2013-14 Fixture List Released - A Quick Peek

The Premier League released the fixture list for the upcoming season, and we ran a cursory eye over Everton's schedule. Here are some highlights -

• The Toffees start the season away at Carrow Road, taking on Norwich City on Aug 17th. The home opener is a week later as West Bromwich Albion come visiting. They round off August with a trip to Wales to take on Swansea City.
• September also has three games, when Chelsea and Newcastle United come visiting, with a trip to West Ham United sandwiched in between. The team will then have a chance to frustrate Manchester City again, before playing Hull City and Aston Villa as well.
• November is when the schedule really starts hotting up, starting with Tottenham Hotspur and Crystal Palace before the first Merseyside Derby of the year on November 23rd, at Goodison. The month is rounded off with a trip to Stoke City under new manager Owen Coyle.
• The holiday month starts with a baptism of fire, traveling to Old Trafford to take on old boss David Moyes and his Manchester United team, before hosting Arsenal four days later. Swansea, Sunderland, Southampton and then Stoke complete the holiday schedule.
• January 28th sees the return leg of the Merseyside Derby at Liverpool, and games against the top sides are equally distributed in the following months. City is the last home game of the year on May 3rd, and the season ends the next weekend away to Hull.

All in all it looks like a very balanced schedule, that could have been much, much harder. Most of the games against the expected top half of the table are well spaced out except for the United-Arsenal duo in December. New manager Roberto Martinez is going to have a few games to get the side ticking and into top gear, which is just about the best news Everton fans could have asked for.

What are your thoughts? Let us know in the comments.