PL pre-season fixtures and results - how is your side shaping up?
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- Arsenal will face Manchester City in the Community Shield at Cardiff on August 16 (3pm), closing out pre-season after a mixed run that included a 1-3 loss to Real Betis in Dublin and a 2-3 defeat to Borussia Dortmund at the Emirates.
- Aston Villa lost 2-1 to PSG in the UEFA Super Cup in Salzburg on August 12, one of nine pre-season fixtures that included stops in Jakarta, Hong Kong, and a 5-0 win at Walsall.
- Chelsea completed a globe-trotting pre-season across Sydney, Hong Kong, Jakarta, and Johor Bahru, capped by a 3-1 win over Real Sociedad at Stamford Bridge on August 15.
- Leeds thrashed Liverpool 4-2 in Chicago on August 2 and followed up with a 4-0 home win over Augsburg on August 15, also beating Manchester United on penalties in Dublin.
- Manchester United opened pre-season with a 0-1 loss to Wrexham in Helsinki on July 18 but rebounded with a 5-0 rout of Rosenborg in Trondheim on July 24.
- Sky Sports will broadcast a minimum of 215 live Premier League matches in 2026/27 and over 1,500 live matches across the Premier League, WSL, EFL, and Scottish Premiership combined.
- The 2026/27 Premier League season starts August 21, with the Champions League league phase draw on August 27, the FA Cup third round on January 9, and the Champions League final scheduled for June 5 at the Wanda Metropolitano in Madrid.
Why it matters: The Community Shield effectively serves as the Premier League's dress rehearsal six days before the real thing, meaning Arsenal vs Manchester City on August 16 is the last chance for both clubs to calibrate before the points start counting. Pre-season travel maps also reveal each club's commercial priorities — Chelsea and Aston Villa's Asian tours, Liverpool and Leeds' U.S. stops — which shape shirt-deal and sponsorship exposure before the August 21 kickoff.
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