Manchester United welcome Leeds United to Old Trafford in the opening game of the 2021-22 Premier League season, which begins the weekend of 14-15 August.
A repeat of last season’s result would do nicely, where we ran out to a 2-0 lead inside the opening three minutes and ended up winning 6-2.
Ole Gunnar Solskjaer will be looking to build on last season where we finished runners-up in both the Premier League and Europa League.
We are currently the fourth favourites for the Premier League with the bookmakers, and if you calculate probability with odds for our fixtures then that’s where we are expected to finish too.
Although we have been quiet in the transfer window so far this summer you can expect a big signing or two to bolster our squad, with Jadon Sancho the primary target.
There’s every reason we can make a promising start to the new campaign, as Southampton and Wolverhampton Wanderers (both away) complete August following our opener, heading into the first international break.
Our September fixture list consists of Newcastle United (home), West Ham United (away) and Aston Villa (home), and although the Premier League is rarely very predictable, it’s not out of the realms that we have a maximum of 18 points heading into the second international break of the new campaign.
We will certainly need a number in the vicinity of maximum points at this stage if we’re to aim for top four or even challenge for the title, as October is the start to a difficult run of games.
Everton come to Old Trafford to start the month, before facing FA Cup winners Leicester City (away), Liverpool (home) and Tottenham Hotspur (away). All whilst competing in the Champions League group stage too.
November kicks off with the first Manchester derby of the season, at Old Trafford, as well as games against Watford (away), Chelsea (away) and Arsenal (home). Where we will be at this point is anyone’s guess.
The fixtures have been kind to us to see out 2021 though as all six Premier League fixtures are against a combination of newly-promoted teams and teams who finished in the bottom half last time.
Manchester City have been notably handed a tough opening seven fixtures of the new season, so if we could build a big lead over these up to October it could make for a really interesting campaign.
Prior to that though, the club needs to add a couple of new faces. Whether we can do a deal for Jadon Sancho whilst he’s at Euro 2020 with England remains to be seen but landing the Borussia Dortmund star has to be our main focus this summer.
Likewise, a new centre-back should be one of Solskjaer’s main targets before 14 August or at least the end of the summer transfer window. The combination of Harry Maguire and Victor Lindelof doesn’t have title winners written across it.
Rumours of Jack Grealish moving to Manchester United have somewhat died down recently, though the focus on him has mainly been discussing his involvement with the England national team this summer.
