2023/24 Fixtures

[Risso]

I think you're contradicting yourself a bit there Dave. You said they have "no say" other than kick off times once the fixtures are released. They're clearly consulted a lot more than that, as the statement fom the bloke in charge says. Obviously no policing, no football match. Their insistence on moving the date of the Arsenal v Chelsea game at the back end of this season just gone shows the influence they have.

[Drummond]

I guess when they are first compiled- the police won't make games be moved, but clearly can and do make 'suggestions' as the season wears on.

[dave.woodhall]

I think you're contradicting yourself a bit there Dave. You said they have "no say" other than kick off times once the fixtures are released. They're clearly consulted a lot more than that, as the statement fom the bloke in charge says. Obviously no policing, no football match. Their insistence on moving the date of the Arsenal v Chelsea game at the back end of this season just gone shows the influence they have.

Sorry for my lack of grammatical perfection and clarity. The police do not insist in advance that certain fixtures don't be put on certain days but they do talk about generalisations, as do other agencies. Then once the fixtures are released they issue advice as and when required.

[hipkiss92]

Well it obviously does happen. Look at the opening and final day fixtures for the last ten years, and then work at the odds of Man City, Man Utd, Liverpool and Chelsea never playing each other in those fixtures.

There are 190 potential fixture combinations any given weekend, 15 of which could be a combination of the 'Big Six', so around a 7% chance of them being paired together. Not that farfetched then that they wouldn't appear together on the final day of the season then.

Maths aside, it probably is likely that the Premier League / Sky etc. would keep the 'bigger' fixtures away from first / last days, boxing day etc. Guaranteed big TV audiences anyway, more excitable crowds etc., so why would they put the 'crown jewel' fixtures so to speak on those weekends.

[Risso]

There are 190 potential fixture combinations any given weekend, 15 of which could be a combination of the 'Big Six', so around a 7% chance of them being paired together. Not that farfetched then that they wouldn't appear together on the final day of the season then.

Maths aside, it probably is likely that the Premier League / Sky etc. would keep the 'bigger' fixtures away from first / last days, boxing day etc. Guaranteed big TV audiences anyway, more excitable crowds etc., so why would they put the 'crown jewel' fixtures so to speak on those weekends.

That maths is well wonky mate. If everything was left completely to chance, and you picked one team at random, say Arsenal, they'd have a 1 in 19 chance of having a specific team drawn against them, ie about 5%. To have one of the other "Big 6" would be five chances out of 19, ie about 25%.

[hipkiss92]

There are 190 potential fixture combinations any given weekend, 15 of which could be a combination of the 'Big Six', so around a 7% chance of them being paired together. Not that farfetched then that they wouldn't appear together on the final day of the season then.

Maths aside, it probably is likely that the Premier League / Sky etc. would keep the 'bigger' fixtures away from first / last days, boxing day etc. Guaranteed big TV audiences anyway, more excitable crowds etc., so why would they put the 'crown jewel' fixtures so to speak on those weekends.

That maths is well wonky mate. If everything was left completely to chance, and you picked one team at random, say Arsenal, they'd have a 1 in 19 chance of having a specific team drawn against them, ie about 5%. To have one of the other "Big 6" would be five chances out of 19, ie about 25%.

But you're not picking the odds of Arsenal picking a big six team, you're picking the odds of one game on a particular matchday being a pair of two big six sides. There are 15 possible combinations of games between the top-six, out of a possible combination of 190 games between all sides in the league.

[jwarry]

For the first time since 1980 I really don’t care who we play in our early fixtures because I know we are going to give them a game and I expect a win!

[Percy McCarthy]

For the first time since 1980 I really don’t care who we play in our early fixtures because I know we are going to give them a game and I expect a win!

I was like that in 81 and we lost 1-0 at home to Notts County.

[algy]

There are 190 potential fixture combinations any given weekend, 15 of which could be a combination of the 'Big Six', so around a 7% chance of them being paired together. Not that farfetched then that they wouldn't appear together on the final day of the season then.

Maths aside, it probably is likely that the Premier League / Sky etc. would keep the 'bigger' fixtures away from first / last days, boxing day etc. Guaranteed big TV audiences anyway, more excitable crowds etc., so why would they put the 'crown jewel' fixtures so to speak on those weekends.

That maths is well wonky mate. If everything was left completely to chance, and you picked one team at random, say Arsenal, they'd have a 1 in 19 chance of having a specific team drawn against them, ie about 5%. To have one of the other "Big 6" would be five chances out of 19, ie about 25%.

But you're not picking the odds of Arsenal picking a big six team, you're picking the odds of one game on a particular matchday being a pair of two big six sides. There are 15 possible combinations of games between the top-six, out of a possible combination of 190 games between all sides in the league.

Not every combination is allowable, e.g. you couldn't have an opening day set of fixtures of:
Aston Villa vs Arsenal
Aston Villa vs Brentford
Aston Villa vs Chelsea
Aston Villa vs Nottm Forest
Aston Villa vs Crystal Palace
Aston Villa vs Man City
Aston Villa vs Man Utd
Aston Villa vs Tottenham Hotspur
Aston Villa vs Wolves
West Ham vs Aston Villa

... you know Arsenal are going to play a game in the opening set of fixtures, as will every other side in the Scab 6.  So you're probably looking at more of a 5:19 (?) chance of two of that set of teams playing eachother on any given round of games.

[Risso]

But you're not picking the odds of Arsenal picking a big six team, you're picking the odds of one game on a particular matchday being a pair of two big six sides. There are 15 possible combinations of games between the top-six, out of a possible combination of 190 games between all sides in the league.

Arsenal are one of the Big 6 though, and we're calculating the chances of there being one game between ANY of them. The chances of there being one game between two teams who make up 30% of the league is very much NOT 7%. That's nonsense sorry, you're just calculating the wrong thing entirely.

[four fornicholl]

My head hurts

[Lucky Eddie]

How come we only ever got fixtured against smallest heath in autumn and spring then?

[PeterWithesShin]

How come we only ever got fixtured against smallest heath in autumn and spring then?

Since they came up in 02 we've played league games in every month apart from August and May.

[Andy_Lochhead_in_the_air]

Anybody know how fixtures were compiled years ago ?
I can't find anything on google.
I guess Alan Hardaker and his staff would be sat round a table in Lytham St Annes with pen and paper.
Would Sir William McGregor have had some input in the very early days ? "Let's play Preston early before they get into their stride".

[dave.woodhall]

Anybody know how fixtures were compiled years ago ?
I can't find anything on google.
I guess Alan Hardaker and his staff would be sat round a table in Lytham St Annes with pen and paper.
Would Sir William McGregor have had some input in the very early days ? "Let's play Preston early before they get into their stride".

Pen and paper it was. Then again, with twelve clubs and eight months it wasn't that difficult.