FOR most followers of newly-promoted Premier League clubs, attention invariably gravitates towards marquee dates at the likes of Old Trafford, Anfield and the Emirates Stadium on fixture release day - when domestic football returns into focus for one big day in June.
Leeds United supporters will have been no different on Wednesday morning. Even if their more seasoned observers might have quickly switched their attentions to something else. Daniel Farke certainly will have.
The savvy United manager will have been looking for potential minefields. Those three-game weeks which maybe take in a couple of big-six contenders, perhaps even three if you are unlucky. And when they are timed.
Leeds have previous on that count.
Former Leeds United CEO Angus Kinnear, pictured with ex-sporting director Victor Orta. Photo by Michael Steele/Getty Images.placeholder image
Former Leeds United CEO Angus Kinnear, pictured with ex-sporting director Victor Orta. Photo by Michael Steele/Getty Images.
Back in 2021-22, United conceded an aggregate of 14 goals en route to successive losses against Chelsea, Manchester City and Arsenal when they handed out presents galore in the festive month of December.
Fast forward to February 2022 when Leeds were also floored after a bruising triple-whammy of ‘big-six’ fixtures – and defeats – against Manchester United, Liverpool and Spurs in consecutive matches, which proved psychologically wounding and ended in the departure of Marcelo Bielsa.
In late season, the fixture list was not exactly benign either. Leeds suffered triple setbacks to City, Arsenal and Chelsea and only stayed up by the skin of their teeth. They lost all 12 matches against the so-called ‘big six.’
In that regard, Leeds’ new fixture itinerary in 2025-26 looks kinder in that regard, although there is one notable exception.
Daniel Farke can expect a difficult start to life back in the Premier League.placeholder image
Daniel Farke can expect a difficult start to life back in the Premier League.
It comes in late November and the start of December when Leeds are due to face City, Chelsea and champions Liverpool in the space of seven hazardous-looking days.
An opener against a rejuvenated Everton side followed by a trip to Arsenal and home game with another Champions League side in Newcastle United also constitutes a testing start on paper.
United's Monday night opener on August 18 is also noteworthy for former chief executive officer Angus Kinnear - now working in that role at Everton - making an instant return to Leeds after leaving in May.
Successive appointments against champions Liverpool, Manchester United and Newcastle either side of the new year will also represent an examination as will the month of February.
But in the round, Farke might just reflect that the schedule could have been nastier, in truth.
For any top-flight newcomer, home form will be particularly important as the German will know full well.
In their first season back at the top table in 2020-21, Leeds’s home form was the seventh best in the division and none of the big six of Liverpool, City, United, Arsenal, Spurs or Chelsea won there. It was the bedrock of an outstanding return to the Premier League.
As with 22-23, Leeds will start a top-flight campaign on home soil. That season presented Leeds with a window of opportunity on the home front ahead of the World Cup break in early winter - and featured games against the likes of promoted sides in Fulham and Bournemouth.
It was ultimately passed up in a campaign when United never got going and returned to the second tier.
In 25-26, it is the run-in when opportunity surely knocks in that regard for Leeds, who took 58 points at Elland Road last season.
After hosting Pep Guardiola’s City at the end of February, Leeds’ visitors before season’s end will be Sunderland, Brentford, Wolves, Burnley and Brighton.
Back-to-back home games with Chelsea and Liverpool in front of sell-out Elland Road crowds will provide juicy appetisers for the renewal of Roses hostilities with the red side of Manchester on January 3. Remember the date, unless it is changed, that is.
It tantalisingly offers a delicious rewind to events of that day across the Pennines at the start of 2010 when Jermaine Beckford scored ‘that’ goal to inflict a first-ever FA Cup third-round defeat upon the hosts during Sir Alex Ferguson’s reign at Old Trafford.
It also evokes memories of some powerhouse winter jousts against the Red Devils in Leeds in the early noughties, with Leeds’ Christmas Eve win over their bitter foes in 1995 taking pride of place.
Another date which will be ringed is that of January 24, 2025.
It denotes when Leeds are scheduled to call in for the first time - cup draws permitting - to Everton's new 53,000 capacity Hill Dickinson Stadium on Bramley-Moore Dock. The stadium was constructed at an estimated cost of over £750million.