Newcastle United will face Aston Villa, Liverpool and Leeds United in their opening three Premier League fixtures and the Magpies need quality additions through the door before the season starts
Ah, fixture release day. When all 20 Premier League clubs learn when they are going to play each other home and away. Can you really read too much into it?
In this case, yes. If the 2025-26 edition has taught us anything, it’s that Newcastle United really are going to have to hit the ground running.
Newcastle simply can’t afford to sleepwalk into the new campaign when the Magpies face Aston Villa at Villa Park on the opening day, champions Liverpool at St James’ Park the following week and newly-promoted Leeds United at a bouncing Elland Road before August is even out.
The opening day clash at Villa Park, in particular, will be a game that both sides will look at as a potential tone setter.
Aston Villa need no added motivation, after the Villains fumed over the disallowed final-day goal against Manchester United last month, which would have sent Unai Emery’s side above Newcastle in the live table, while the black-and-whites will be desperate to lay down a marker at an unhappy hunting ground.
Newcastle, after all, have won just once at Villa Park since 2014 and the players need no reminding of that. As Dan Burn put it a couple of months ago: “We either batter them at home or they batter us at their place.”
This squad will quickly be tested and that is before the Champions League campaign even gets under way in September. Newcastle will go on to travel to Bournemouth, Brentford and Everton just a few days after their first, fourth and fifth European games. For context, Newcastle picked up just two points from a possible nine in those fixtures last season.
There is also the small matter of the first Wear-Tyne derby in the Premier League in more than a decade following Newcastle’s sixth European match in December. To round things off, Newcastle travel to Anfield a few days after playing their final league phase game in January.
This group made history – ending Newcastle’s 70-year wait for a major domestic trophy before securing a top-five finish just a few months later – but they will clearly need help to be able to fight on four fronts and avoid the situation that stretched the squad to breaking point a couple of seasons ago. Even captain Bruno Guimaraes has readily admitted: “We have to add more. I don’t know how many players, but we have to.”
Aston Villa faced a similar challenge last season, of course. The Villains admittedly pushed the envelope with the highest wage to turnover ratio in the Premier League, which could yet leave the club in a vulnerable PSR situation that Newcastle rightly never want to be in again, but Unai Emery’s team reached the Champions League quarter-finals and the FA Cup semi-finals while also taking the race for the top five to the final day with the help of a deeper squad.
When Aston Villa faced Newcastle, for instance, just a few days after beating PSG back in April, Emery made four changes without weakening his side as Ian Maatsen, Tyrone Mings, Marco Asensio and Ollie Watkins all came into the starting line-up.
The Aston Villa boss then had the luxury of introducing Amadou Onana, Jacob Ramsey, Ross Barkley, Donyell Malen and Marcus Rashford from the bench. Ramsey immediately played a key role in Aston Villa’s third goal, as Newcastle tired, while Onana added a fourth a couple of minutes later to round off a convincing 4-1 win.
Newcastle still managed to clinch that final Champions League spot ahead of Aston Villa and it is worth stressing that the Magpies have a starting XI that can go toe-to-toe with anyone in the Premier League on their day.
However, in a window where Liverpool, Manchester City, Chelsea and Manchester United have already made significant early moves, Newcastle have to ensure they get quality new additions through the door in the weeks ahead. Fixture release day was a timely reminder of that. If one was even needed.
