Crystal Palace will start the new Premier League at home at Selhurst Park as they entertain newly promoted Huddersfield Town on August 12.
Sam Allardyce guided the Eagles to Premier League safety last year as they beat Chelsea, Arsenal and Liverpool en-route to a miraculous survival bid. But the former Sunderland and England manager then retired unexpectedly a month ago, leaving owner Steve Parish to find yet another manager for the sixth time in seven years.
But with the manager search still continuing at SE25, the more pressing matters in the past couple of days have been the release of the new fixtures.
Palace won’t be the on the road at the beginning of the season as they entertain Huddersfield. And when the Premier League comes to a conclusion in May they will have comfort of having a home game against West Brom to see out the Premier League season.
Other notable fixtures
The Eagles will get to pick their wits against the Champions again on October 14 as they welcome Antonio Conte’s Chelsea to Selhurst Park.
And with Brighton & Hove Albion coming up from the Championship last season, the first time the two rivals will get to lock horns will be near the end of November as Palace will head to the AMEX, in what should be a entertaining game between two sides that have not seen eye to eye for a long time.
As with Premier League football, the Christmas period is always a busy time. The Eagles face a tricky festive period as they face Arsenal at home on Boxing Day before following that up with the visit of Pep Guardiola’s Manchester City.
As the season moves into the New Year, Palace will be hoping they will not be in another relegation fight. And with March looking a tricky one on paper the Selhurst Park faithful will be hoping games against Manchester United, Chelsea and Liverpool will all be less nervous than what they were this season.
Towards the end of the season the stand-out game for Palace is the return fixture of Brighton, who will travel South-east London on the 14th April.