Man City already handed crucial title advantage over Arsenal and Liverpool

Fixture release day is one that promises plenty but in reality is a reminder that every team must play each other home and away over 38 games. For Manchester City, they won't care who they play and when, confident in their ability to beat all 19 opponents in the 10 months starting on August 18.

City now know they will begin their latest title defence in West London at Chelsea, the fixture computer throwing up a narrative-filled reunion with Enzo Maresca straight off the bat. And they know they will end their season - hopefully as champions - also in West London, a couple of miles away at Fulham on the final day.

Could that be Pep Guardiola's final game in the Premier League - a picture-book farewell on the banks of the Thames? Or will he have lifted another title a few days earlier at home to Bournemouth in a potential Etihad Stadium goodbye? There is always the Champions League final in Munich a week later, too.

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To start the season at Chelsea makes the pre-season friendly against Maresca's men a fortnight earlier in Ohio all the more intriguing. It also comes after a Community Shield clash with Manchester United, offering Guardiola's side no time to ease their way into the campaign.

A home clash with newly-promoted Ipswich, who welcome Liverpool on the opening weekend, is a chance to flex their muscles a little, but facing the underdogs of the division while they are still full of confidence is hardly ideal. Five games in, and Arsenal are the visitors to the Etihad, after the opening Champions League fixtures and before a Carabao Cup opener.

City took just one point against the Gunners last season to make their title charge a little more difficult, and can do their latest bid no harm with an early blow over Mikel Arteta's side.

October is more straightforward as the expanded Champions League continues, although November begins with back-to-back trips to the South coast on successive weekends, with a possible European away trip sandwiched in between.

Return after the international break, and Tottenham await, followed by a showdown with Arne Slot's Liverpool for the first time. A trip to Crystal Palace and derby with United to begin December sees the pressure back on the league campaign, with a difficult assignment at Villa Park directly before Christmas.

2025 opens with long trips to Brentford and Ipswich, with the Portman Road clash the start of a nightmare seven-game run in the Premier League. Travelling over to Suffolk will take it out of City, with a home visit of Chelsea a week later, followed by a return fixture at Arsenal - potentially a title-defining fixture at the start of February.

A break for a potential Carabao Cup semi-final second leg and FA Cup fourth-round fixture follows before home clashes against Newcastle and Liverpool. Then, a midweek trip to the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium.

To round off this run, a visit to the City Ground, where Guardiola knows how difficult Nottingham Forest can be at home. City were lucky to win in Nottingham last season, and drew there the year before. Add another FA Cup game and potentially five Champions League fixtures in seven weeks, and the start of 2025 could make or break the season.

The benefit of that nightmare couple of months is that the run-in is far more presentable. United and Villa are the only truly difficult assignments on paper in the final ten games, and even the FA Cup semi-final comes before the Champions League semi-finals rather than directly after the quarter-finals.

Compare that to the run-ins of Liverpool and Arsenal, who are best-placed to challenge City for the title again. In Liverpool's final ten games, they face Everton, Tottenham, Chelsea, Brighton and - excitingly - Arsenal. The Gunners take on United, Chelsea, Newcastle and Liverpool in their last 11 games.

That Liverpool vs Arsenal clash at Anfield in May is three games before the end of the season, surely defining the title prospects of each side as well as City. The Blues are at Southampton that weekend, and if history is anything to go by, they will be well in the swing of winning games by that point.

If they can navigate January and February, the fixtures open up, whereas Liverpool and Arsenal only have more tougher games to contend with as the season reaches a conclusion.

Both Liverpool and Arsenal have bottled title races in recent years, for want of a better word. For City to know that at least one will drop points three games before the finale is a major boost, almost worth suffering through the start of the year for.