Newly Appointed Managers Handed Favourable Premier League Starts

The Premier League fixture list for next season appears to have been kind to the managers who have joined new clubs this summer, with Alex McLeish at Aston Villa, Martin Jol at Fulham and Andre Villas-Boas all receiving favourable opening matches to the 2011-12 campaign.

New Aston Villa manager Alex McLeish has been awarded with ‘kindest’ set of fixtures in the first two months according to WhoScored.com ratings, but will face a returning face to the league first up in Martin Jol and his Fulham side.

The schedule boost has come just when the Scot needed it most, with the former Birmingham manager not facing any of last season’s top 6 in his opening 7 games in charge. The appointment of McLeish was met by anger from much of the Villa support against the notion of hiring a manager who had failed to save their fiercest rivals from relegation on two separate occasions.

Villa are followed by London rivals Fulham and Chelsea, who also have a new men at the helm of their sides. Martin Jol and Andre Villas-Boas have been handed the second and third cushiest starts, in terms of the opening 7 games based upon the combined strength (or lack of strength) of their opponents using last season’s team ratings as a guide.

So called ‘easy starts’ can back fire on newly appointed managers and Messer’s McLeish, Jol and Villas-Boas will need to hit the ground running to win over their respective fan base, as slip ups are rarely tolerated early on in a new boss’s tenure.

Chelsea face two of the newly promoted sides in the Premier League in Norwich and Swansea early on, whilst Villa have not only avoided the ‘big teams’ but also the potential banana skin of going down to the league’s newest recruits.

The Blues will be hoping to gain a march on reigning champions Manchester United who have a significantly trickier opening to the campaign. The two sides at the top of the table last season will come to blows in week 5 of the Premier League, though United face Liverpool and Arsenal in weeks 2 and 3.

Another side who, like Chelsea, will be looking to take advantage of a somewhat advantageous fixture list in the first two months will be Manchester City. The Premier League’s big spenders face Swansea first up and Mancini will be desperate to avoid an upset in gameweek 1. City are the only side of last season’s top 6 who don’t face a fellow Champions League qualifier in the first 7 weeks of the season so expect an early surge from the FA Cup winners.

The following are rankings based on the WhoScored.com team ratings from the 2010-11 Premier League season. Newly promoted sides were all given an average rating of 6.50, equal to that of the lowest average rated side based on individual player ratings, Wolves.

In terms of the promoted teams, last season’s Championship winners QPR will undoubtedly be the most pleased with their start. Neil Warnock’s side have the 5th highest total opponents ranking from last season behind the aforementioned two, as well as Manchester City and Fulham.

Norwich and Swansea have more reason for concern with the former facing Manchester United and Chelsea early on, whilst the Swans come up against Chelsea, Arsenal and Manchester City. If either side are outside the bottom three after their treacherous starts than they may well have cause for celebration.

The league’s unluckiest clubs in terms of their opening fixtures may well be Tottenham and Bolton who both face an extraordinary 5 of last season’s top 7 in their first 7 fixtures. Spurs start with a tough opener at home to Everton before facing Manchester rivals United and City in consecutive weeks.

Owen Coyle’s Bolton not only play 5 of last season’s higher ranking clubs, but their other two fixtures in the first 7 games of the season include an away opener to newly promoted QPR before hosting the Championships second best side from last season, Norwich, in week 5.

Other standout fixture coincidences see Wigan face all of the three newly promoted sides in the opening three matches of the season. Elsewhere, West Bromwich Albion face reigning champions Manchester United first up, before travelling to last year’s runner-up Chelsea the following week.