The Premier League returns for the 25/26 season this weekend, but what are the standout trends and patterns on the opening day? 

We’ve looked through the shifts that have occurred on the opening day of the Premier League in recent seasons to help give you an edge ahead of your weekend bets.

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📊 Key Stats

• Man United have won the most Premier League opening weekend matches, with 22 victories - a 66.7% win rate

• The reigning Premier League champions boast a 83.3% win percentage on opening weekend 

• Pep Guardiola has the best individual record of any Premier League manager on the opening weekend, with eight wins from his nine games

• There were 21 goals scored on the opening weekend of the Premier League last season (2.1 per game), but only four of the 10 matches saw both teams score

• Only four home sides managed to register a victory on the opening weekend last season

• Man United have the toughest opening run of any side according to OPTA’s fixture difficulty rating (94.7), with Ruben Amorim’s side facing three of last season's top six within the first five gameweeks

• Aston Villa welcome Newcastle in the early kick off on Saturday. Villa have not drawn their opening game of the season since 2011, so we can expect the result to go either way in this clash

🏆 Best Opening Day Records 

Chelsea at Stamford Bridge 

Enzo Maresca was able to make Stamford Bridge a mini fortress again last season, as Chelsea boasted the third best home record in the league, only Man City (13) and Liverpool (14) won more games at home than Chelsea (12). 

Only Man United (22) have won more games on the opening day than Chelsea (20), with the Blues also having an excellent record in London Derbies on the opening day. This will be the fourth London derby that Chelsea have contested on the opening day, they’ve won the previous three:

✅ 4-2 v West Ham (2000/01)

✅ 2-1 v West Ham (2016/17)

✅ 3-0 v Crystal Palace (2021/22)

Chelsea are also unbeaten across their last 15 Premier League games against Crystal Palace, winning 13 of these.

Mohamed Salah and Erling Haaland 

Mohamed Salah has a frightening opening day record. Salah broke the record for the most Premier League goals on the opening weekend of a season last campaign with his strike against Ipswich, taking his tally to nine goals, eclipsing Alan Shearer, Frank Lampard, Wayne Rooney and Jamie Vardy, who had all previously shared the record.

Salah also tops the list when it comes to goal contributions on the opening weekend, with the Egyptian registering 14 in total (nine goals, five assists).

Erling Haaland is a player that could go on to break Salah’s record, should he stay in the Premier League for an extended period. Haaland has scored five goals Premier League opening weekend, he netted against Chelsea in City’s opening game last season.

Notably, across the first four games of last season, Haaland scored a huge nine goals:

⚽ v Chelsea

⚽ ⚽ ⚽ v Ipswich

⚽ ⚽ ⚽ v West Ham

⚽ ⚽ v Brentford

⬆️ Teams Promoted from the Championship

When looking at the performances of the newly promoted sides on the opening day over the last few seasons, it paints a worrying picture for Burnley, Leeds and Sunderland:

2024/25:

🚫 Ipswich 0-2 Liverpool 

🚫 Newcastle 1-0 Southampton 

🤝 Leicester 1-1 Tottenham 

2023/24:

🚫 Burnley 0-3 Manchester City

🚫 Brighton 4-1 Luton

🚫 Sheffield United 0-1 Crystal Palace 

2022/23:

🤝 Fulham 2-2 Liverpool 

✅ Bournemouth 2-0 Aston Villa

🚫 Newcastle 2-0 Nottingham Forest

The last two seasons have been really tough for the newly promoted sides on the opening day.

The longer the newly promoted sides go without a win, the more the pressure will begin to rise on the players and manager.

Obviously, winning your first two games as a newly promoted sides is no easy feat, but Sunderland’s fixtures standout to me as the newly promoted side that could make the best start to the season, here are their opening five matches:

⚒️ West Ham (H)

🟣 Burnley (A)

🐝 Brentford (H)

🦅 Crystal Palace (A)

🟣 Aston Villa (H)

I don’t think Regis Le Bris could have asked for a better start to the season, and the data would agree with that conclusion - according to OPTA’s fixture difficulty ranking, only Crystal Palace, Aston Villa and Chelsea have a softer start to the season than Sunderland (91.9).

On the other hand, Leeds and Burnley could end up making very slow starts. Burnley travel to Tottenham on the opening weekend and face Man United and Liverpool as part of their opening five games.

Leeds kick off with a fairly favourable tie against Everton, but then have two really difficult games against Arsenal and Newcastle.

We'll be all over the Premier League this season, including our usual selection of Premier League Accumulator Tips for every round of fixtures. It’s not just English football we cover on Andy’s Bet Club either, with a range of Football Betting Tips & Predictions on the site every day.

We've listed the Best Accumulator Bookmakers in one convenient place. Our Premier League Outright Predictions may also pique your interest ahead of the big kick-off.

Our Premier League Predictions highlight the value in the market, as do our Football Accumulator Tips and Early Kick-Off Acca.

There are plenty of free bets available for the new season too, such as the Paddy Power Sign Up Offer and bet365 Sign Up Offer. There's a list of the latest New Bookmaker Offers here.

* All odds displayed correct at the time of publishing *

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