Liverpool Will Play Championship Winners In Opening Premier League Fixture For Fourth Season In A Row

For the fourth season in a row, Liverpool will play the winners of the Championship in their opening Premier League fixture.

It was confirmed on Thursday morning that Jurgen Klopp's side will travel down to Craven Cottage on Saturday, August 6 to face newly promoted Fulham, who picked up 90 points last season to win England's second tier.

Premier League runners up Liverpool will also face Crystal Palace, Manchester United, Bournemouth and Newcastle during the opening month of the 2022/23 campaign, while Fulham play Wolves, Brentford and Arsenal.

As mentioned earlier, this will be the fourth time in a row that Liverpool have faced the Championship winners on the opening day.

The Reds got off to a winning start last season, as goals from Diogo Jota, Roberto Firmino and Mohamed Salah secured all three points against newly promoted Norwich at Carrow Road.

Liverpool also began their 2020/21 campaign with a memorable 4-3 win against Leeds.

And at the beginning of 2019, Jurgen Klopp's side strolled to victory after knocking four goals past Norwich at Anfield.

Jurgen Klopp, meanwhile, has yet to lose any of his previous six season openers, and he will be hoping to extend that record when they face Fulham at the start of August.

The German will be pleased to hear that the Premier League have scrapped the round of fixtures that usually take place on December 28 and 29.

The break will give players a rest following the World Cup in Qatar.

Back in December, Klopp criticised the football calendar around the winter period.

“It's crazy, it was always crazy and will always be. Everything is fine until you reach that Christmas time,” he said.

“[Matches on the] 26 and 28 is still not right but we have to accept that. We do that and it’s tradition and I get that but it’s not getting better. 

“We have two months ahead of us now which will be difficult to deal with. But the good news is that all teams have it the same.

"We have two games more [than most other teams] because of the Champions League, but the rest all the same. It's just 95 mins every three days, super intense runs and challenges all these kinds of things, really not easy but it's doable.”