Premier League 2024/25 Matchday 1 - Preview & Predictions
English top-flight football returns on Friday so here's my predictions for matchday one of the 2024/25 Premier League campaign.
Each matchday I’ll be focusing on a couple of Premier League matches from an in-depth perspective - with the help of Opta data - and then giving score predictions for the rest. At the bottom of each article will be a running count of how many winning results and correct score lines I mange to pick out throughout the season.
The pick of the bunch
Manchester United vs Fulham
Here we are then, the return of the Premier League for another season and this one kicks off with a very interesting clash between Manchester United and Fulham on Friday night under the Old Trafford lights.
It’s been a summer of change for the Red Devils, who have again spent a substantial amount of money thanks to extra investment from new minority shareholder Jim Ratcliffe and the INEOS Group. After it looked like manager Erik ten Hag would leave the club at the start of the summer, he’s instead been backed and the pressure will now be on him to deliver.
On the incoming front, Joshua Zirkzee has arrived at the club from Bologna who’ll help to ease the pressure on fellow forward Rasmus Hojlund, whilst young defender Leny Yoro joins from Lille - although the latter of the pair is sidelined through injury for the foreseeable future. On top of that, ten Hag has been reunited with defensive duo Matthijs de Ligt and Noussair Mazraoui from Bayern Munich and given that the trio worked well at Ajax in a previous life, the United hierarchy will be hoping for a similar effect here.
Not only do those incoming singings bring with them plenty of quality to bolster the ranks, but they’ve additionally done a lot to lift the mood in the red half of Manchester, even despite their penalty shoot-out loss to fierce rivals Manchester City in the Community Shield last weekend. In fairness, the Red Devils performed well at Wembley, playing some neat football in the attacking third but again, they just didn’t have enough to see off Pep Guardiola and his star studded outfit in the end.
Fulham won’t prove to be pushovers in this one either by any means as United found out back in February in this exact fixture as the London club ran out 2-1 winners thanks to a very, very late Alex Iwobi winner. Now they’ll target winning back-to-back away league games against Manchester United for the first time in club history but having lost star midfielder Joao Palhinha over the off-season to Bayern, completing that feat will prove a tall order in truth.
Simply put, he was the heart and soul of this team, as well as being Fulham’s best player, and with such a huge gap still yet to be filled in the centre of the park, there’s no doubt that the Cottagers will struggle here.
Boss Marco Silva will instead look to new signing Emile Smith Rowe to produce the magic needed to at least try and fill some of the void and help his new team to continue their fantastic opening day form of losing just two of their last nine Premier League matches of the season. He remains as the club’s biggest incoming signing to date and if they are to inform on their final standing from last term, more transfers need to follow.
The away side will need to be at their very best across the field to have any chance of grabbing a positive result in this opener, but despite the fact that United are unlikely to have their new stars on show here, expect Marcus Rashford and Alejandro Garnacho to really take this game to Fulham and be the match winners.
Prediction: Manchester United 2-1 Fulham
Ipswich Town vs Liverpool
For the first time since the 2001/02 season, Ipswich Town will play Premier League football this weekend.
It’s been a long and arduous process for the Tractor Boys to get back to this level, especially as they were playing in England’s third tier as recently as three years ago. Successive promotions under manager Kieran McKenna have followed, and now Ipswich will face Liverpool on the opening day of the season as top-flight football returns to Portman Road.
On paper, they could have hardly picked a more difficult first outing as the Reds haven’t lost any of their previous five away Premier League matches against Ipswich. They were also the home side’s final opponents in the top-flight before they were relegated back in May 2002, a match which saw Liverpool convincingly defeat them 5-0 and although a repeat of that score line is unlikely, Ipswich will need to produce form the off in order to stay in this match.
Their business so far this summer has been neat, bringing in a number of new faces in order to give themselves the best possible chance of survival, but even with that, winning here looks like a very tough ask. In truth, despite the fact that McKenna will obviously want to produce a shock in front of a packed-out Portman Road, he’ll know that their true battles lie elsewhere this campaign.
As for visiting Liverpool, well they arrive under new management in the form of Arne Slot after Jurgen Klopp left his role at the end of the last campaign. The general consensus remains that compared to the past few seasons, the Reds could struggle a little more this season but in fairness, their incoming Dutch manager got his side ticking and playing some fantastic, free-flowing football during pre-season.
The results have been positive on the whole, winning four of their five friendlies against the likes of Manchester United, Arsenal and Sevilla, and even though the Reds are yet to make a first team signing at the time of writing this preview after their high profile pursuit of Real Sociedad’s Martin Zubimendi collapsed, they should still possess far too much quality for Ipswich to handle on this occasion.
Prediction: Ipswich Town 1-3 Liverpool
Chelsea vs Manchester City
The biggest clash on matchday one of the new Premier League season comes on Sunday at Stamford Bridge though as Chelsea and Manchester City battle it out for supremacy.
Starting with the home team and it’s been yet another chaotic transfer window for them, with another huge list of young talent joining the club, albeit without adding too much first team quality in the process. Pedro Neto remains the exception to the above as he joins from Wolves which could prove to be a fantastic signing, but his recent injury record leaves question marks over his availability across a whole campaign, a pretty price to potentially pay given the fee.
Elsewhere, Conor Gallagher has been left in limbo in regards to his future as his move to Atletico Madrid continues to stall but even if that one eventually falls through, he’s unlikely to play for the club again given his treatment by management. His eventual departure will have a far bigger impact on this Chelsea squad than most realise, especially as last season in England’s top-flight, he led his teammates by recording the most interceptions, successful duels and ball recoveries and without his leadership in the middle, the Blues look a bit short.
Manager Enzo Maresca has also failed to oversee a successful pre-season as his new side have suffered defeats to Real Madrid, Manchester City and Celtic and unless Cole Palmer can hit the ground running from the off in this outing against his former side, a long afternoon could be in store at the Bridge for the hosts.
But visiting Manchester City have also lost a key asset in the last week as forward Julian Alvarez has actually departed for Atletico Madrid unlike Gallagher. He made the most appearances of any City player across all competitions last season, and again, his loss could turn out to have a much bigger effect on his former side than many are expecting. So far any talk about a replacement hasn’t really materialised as such, but you can only imagine that Pep and his team are drafting up a shortlist of stars in response to his departure.
Even with Alvarez leaving though, City’s squad is still stacked from a quality perspective and new singing Savinho adds another talented name to City’s attacking line up. Even with that talent however, during last weekend’s Community Shield against bitter rivals Manchester United the Citizens struggled to break down their opposition which could point towards a slower than usual start in this clash.
In my mind a stalemate seems likely here as both of these sides will be desperate to avoid starting their respective league seasons with defeat.
Prediction: Chelsea 1-1 Manchester City
Predictions for the rest of the matchday
Arsenal 3-1 Wolves
Everton 1-1 Brighton
Newcastle United 2-0 Southampton
Nottingham Forest 0-0 Bournemouth
West Ham 1-1 Aston Villa
Brentford 1-2 Crystal Palace
Leicester 0-3 Tottenham