Most Premier League sides will be contesting their final pre-season friendlies of the summer this weekend.
Manchester City and Arsenal also meet in the FA Community Shield on Sunday.
The last round of warm-up games will be of assistance to Fantasy Premier League (FPL) managers.
Firstly, it’s the last chance to see how fit and firing players are before the start of the season. Kevin De Bruyne (£10.5m), for instance, hasn’t featured in any pre-season match so far and any hope of him starting against Burnley on Friday likely hinges on him getting some serious game-time at Wembley.
And then there are the line-up clues for the opening weekend of 2023/24. Premier League managers usually (but not always!) name something resembling their strongest XIs in their final friendly, giving a hint at what we can expect in Gameweek 1.
Here’s who the top-flight teams are facing over the weekend and when, with the times provided in BST.
Chelsea, incidentally, are the only Premier League side without an advertised match over the next three days.
Saturday 5 August
Bayer Leverkusen v West Ham (12:30)
Bochum v Luton (12:30 + 15:15)
Man Utd v Lens (12:45)
Sheff Utd v Stuttgart (12:45)
Wolves v Rennes (12:45)
Fulham v Hoffenheim (13:00)
Mainz v Burnley (14:30)
Eintracht Frankfurt v Nott’m Forest (14:30)
Everton v Sporting (15:00)
Newcastle v Fiorentina (15:30)
Brentford v Lille (16:00)
Bournemouth v Lorient (17:00)
Crystal Palace v Lyon (17:30)
Valencia v Aston Villa (20:00)
Sunday 6 August
Spurs v Shakhtar Donetsk (14:00)
Brighton v Rayo Vallecano (15:00)
Arsenal v Man City (15:30)
Man Utd v Athletic Bilbao (16:00)
Newcastle v Villarreal (16:00)
Monday 7 August
Liverpool v Darmstadt (19:00)
WHAT TO WATCH OUT FOR
As well as De Bruyne, there are players such as Nathan Ake (£5.0m), Oleksandr Zinchenko (£5.0m), Fabian Schar (£5.0m), Solly March (£6.5m), Lewis Dunk (£5.0m), Taiwo Awoniyi (£6.5m) and Dwight McNeil (£5.5m) who have injury concerns of varying severity hanging over them going into the weekend.
Expect FPL flags to appear next to their names if they do miss out.
The composition of Liverpool’s front three, Aston Villa’s back four and Brighton and Hove Albion’s attack have been much-discussed topics over the summer, with this being our final chance to glean any clues ahead of Gameweek 1.
Who deputises for the injured Gabriel Jesus (£8.0m) at Wembley may signpost Mikel Arteta’s intentions for next Saturday. Will it be Eddie Nketiah (£5.5m), Leandro Trossard (£7.0m) or even Kai Havertz (£7.5m)?
We’ll also be much closer to knowing which bargain-bin Fantasy assets are likely to start for their teams next weekend. Jordan Beyer (£4.0m), Mads Andersen (£4.0m), Amari’i Bell (£4.0m), George Baldock (£4.0m) and Marvelous Nakamba (£4.5m) already look good for competitive game-time in 2023/24 – can anyone else join them?
We’ll have Scout Notes to come on all the pre-season friendlies to come on Saturday, Sunday and Monday. Our pre-season minutes tracker will also be updated every night over the weekend.
