The Potter era to begin away at Watford

For the second season running, Brighton and Hove Albion will kick off their Premier League campaign at sunny Watford.

Graham Potter’s first competitive game in charge will take place at Vicarage Road on Saturday 10th August. We can say that with near certainty as no television company is going to want to show the Hornets v the Seagulls on the opening day unless they’ve been sniffing far too much glue over the summer.

The new Albion boss will be hoping that the trip to Hertfordshire goes better than last year’s curtain raiser. Brighton gave their worst performance of the first half of the season in going down 2-0 against Javi Gracia’s side in a result that really set the tone for what was to come on the road over the majority of the campaign.

Potter’s first game at the Amex will come a week later against West Ham United. Brighton have developed something of a hold in this fixture since promotion to the Premier League and are yet to taste defeat against the Hammers so far.

They’ve won three and drawn one of the meetings with Glenn Murray in particular enjoying coming up against West Ham having scored four in four. If Murray and Brighton can continue that excellent record, then Potter should have every chance of getting off to a winning start at home.

Those two fixtures are part of a relatively gentle start to the campaign. Southampton at home, Burnley at home and Newcastle United away all come before the end of September, giving the new manager plenty of opportunities to show that Tony Bloom’s decision to dispense with Chris Hughton was the right one.

The last game of the season is frankly a horror show with a trip to Burnley. For many, the final fixture involves a great deal of celebration and an overnight stay yet there is nothing appealing about going to Burnley for a day, let alone a weekend.

It’s also one of the toughest places in the top flight to go and get a result. Hopefully, the Albion won’t therefore need to pick up points there in order to survive should this season not work out as well as we all hope it well.

Boxing Day will see the Albion make the trip to Tottenham Hotspur. Given that transport in and out of their new stadium is an absolute nightmare when a regular train service is running, playing there on a day when there will be presumably no public transport sounds like a shambles waiting to happen.

The first meeting with Crystal Palace will take place on Saturday 14th December at Selhurst Park with the return on Saturday 29th February.

Should that clash in Sussex not be moved, it will be the first time the Eagles have visited the Amex on a Saturday since the stadium opened. Hopefully, Sussex Police will be able to deal with it without resorting to claiming Palace fans turned up with knives and knuckledusters.

Brighton’s first game with one of the big six is away at champions Manchester City on August 31st. Chelsea away takes place on September 28th and is followed a week later by Spurs at home on October 5th with Manchester United away on November 9th.

The Albion will travel to Liverpool and Arsenal in the space of three days with the trip to Anfield on November 30th being followed by a midweek jaunt to the Emirates on December 3rd.

Chelsea visit the Amex on New Year’s Day which should be fun for all of us suffering the effects from the night before and Arsenal at home is on the weekend of March 14th.

Potter will hope to have the Albion in mid table by the end of March as April is a ridiculously tough month. It starts with Manchester United at the Amex on the 4th, newly promoted Norwich City away on the 11th – where Maty Ryan will hopefully not score two own goals – and home games with Liverpool and Manchester City on the 18th and 25th respectively.

The final home match of the season will see Newcastle United visit on May 9th whilst the away games at newcomers Sheffield United and Aston Villa take place on Saturday October 19th and Saturday February 22nd.

As always, these are only provisional dates as once Sky and BT Sports get their hands on the fixture list you can expect it to be decimated.

There is also the prospect of one game having to be moved to accommodate the Premier League’s newly introduced winter break, where every team will have a staggered two-week break in January or early February.

The club have flagged up Watford at home on Saturday February 8th as the fixture must likely to be moved to a new midweek date.

Brighton’s full Premier League fixture list can be viewed here on the official Albion website.