By Chris O'Brien
June 25 2004

The Football League have released the fixtures for the 2004/2005 campaign, and United have been handed an incredibly tricky opening day tie against fellow Premiership hopefuls Chelsea. The visit to Stamford Bridge on August 14th is followed by the Red Devils hosting newly-promoted Norwich City.

Manchester United's opening day fixture is sure to take the headlines of the national media, with the Red Devils taking on fellow title hopefuls Chelsea at Stamford Bridge on August 14th. The game is a fantastic season opener, but is not the gentle opener that Chelsea's new boss Jose Mourinho hopes, and his first objective of 'winning the first game' will be a lot harder than he originally would have thought!

A week later United take on Norwich City in their first home fixture. The Canaries are one of three newcomers to be promoted to the top flight, and visit Old Trafford on the 21st August. Four days later United were supposed to face Merseyside rivals Everton, but that game has been cancelled due to the Red Devils participating in a qualification match for a place in the European Cup finals, meaning our third game of the season is a close-trip to face fellow Lancastrians Bolton Wanders.

The big derby against Liverpool at Old Trafford will be on September 18th, whilst the reverse fixture at Anfield is on January 15th. The Manchester derby at the Theatre of Dreams is on the 6th of November, with United searching for their first ever win at Eastlands on the 12th of February. Other fixtures United fans will have immediately looked for are those against Football League champions Arsenal, with Sir Alex Ferguson's side hosting the Gunners on October 23rd, and making the trip to Highbury on the opening day of February.

United face an away game on the last day of the season as well as the first, facing Paul Sturrock's Southampton on the 14th May. The other fixture in the last month of the 2004/2005 campaign is at home to West Bromwich Albion, with Gary Megson's side having very different objectives to United for the forthcoming campaign after gaining automatic promotion last season.

Unfortunately, due to ridiculous copyright laws I am not allowed to publish the full list of fixtures here on ManUtdWeb without spending thousands of pounds on a licence. It does seem ridiculous that the people that will go and see these games are not allowed to even list them, but for a full list of Premiership fixtures from the official Manchester United site please click here.