Nahki Wells and his Burnley teammates will kick off their 2018/19 Premier League campaign with a trip to Southampton.
The launch of the new fixtures handed Burnley an opening-day trip to St Mary’s Stadium, where a late header from Southampton-born Sam Vokes gave Sean Dyche’s side a 1-0 win last season.
The opening game against Mark Hughes’ south-coast outfit is scheduled for Saturday, August 11th, although it will be re-scheduled – probably to the following day – should Burnley make it into the third qualifying round of the Europa League.
Burnley’s first home Premier League game is against Watford and then following a trip to newly promoted Fulham, Dyche’s men will go into the first international break in September on the back of a visit from Manchester United.
Trips to the promoted pair of Wolves and Cardiff City follow before the end of September, while the Clarets face Manchester City and Chelsea – the last two league champions – in successive fixtures in October.
Fans will be facing back-to-back trips to London to face Tottenham and Arsenal in the run-up to Christmas but then face a more local festive programme with a home game on Boxing Day against North-West neighbours Everton.
West Ham are then in town for the final home game of 2018 before a short trip to face Roses rivals Huddersfield Town at the John Smith’s Stadium on New Year’s Day.
The Clarets’ scheduled mid-week league fixtures are high profile ones with a home game against Liverpool on Tuesday, December 4th, a trip to Manchester United on Tuesday, January 29th and another evening kick-off at Newcastle United at the end of February.
Dyche’s side then end the campaign with a run-in of four games against Chelsea, Manchester City, Everton and Arsenal – finishing against the Gunners at Turf Moor on Sunday, May 12th.
Fixtures are subject to change depending on television commitments, with the first batch of games to be chosen for live screening due to be announced early next month, and potential progress in the Europa League.
Should the Clarets make it through to the play-off round at the end of August, none of their opening four Premier League games will be played on a Saturday.
And qualification to the group stages of the Europa League would then have a knock-on effect for six weekend games from mid-September to mid-December.
Burnley return to European competition for the first time in 51 years when they start their season on Thursday, July 26th with a Europa League second qualifying round first leg tie.
And qualifying for Europe thanks to last season’s seventh-place finish in the Premier League – the Clarets’ highest league placing since 1974 – means they will start their Carabao Cup campaign in round three.
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