The wait is almost over. Newcastle United fans will find out their Premier League schedule tomorrow when the fixture list for the 2023/24 campaign is released.
It does not seem that long ago that the curtain came down on a fabulous season for the Magpies, finishing fourth and securing Champions League football once again. But attention is now turning to the coming season.
Who will they kick off against this time round and will it be at St James' Park? Four of the last five Premier League campaigns have started on home soil, and four of the last five have also been against London opposition.
Eddie Howe will be hoping the new season can start in the same manner as the last one, when a 2-0 win over Nottingham Forest on gameweek one laid the foundation for an unbeaten four-game start. He will probably already know who they will face when the season kicks off on August 12, but Newcastle United supporters will have to wait until 9am tomorrow to find out when the fixture list is made public.
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However, the Premier League has explained how the fixtures are actually put together. It was a process that began soon after the 2022/23 season ended.
Compiler Glenn Thompson uses Atos, an international IT services company, to produce the Premier League fixture lists and he has given fans an insight into what goes on and the factors they take into consideration.
He said: "We start when we know the composition of each division, so after the last Football League play-off. We place each club in a pairing grid, which defines the dates they will be at home.
"For every date in the season, the fixture computer knows which clubs are at home and who are away and then it will mix them up randomly to determine the matches. In any five matches, there should be a split of three home fixtures, two away or the other way around.
"A team will never have more than two home or away matches in a row, and, wherever possible, you will be home and away around FA Cup ties. A club will never start or finish the season with two home or two away matches because it would be unfair for a team to finish with two away games.
"Around the Christmas period, if you are at home on Boxing Day you will be away on New Year's Day or an equivalent date. We also try to maintain a Saturday home-away sequence throughout the season wherever possible."
One complaint from supporters that is often raised regarding fixtures is that the fan experience, particularly around travel on key dates, is not taken into account. Admittedly, that is normally a result of the fixture changing following TV selection, but Thompson adds he does ensure that is considered at his end first.
He said: "We look at whether we have clubs from the same area travelling on the same train lines across the Football League and the Premier League on the same day. We want to avoid having "pinch points" on the rail and road network.
"We also tell the computer to try to minimise travel on Boxing Day and New Year's Day or an equivalent date. Most clubs will have a partner club with whom they cannot clash."
While all those are taken into consideration and then fed into the computer, there will be plenty of dummy runs first before everyone is confident they have the most accurate and fair schedule for all 20 clubs. Newcastle could well have had a very different set of fixtures before the one they are getting tomorrow is released.
"If we have got any issues, we might have to go back and start again to produce a different set of fixtures. I'm reviewing the fixtures all the time to ensure other things can be met.
"Traditionally, the Premier League, the Football League and Atos representatives will review the fixtures over a number of days, looking at every date in the season to make sure that wherever possible we have met everything we have been asked to."
