The new Barclays Premier League fixture has been trending since its release on Tuesday morning as former Manchester United midfielder Quinton Fortune has described United’s opening five fixtures as “unbelievable.”
Defending champions United travels to Swansea in the opening weekend of the new season, beginning August 17; followed by a mouthwatering clash with Chelsea at Old Trafford, the trip to Merseyside against Liverpool, a home game against newly-promoted Crystal Palace and the trip to Manchester City in the space of five weeks.
New manager David Moyes has got a tough line up of matches in these fixtures, which could as well culminate the beginning of the battle for Premier League supremacy.
However, former South Africa international Fortune believes Chelsea manager Jose Mourinho should be more worried about the second weekend showdown at Old Trafford than getting obsessed with Moyes.
“Mourinho has been boasting about his record against United,” Fortune told MUTV. “He always brings it up.
“But it is a different manager, with a different style of play. If David Moyes brings the same desire and fighting spirit that he had at Everton I am sure Mourinho will find it tough. He is playing a completely different United and I am sure he is worried about that.”
Swansea remains the only team not to have scored a single goal against Everton during Moyes’ reign at Goodison Park, but that cannot be said of Mourinho’s Chelsea, who has managed the most games against Moyes’ Everton in the Premier League not to have lost a single encounter.
Palace has lost both encounter with Everton under Moyes, but their return to the top tier could prove different. Against City, Moyes has a 55% win record over the boys from the Blue half of Manchester (W12, D4, L6), while the Merseyside Reds has rather been difficult for the Scot (W3, D6, L12).
