I’ve had it in my head for a while now that we keep getting a raw deal with the fixtures.
Whenever I think of first, last and boxing day fixtures, it was my belief that we seem to be away from home all the time.
Anyway, I decided to look at the data from the last 5 seasons to see if my feelings had any sort of validity.
Order of fixtures is as follows:
Home
Boxing Day
Last
14/15 -
Newcastle (A)
WBA (A)
Southampton (H)
15/16 -
WBA (A)
Sunderland (H)
Swansea (A)
16/17 -
Sunderland (H)
Hull (A)
Watford (A)
17/18 -
Brighton (A)
Newcastle (A) (27th)
Southampton (A)
18/19 -
Arsenal (A)
Leicester (A)
Brighton (A)
First game
Home: 1
Away: 4
Boxing Day:
Home: 1
Away: 4
Last game
Home: 1
Away: 4
Total
Home: 3
Away: 12
That’s one lob sided set of results. It also means that United were at home for 12 and away for just 3 of these fixtures.
It will be interesting to see how tomorrow’s fixtures turn out and if this trend continues.