The eagerly-awaited fixture list for next season's games will be released on Wednesday, with a lot of clubs eager to avoid one another on the opening weekend.
Fans and players of the Premier League are heavily anticipating the official fixture list of the upcoming 2015-16 campaign.
With the season coming to an end only weeks ago, the dawn of the new season is not far away. West Ham will be the first club in action as their battle for the UEFA Europa League will start through the qualifiers in the start of July, which means about five weeks from the first game of the season until the first league game of the season, a quite rare feat.
The fixtures of the upcoming season will be released at 9am on Wednesday, although all weekend games will be scheduled at 3pm on Saturday, subject to change for TV broadcasting purposes.
Last year, the most noteworthy result on the opening weekend certainly was Swansea's 2-1 win at Old Trafford, the first part of the Swans' double triumph against Manchester United. Other top guns like Chelsea (3-1 away at Burnley), Arsenal (2-1 at home against Crystal Palace), Manchester City (2-0 away at Newcastle)and Liverpool (2-1 at home against Southampton) more or less cruised to the first three points of the season.
Chelsea the ones to evade
Historically speaking, reigning champions Chelsea have been the hardest side to face on the opening day, with a comprehensive record of 15 wins from 23 attempts. This is closely linked to the fact that their former hero and star man Frank Lampard has scored eight times on the opening weekend, more than any other player exceptNewcastle legendary forward Alan Shearer, who's level. Additionally, Petr Cech has kept seven clean sheets on such occasions, more than any other shotstopper.
On the other hand, Premier League newcomers AFC Bournemouth,Norwich City and Watford are statistically going to face a struggle on the weekend commencing the 8th of August. Promoted sides have only won a rather underwhelming 13 of the 68 opening day fixtures in the Premier League era to date.
QPR facing transfer ban after Sandro shambles
The midfielder spent four years at Tottenham Hotspur, but the internal London switch to QPR last summer is the platform of a rather unusual problem for both the player and his current club Queens Park Rangers
The source of the problem was paperwork related to the 2014 transfer. Whilst the work permit itself was granted successfully, it does not apply without an updated visa, which QPR failed to apply for related to the transfer.
This basically means that Sandro has played the entire season without a work permit, without either the club or the player being aware of the issue until May 7th by the Home Office. In the short term, this meant the player being pulled out of the squads for the rest of the season, but the long-term consequences might be even more severe.
Transfer trouble
For now, QPR have had their license to sign non-EU players suspended, whilst Sandro himself is finding himself in his nativeBrazil. "It has given QPR 20 working days – the first of which was last Thursday – to make written submissions in response to the suspension" writes The Guardian. The Home Office would then have a further 20 working days to decide about the permit.
Whether the Home Office takes the hard line and completely denies Sandro the permit is yet to be seen, but nonetheless there will be an issue related to his contract. After all, the physical midfielder is on £50.000 a week - a significant lot for a Premier League club, let alone one in the Championship like QPR - with two more years to go on the deal.
QPR have, however, not broken any rules on solely football matters, as the 26-year-old was properly registered for playing in the Premier League, so neither the club or the player can be retrospectively punished in that respect.
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