Arsenal’s 2020-21 schedule is taking shape

On Aug 3, 2020

With Arsenal securing Europa League qualification with an FA Cup win over Chelsea, a few more pieces of the Gunners’ 2020-21 season have fallen into place. And things are starting soon — the Community Shield is 27 days away.

Although nothing has been confirmed, the scuttlebutt is that Arsenal will give the players three weeks off. That would have the squad back in training about a week before the Community Shield, finishing preseason training piecemeal around the early September international break, and starting the season the weekend of September 12th.

The transfer window is currently open. It began on July 27th, the day after the Premier League season ended. It will remain open through October 5th (the day before the UEFA CL and EL squad registration deadline) for international transfers. There is an additional EFL-only window that will remain open through October 14th. In it, Premier League teams can conduct loans and sales with EFL teams but not with each other and not internationally.

It’s going to be an extremely congested schedule — basically the “festive fixture” period but for an entire, 8-month season. Here’s what we know so far about Arsenal’s schedule, international fixtures and other key dates included:

August 29th: Community Shield vs. Liverpool
September 3rd-8th: International Break — 2x UEFA Nations League matches
September 12th: Premier League resumes
October 2nd: Europa League Group Stage draw
October 7th-October 14th: International Break — 1 int’l friendly, 2x UEFA Nations League matches — this is a change from previous seasons. UEFA has extended the break and added a match and done the same for November.
October 22nd: EL Matchday 1
October 29th: EL Matchday 2
November 5th: EL Matchday 3
November 11th-18th: International Break — 1 int’l friendly, 2x UEFA Nations League matches
November 26th: EL Matchday 4
December 3rd: EL Matchday 5
December 10th: EL Matchday 6
Early January: FA Cup 3rd Round
Late January: FA Cup 4th Round
Late February: EL Round of 32
Early March: FA Cup 5th Round
Mid March: EL Round of 16
Late March: FA Cup QF
Mid April: EL QF, FA Cup SF
Late April/Early May: EL SF
May ??: FA Cup Final
May 23rd: Premier League season ends
May 26th: Europa League Final
May 29th: Champions League Final
June 11th: Euro 2020, Copa America 2020 (*2021) begin
July 11th: Euro and Copa America Final
Early August: 2021-22 Premier League season begins

Interspersed among all those dates, they’ve got to play a 38-match Premier League season. We’ll breakdown the schedule once it is officially announced. There is no set date for the release as of yet.

The international competitions scheduled for Summer 2021 create basically a hard out at the end of the season. There really isn’t room to reschedule matches beyond that May 23rd end date. Based on my personal schedule scribbling, it looks as if the Premier League will need to pick up between 5 and 7 midweek matches at a minimum per team to make the…