Manchester City start the post-Pep Guardiola era at home to Bournemouth on the opening day of the 2026/27 Premier League season. The fixture list lays out a campaign that pairs early high-profile matches with a challenging finish.

Before an appearance against Arsenal later in the calendar, City face a derby away at Manchester United in gameweek four and, two rounds after that, a trip to Andoni Iraola’s Liverpool. The schedule also has City travelling to the defending champions on the final weekend of November, followed two weeks later by what the original report describes as “an awkward reunion” when Maresca’s former employers come to the Etihad.

Arsenal visit in the final week of January. The final matchweek before March’s international break brings Manchester United to the Etihad, setting up another moment of note in the first half of the season. Across December and the New Year City have fixtures stacked around the festive period, including matches on Boxing Day and New Year’s Eve.

The run-in contains potentially tricky meetings with Chelsea, Liverpool and Aston Villa, interspersed with a trip to Ipswich Town. The original schedule also references an away day up at Sunderland on the final day of the season in May. The published list includes Ipswich Town away on 15 May and a final set of fixtures stretching into late May.

Live TV broadcasts will be chosen for select Premier League games; dates and kick-off times remain subject to change. All kick-off times are shown in Eastern Time (ET) and British Summer Time (BST) or Greenwich Mean Time (GMT), depending on the time of year.

Below the summary is the full fixture list with dates and kick-off times as published for the 2026/27 Premier League season.

Tijjani Reijnders has provided the clearest account yet of why Pep Guardiola chose to step away from Manchester City after the 2025–26 campaign. Reijnders said Guardiola told the squad he was “so tired” after years of relentless pursuit of excellence and that, in his view, the manager had reached a point where he did not have the energy for the routine task of informing players they would not play.

Reijnders called Guardiola a “very intense manager and a football genius,” admitting he felt it a “shame “to have only been able to work under the storied coach for a single season. He added: “It is his choice,” the former AC Milan midfielder reflected. “He no longer has the energy to disappoint guys when they are not in the squad or are not playing, he told us. After 10 years, it is enough. And I understand that. By ‘intense coach,’ I mean in a very positive light, by the way. He tries to get the absolute best out of a group of players.”

Guardiola will take on a short-term ambassador and adviser role with the City Football Group, and Reijnders suggested the manager may seek a different challenge if he returns to coaching, with international football an option. Guardiola has spoken of a long-standing ambition to one day manage at a World Cup and a continental championship, a dream he articulated as far back as 2018. The 55-year-old has previously dismissed the possibility of becoming Spain manager despite having represented his national team 47 times between 1992 and 2001. He has not given a formal reason for that position, but remains a proud Catalan who in recent years has supported the region’s separatist movement. Potential national teams mentioned in connection with his future include the United States, England, Italy, Mexico and the United Arab Emirates.

For Reijnders, a player who impressed at the FIFA Club World Cup and began his debut Premier League season as a starter, the campaign offered mixed returns. He scored four of his five Premier League goals in one month but then fell out of favour after February. He started only two of City’s final 15 Premier League matches, one after the title had already been conceded to Arsenal, and was unused in nine of those matches as Guardiola preferred Rodri and Bernardo Silva in central midfield, with Nico González also ahead in the pecking order.

Hans-Joachim Watzke, the long-serving Borussia Dortmund president who recruited Erling Haaland, has outlined a measured timeline for the Manchester City striker’s potential move to Real Madrid.

Watzke told Spanish publication AS that Haaland’s admiration for Real is clear but that an immediate transfer is unlikely. “I know very well what he thinks, and I can say that he certainly admires Real Madrid and would like to play for them in the future, but next season he will continue playing for Manchester City. Without a doubt,” he said. Watzke added: “He loves Real Madrid and he doesn’t hide it. I think he’ll be playing there in two or three years, but not that soon. He hasn’t committed to anyone, as his father has said.”

The comments come amid an overheated backdrop at Real Madrid, where presidential hopeful Enrique Riquelme named Haaland as a target if he were to replace Florentino Pérez. That pledge was emphatically rejected by the player’s representatives and by Manchester City, which denied any “contractual clause to enable it” and said it was even “considering legal action for the use of our player image in this context.”

Haaland’s agent, Rafaela Pimenta, told La Sexta in March: “Everything is going very well for him and we really have nothing to discuss about a transfer when everything is so good at City.” Pimenta has previously said she has never negotiated a player contract without a release clause, but City’s statement and her own admission to ESPN last month that the club gives her “no leverage” have cast doubt on that claim.

With a contract that extends for years at Manchester City, any transfer would require an extraordinary offer or the player pushing for a move. Watzke’s forecast — a switch within two to three years rather than immediately — reflects those practical constraints.

Elsewhere, the Real Madrid vote on June 7 will determine the club’s leadership, a result that could affect future managerial plans. José Mourinho is reported as the candidate to take a three-year managerial deal only if Pérez is re-elected, while Riquelme has named Jürgen Klopp as his choice. Watzke regards Klopp joining Real Madrid this summer as a non-starter.