Newcastle ended their 70-year-long trophy drought in 2024-25 and will compete in the Champions League next season.

The Magpies, who have won their last three opening day fixtures, will travel to Villa Park to face Unai Emery's Villans on Saturday, 16th August, with kick-off to take place at 12.30pm (BST). The

Anyway, from a more neutral stance, Opta has ranked the difficulty of the first five PL fixtures for all 20 Premier League clubs . According to Opta’s model this is how it ranks in difficulty from top to bottom… Newcastle United ranked as only having the seventh most difficult opening five fixtures.