Norwich City Premier League fixtures: History says it will be Everton away on opening day

Norwich City fans are just 24 hours from finding out more about the afternoons and evenings that will dominate their lives over the next 11 months as the 2011/12 fixtures are released on Friday morning.
Since May 2 and the day City secured promotion by beating Portsmouth at Fratton Park, most City fans have thought of nothing more than seeing the fixtures, signing new players and seeing the new kit.
Well we know the home strip, Paul Lambert has been the most active of Premier League managers with signings rolling in on an almost weekly basis. All we need now is to know those fixtures!
I’ve been taking a look down memory lane at Norwich’s opening day history in the top flight, and it’s actually a lot better than I thought.
Whoever Norwich face on the weekend of August 13/14 it will be their 22nd opening day fixture in the top flight. In the previous 21 games, Norwich can boast that they’ve won more than they’ve lost with eight victories, six draws and seven defeats.
Eleven of those games have been away from home and Norwich have been paired with five teams more than once. We’ve faced Manchester City, Chelsea, Sunderland and Liverpool twice and Everton three times.
Taking all that into account then, history at least says we’re likely to be facing Everton, it will be an away game and we’ll win!
Norwich have won eight times on the opening day in the top flight, which have come in two bursts. After drawing with Everton on their First Division debut in 1972, Norwich lost the next three opening day games, before beating West Ham 3-1 at Upton Park in August 1977. That started a run of fine opening day performances. City beat Southampton at Carrow Road the following year, pulled off a fine 4-2 win at Everton in August 1979 and beat Stoke 5-1 in August 1980.
Twenty five years ago this August Norwich had their only opening day goalless draw against Chelsea and two years later started another run of four wins in five opening day games.
The last of these came against Arsenal on the first day of the Premier League season when Norwich came from 2-0 down at half-time to win 4-2.
Since then, Norwich’s three other Premier League opening day games have seen just one point out of nine won and that was seven years ago when Darren Huckerby’s goal helped City to a 1-1 draw against Crystal Palace.

Norwich’s opening day fixtures in the top flight:
72-73 Everton, home, 1-1
73-74 Wolves, away, 1-3
75-76 Man City, away, 0-3
76-77 Liverpool, away, 0-1
77-78 West Ham, away, 3-1
78-79 Southampton, home, 3-1
79-80 Everton, away, 4-2
80-81 Stoke City, home, 5-1
82-83 Man City, home, 1-2
83-84 Sunderland, away, 1-1
84-85 Liverpool, home, 3-3
86-87 Chelsea, away, 0-0
87-88 Everton, away, 0-1
88-89 Nottingham Forest, home, 2-1
89-90 Sheff Wed, away, 2-0
90-91, Sunderland, home, 3-2
91-92, Sheffield United, home, 2-2
92-93, Arsenal, away, 4-2
93-94, Man United, home, 0-2
94-95, Chelsea, away, 0-2
04-05, Crystal Palace, home, 1-1

Home/Away
10/11

P W D L F A
21 8 6 7 36 32

Most common opponents:
3: Everton
2: Man City, Chelsea, Liverpool, Sunderland