The release of the 2026/27 Premier League fixtures on Friday 19 June will allow managers in Fantasy Premier League to start planning for the season ahead.

At 10:00 BST, the matches for all 38 Gameweeks of the new season will be available on premierleague.com.

Through the Premier League’s digital calendar, you can get all the 2026/27 fixtures downloaded straight to your mobile device as soon as they are released. You can set it up right now to avoid having to lift a finger on Friday morning.

Use Fixture Difficulty Ratings to guide your plans

While it’s always nice to get a good start in Gameweek 1, FPL managers will need to avoid the temptation to get too focused on the opening-weekend fixtures.

The Fixture Difficulty Ratings (FDR) can be invaluable in assessing matches over a period of time. It is a tool based on a complex algorithm developed by FPL experts, where the difficulty of each fixture is ranked from one to five, with one being the easiest possible match and five being the hardest.

A look back to the start of the previous campaign shows why managers should instead focus their targets over the first four-to-six Gameweeks when assembling their opening squads.

According to the FDR, Chelsea and Sunderland had among the very best schedules across Gameweeks 1-6, which indicated that their players could begin the season strongly in Fantasy.

And this proved to be the case on both counts over the first six rounds of matches in 2025/26.

Chelsea’s Joao Pedro was second only to Erling Haaland among forwards, earning 37 points thanks to two goals and three assists. Enzo Fernandez picked up 39 points over those six matches to rank third among midfielders.

Sunderland’s resilient defence immediately highlighted the brilliant value of their key players following their promotion.

Robin Roefs was the top-scoring goalkeeper on 39 points over the first six matches, a total matched by his defensive team-mate Omar Alderete, who had started the season at a cost of only £4.0m.

The FDR for the 2026/27 season will be available on Friday, after the fixtures are released.

Give the new managers time to settle

There are four new managers in charge among the 17 clubs who have remained in the Premier League this season – AFC Bournemouth, Chelsea, Crystal Palace and Liverpool, while Fulham, Ipswich Town and Manchester City will be announcing new managers before the start of the season.

This suggests that Fantasy managers will need to be patient at the start of the campaign, as the clubs and players become more accustomed to any changes in tactics and team line-ups. 

Meanwhile, a further three head coaches, Manchester United’s Michael Carrick, Nottingham Forest’s Vitor Pereira and Tottenham Hotspur’s Roberto De Zerbi, are facing their first full season in charge, having joined their clubs during the 2025/26 campaign.

Consider impact of World Cup

Managers can further refine their targets by avoiding those players who reach the latter stages of the FIFA World Cup 2026 over the summer.

The third-place playoff and the final take place over the weekend of 18-19 July, which is only five weeks before the Premier League season gets under way on Saturday 22 August.

Those players whose countries advance to this point will be late back to pre-season training for their clubs and there would be doubts over their match fitness heading into Gameweek 1.

On the other hand, players who are not involved in the World Cup, such as Chelsea duo Cole Palmer and Joao Pedro, Liverpool’s Dominik Szoboszlai and Man City’s Phil Foden, could benefit from a free summer of international action and play their way into Fantasy managers’ plans over their clubs’ summer friendlies.