for years, there is the potential for this to be a damp squib. The transfer window will not yet be shut, so perhaps there will still be business to be done. And United's squad will be adapting to the demands of their new manager and will only have had one competitive fixture by then.
But nonetheless it is hard not to get excited. After all, as Daniel Harris noted for Eurosport, Mourinho was the man responsible for "changing the culture of English football...no longer could a team with championship pretensions take the first half of the season off."
Hitting the ground running was a key part of the Mourinho approach at Chelsea. Before he arrived, there was often a perception Sir Alex Ferguson's United could coast through the first stages of a season before getting into their stride in the latter stages. Not so anymore, and so a first home win will be crucial.
The atmosphere should be electric, with United fans as optimistic as they have been about a season since Ferguson retired. This one is certainly one to look forward to.
September 10, 2016: Manchester City at Home
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Mourinho's first home game will garner enormous attention, but this one will likely be the biggest story in football for the week building up to it. Mourinho and Pep Guardiola will recommence their intense rivalry in Manchester.
The first derby would always be one to look out for when the fixtures come out, but this time there are several added layers of narrative interest. Guardiola versus Mourinho will be the main story, but this will also be the first game after the transfer window shuts for both sides.
This will be the first chance any late signings get to play for their new clubs, and what a debut it could be.
Will there be a player who has an Anthony Martial-versus-Liverpool moment? Will the managers maintain civility? And which Manchester club will show that it has put the disappointment of the previous season behind them?
A lot will be read into the result of this one, though there will still be a great deal of football to play. But Old Trafford will be fired up, and a win for either of the new managers will go a long way to ingratiating them with their new supporters.
October 15, 2016: Liverpool Away
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And speaking of games which United fans look for when the the fixtures are announced...
The first game against Liverpool will be at Anfield, a trip which United's travelling supporters anticipate with fervour regardless of the circumstances. Louis van Gaal had an excellent record there in the league, though the limp Europa League defeat left a sour taste.
This game will likely be a big test for both Mourinho's United and Jurgen Klopp's Liverpool, with the latter keen to improve on their run of defeats over the last couple of seasons. For the Portuguese, this will be the start of an emotional back-to-back run, given it is immediately followed by his first return to Chelsea.
It will be intriguing to see how his former club's fans treat him, but if he can engineer a win at Liverpool, he will not have to worry about how his current club's fans perceive him.
December 26, 2016: Sunderland at Home
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Boxing Day football is a key tradition in English football culture, and having a home game on the day immediately after Christmas is a treat.
The opponents here are a little secondary to the occasion, but they do represent a broader swathe of fixtures. Van Gaal really struggled against the sides in the lower half of the table last season; December was a disastrous month which included a home defeat to Norwich City.
Assuming Sunderland are a bottom-half side by then—which manager Sam Allardyce will obviously be hoping is not the case—this will be a good chance for Mourinho's United to show their enhanced mettle.
Games will be coming thick and fast around this time—the Red Devils are scheduled to play on Boxing Day, New Year's Eve and January 2, with the first two at home and the last on the road. Starting that run with a win would provide a decent platform for an always-tricky spell of the season.
Plus, it will be the day after Christmas, and who doesn't want to watch their team play on the day after Christmas?
April 15, 2017: Chelsea at Home
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After this one wraps up, there will be five games left to go in the Premier League season.
We will have a much better understanding of who the title contenders are, and who has disappointed. Assuming United and Chelsea are both involved in the race for first place—a big assumption at this point, but not impossible—this fixture has the potential to be huge.
Mourinho will already have faced Chelsea at Stamford Bridge, but this game will see him play host to his former charges. Emotions will run high even if neither team is competing for the league, but if either or both are, this will likely be a real test. Even if it is a lower prize on offer—UEFA Champions League qualification, for example—the Mourinho-versus-Chelsea factor will be significant.
So those are some of the fixtures it seems likely will be worthy of attention. The beauty of a football season, though, is its capacity to surprise. No one would have picked United vs. Leicester at Old Trafford as likely to be important last season, but it was a game that could have decided the title.
Every fixture on the calendar has the potential for excitement, and because of that, fans are eagerly awaiting the return of Premier League football in a couple of months time. For United fans, there is plenty to be excited about.
