The 2017/18 Premier League fixtures have been announced and Arsenal have the toughest start out of all the other top six teams.

Arsenal face Leicester at home on the opening day of the season, which isn’t too bad. However, their next two fixtures are both away against Stoke and Liverpool. The Gunners then face Bournemouth before traveling to Stamford Bridge to face the current title holders.

The pressure doesn’t ease up much either.

In fact, Arsenal’s run-in until the end of November is pretty tricky, with City and Spurs away and at home one after the other.

Let’s look at the stats, shall we?

If we award every team in the Premier League next season a score out of 20 (one being the ‘best’ i.e. Chelsea; 20 being the ‘worst’ i.e. Hudderfield), then add five points for home advantage, Arsenal score 142 for game weeks one to 12.

Here’s how the rest of the top six score:

  • Chelsea – 144
  • Tottenham – 156
  • Manchester City – 157
  • Liverpool – 162
  • Manchester United – 155

The higher the score, the better, as the ‘worse’ teams you’ll be facing.

As you can tell, Arsenal are screwed compared to Liverpool.

Meanwhile, Chelsea only have a slightly better score than the Gunners. However, they’ve proven they’re far better at dealing with high-pressure situations (minus the FA Cup final) than Arsene Wenger’s team.

Still, here’s hoping, eh?