With Manchester United vs Fulham being the first match amongst our Premier League opening day betting tips, we’ve decided to take a closer look at some interesting historical trends relating to United’s openers in more recent years.
What we discovered raised a few eyebrows, and Fulham fans might want to look away now…
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Why Man Utd’s opening day fixtures history bodes well
Man Utd have always been kings of the Premier League, leading the competition’s all-time title stakes with 13 trophy lifts since its inception in 1992. But slightly lesser known is the fact that they also boast the accolade of averaging more points per opening league game (2.16) than any other side during the Premier League era.
They’ve also won more games at the very beginning of a Premier League season than any other club, picking up 21 such victories. Fellow Premier League ever-present club Chelsea are second in both areas, with an average of 2.13 PPG from Premier League openers and 20 victories on day one. Meanwhile, Liverpool are a relatively distant third in the latter metric, with 17 winning starts.
This momentum has gone uninterrupted for a while now, as United have also won their first game in each of the last five seasons. Some may say that United have had an advantage in recent years though, given that the fixture computer has granted them a home start in 10 of the last 11 campaigns.
Our extra Premier League opening day betting tip: Go for goals
One of the Premier League opening day stats we're finding particularly hard to ignore is the one telling us that goals usually rain down on openers featuring Erik ten Hag's charges.
Last season, they beat Wolves by just a goal to nil, but it was the first time in a while that their first game of the campaign contained just a single goal. Before that, you would have had to go back to 2015 for the last time that only one goal was scored.
In all, seven of their last eight season openers have contained at least three goals. Five of those even hit the 4+ mark!
Other interesting stats ahead of Friday night’s opener
In comparison, Fulham boast a relatively meek average of just 1.12 opening-day points per game in the Premier League. The omens aren’t all terrible though, as the Cottagers have only lost two of their last nine opening fixtures (W4, D3, L2).
Fulham also won the corresponding fixture last season too, as Alex Iwobi stunned Old Trafford in stoppage time. That is an anomaly, however, as it was Fulham’s first win against United since 2009.
Overall, Friday’s hosts have won 24 of their previous 34 Premier League matches against the West Londoners, emerging victorious from 13 out of 17 clashes at home.
Pair the above with Manchester United’s rather excellent record of winning first time out, couple it with their superb record against Fulham, and betting on ‘Manchester United to Win & Over 2.5 Goals’ starts to look like more than a decent bet.
Written by Bradley Gibbs
In December 2020 we sadly 
