A trip to Old Trafford is first up for Arsenal on the opening weekend of the 2025/26 Premier League season. Mikel Arteta’s team will go head-to-head with Manchester United at 4:30pm BST on Sunday, August 17.
Regardless of United’s struggles over the past few years, it is still an extremely tricky game for Arsenal but one they can certainly achieve all three points in. Leeds United, Liverpool, Nottingham Forest, Manchester City and Newcastle United then follow in their next five Premier League matches.
As things stand right now, Arsenal’s opening league game and their final one are the only fixtures where the date and time is set in stone. The reason for this is because in the past few seasons the Premier League have elected to announce their TV selections for the first round of games as soon as the full fixture list is published, with matchweek 38 always seeing all ten games played at the same time.
Arsenal fans will have to bide their time when it comes to receiving confirmation of dates and times for their remaining matches in the season. An announcement from the Premier League is expected on Wednesday, July 9 for their TV picks between matchweek two and matchweek six that take place in August and September.
The north London club are sure to feature on TV during that period as they have Leeds United, Liverpool, Nottingham Forest, Manchester City and Newcastle United in the schedule.
While we wait for official confirmation from the Premier League regarding the TV selections, one Arsenal game on course to move regardless of whether it is on TV or not is the home fixture against Crystal Palace in October. The game is currently in the calendar for Saturday, October 25 but it looks set to be played the following day due to the Eagles’ participation in Europe.
Oliver Glasner’s team will be playing in the Europa League next season as a result of winning the FA Cup final and that means they have European matches on a Thursday to look forward to. Crystal Palace will subsequently be playing a lot of Thursday-Sunday football next term, with the encounter at the Emirates Stadium currently down to be played two days after the south London club have played their third Europa League league phase game.
The above will all be dependent on Crystal Palace getting the green light from UEFA to play in Europe next season given the multi-club ownership rules. As John Textor’s Eagle Football company hold a 43% stake in Palace and he also has a majority stake in French club Lyon, the FA Cup winners are in danger of being kicked out of the Europa League.
Aston Villa and Nottingham Forest are the other two teams set to play Thursday-Sunday football next season due to their qualification for the Europa League and Conference League respectively. However, Arsenal’s games against both don’t come directly after European matches so there is no need to move unless selected for live TV coverage.
