The start to Burnley’s 2025/26 season may look daunting on paper, but the stats tell a slightly different story.
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Burnley's daunting start, Scott Parker connection and Christmas stinker: The mai...](https://www.burnleyexpress.net/sport/football/burnleys-daunting-start-scott-parker-connection-and-christmas-stinker-the-main-takeaways-from-202526-fixture-list-5182318 "Burnley's daunting start, Scott Parker connection and Christmas stinker: The main takeaways from 2025/26 fixture list")
In fact, out of the three newly-promoted teams, Burnley’s boast the easiest opening five games of the campaign.
Only three sides in the top flight, meanwhile, face an easier start to the season.
The Opta Power Rankings rate a frankly enormous number of teams (15,000+) across the globe based on a system that scores the current strongest side 100 and the weakest zero. Those scores are then used to rank the teams in order of strongest to weakest.
Focusing on the Premier League, Opta looked at the average Power Rating of each team’s opponents to measure fixture difficulty.
These range from Liverpool (the number one team in the world with an Opta Power Rating of 100 and therefore the hardest to play against) to Sunderland (ranked 123rd in the world with an Opta Power Rating of 82.3 and therefore the ‘easiest’ team to play against in England’s top flight).
Scott Parker's Burnley side claimed promotion from the Championship last season alongside Daniel Farke's Leeds United and Sunderland, led by Regis Le Bris. Picture: Getty Imagesplaceholder image
Scott Parker's Burnley side claimed promotion from the Championship last season alongside Daniel Farke's Leeds United and Sunderland, led by Regis Le Bris. Picture: Getty Images
While Burnley face Tottenham and Manchester United in two of their first three fixtures, we have to remember last season those two sides finished 17th and 15th respectively.
Scott Parker’s side face reigning champions Liverpool at the start of September, which is unquestionably their most difficult game out of their first five. But there’s also fixtures against Sunderland and Nottingham Forest to throw into the mix.
Looking elsewhere in the division, Ruben Amorim may be under some early pressure as the numbers dictate that his Manchester United side have been given the hardest start to the season.
At the other end of the scale, Aston Villa and Crystal Palace have been given the kindest run.
Fixture difficulty
Manchester United – 94.6
Arsenal – 94
Bournemouth – 93.7
Everton – 93.4
Liverpool – 93.3
Wolves – 93.1
Newcastle United – 93.1
Nottingham Forest – 92.7
Manchester City – 92.7
Brighton – 92.4
Tottenham – 92.4
Fulham – 92.3
Sunderland – 91.9
Chelsea – 91.3
Brentford – 91.2
Burnley – 91.1
West Ham – 91.0
Crystal Palace – 90.9
Aston Villa – 90.9
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