Sky have announced the games they’ve chosen to be shown on Sky Sports for the first half of the season. The first batch of 115 live games next season sees, unsurprisingly, Tottenham Hotspur resume last season’s rivalry with Manchester City on Saturday 14th August, live on Sky Sports 2 and Sky Sports HD2.

Ford Super Sunday will feature Liverpool versus Arsenal from Anfield on Sky Sports 1 and Sky Sports HD1, while the first Monday Night Football welcomes Newcastle United back to the Premier League as they visit Manchester United at Old Trafford, also on Sky Sports 1 and Sky Sports HD1.

Not a bad weekend of football, especially for High Definition viewers.

FULL LIVE SKY SPORTS FIXTURES

DATE	GAME	KICK-OFF
AUGUST
Saturday 14	Tottenham v Man City	12.45pm
Sunday 15	Liverpool v Arsenal	4pm
Monday 16	Man Utd v Newcastle	8pm
Saturday 21	Wigan v Chelsea	5.15pm
Sunday 22	Fulham v Man Utd	4pm
Monday 23	Man City v Liverpool	8pm
Saturday 28	Blackburn v Arsenal	12.45pm
Sunday 29	Bolton v Birmingham Aston Villa v Everton	1.30pm 4pm
SEPTEMBER
Sunday 12	Everton v Man Utd Birmingham v Liverpool	1.30pm 4pm
Monday 13	Stoke City v Aston Villa	8pm
Saturday 18	Stoke City v West Ham	12.45pm
Sunday 19	Man Utd v Liverpool Chelsea v Blackpool	1.30pm 4pm
Saturday 25	Man City v Chelsea	12.45pm
Sunday 26	Wolves v Aston Villa Newcastle v Stoke City	2pm 4.10pm
OCTOBER
Sunday 3	Chelsea v Arsenal	4pm
Monday 4	Wigan v Wolves	8pm
Sunday 17	Everton v Liverpool Blackpool v Man City	1.30pm 4pm
Monday 18	Blackburn v Sunderland	8pm
Saturday 23	Tottenham v Everton West Ham v Newcastle	12.45pm 5.30pm
Sunday 24	Stoke City v Man Utd Man City v Arsenal	1.30pm 4pm
Sunday 31	Bolton v Liverpool Newcastle v Sunderland	1.30pm 4pm
NOVEMBER
Monday 1	Blackpool v West Brom	8pm
Saturday 6	Bolton v Tottenham	12.45pm
Sunday 7	Arsenal v Newcastle Liverpool v Chelsea	1.30pm 4pm
Tuesday 9	West Ham v West Brom	8pm
Wednesday 10	Man City v Man Utd	8pm
Saturday 13	Aston Villa v Man Utd	12.45pm
Sunday 14	Everton v Arsenal Chelsea v Sunderland	2pm 4.10pm
Sunday 21	Arsenal v Tottenham Fulham v Man City	1.30pm 4pm
Monday 22	Sunderland v Everton	8pm
Saturday 27	Aston Villa v Arsenal	12.45pm
Sunday 28	Newcastle v Chelsea Tottenham v Liverpool	1.30pm 4pm

Speculation regarding poor sales of Manchester United season tickets continues with news that the club is struggling to sell its executive and corporate packages as well as the standard season tickets.

Despite the club publicly stating they are happy with the level of sales so far, claiming that “Executive season ticket renewals are at the same level as this time last year and slightly up on two years ago”, Goal.com UK reports that there have been THREE crisis meetings at Old Trafford to discuss the issue.

This follows on from our report last week that with only a few days to go before the season ticket deadline, United had only managed to sell 18,000, less than a third of last season’s total.

As we said in that article, with tickets and match day revenue still the biggest earner for the club, these figures will make worrying reading for the Glazer family as they attempt to service debts of over £700 million and could, should they prove to be true, trigger the need to sell the club.

The Red Knight consortium will be watching on with interest.

Any sale of the business, however, will likely ruin the football club’s short term future on the pitch and United fans should brace themselves for dip in form, league position and entertainment to get what they want – new ownership and a more financially secure future.

Is it a price worth paying? If these ticket sales are anything to go by, the fans obviously think it is.

The Premier League fixture list for the 2010/2011 season has been released and sees champions Chelsea host newly promoted West Brom at Stamford Bridge on the opening day, Saturday 14th August.

That’ll make for a nice return to the top division for West Brom. The same goes for Championship champions Newcastle, who travel to Old Trafford for a reunion with Manchester United while Blackpool get their first ever taste of Premier League action at home against Wigan. The Tangerines will be well pleased with the tie at Bloomfield Road as it gives them a great chance of getting some points on the board early.

The tie of the opening weekend is undoubtedly Arsenal versus Liverpool at Anfield. Liverpool, presumably with a new manager in place, will look to get off to a good start to provide the foundation for a more successful season than last year but they won’t find it easy against Arsene Wenger’s men. Expect this one to move to the Sunday for Sky coverage.

The two teams that battled it out for fourth place last season, Tottenham and Manchester City, get to resume their rivalry early as City travel to White Hart Lane in a potentially mouthwatering clash that could also be chosen by Sky.

Premier League Opening Day Fixtures

• Aston Villa v West Ham
• Blackburn v Everton
• Blackpool v Wigan
• Bolton v Fulham
• Chelsea v West Brom
• Liverpool v Arsenal
• Man Utd v Newcastle
• Sunderland v Birmingham
• Tottenham v Man City
• Wolves v Stoke

Full club-by-club season fixtures here.

Sources have revealed that Manchester United have sold only 18,000 season tickets for the 2010/11 season compared to 56,000 last year – and the deadline for getting one is Friday.

The club, of course, have said that there is always “a late rush to buy” but it’s hard to imagine that with only four days to go they will sell a further 38,000 just to match last season’s total.

The club’s owners, the Glazer family, are said to be shocked by the lack of sales, casting further doubt on any real late rush.

Manchester United are at the centre of a battle for ownership between the Glazers and a consortium called the ‘Red Knights’ but the Glazer family has always said there is no chance of a sale. Fan power, in the form of a season ticket boycott, looks like it could swing the balance of power in the Red Knights favour, however.

Struggling under debts of around £750,000,000, many fans fear for the future of the Old Trafford club and hold the Glazer family solely responsible. The supporters have been running a striking but largely ineffective ‘Green & Gold’ campaign to show their dislike of the Glazers and express their desire for them to sell. The Glazers remain unmoved.

I have always doubted the commitment of the club’s supporters to really follow up their desires by hitting the Glazer family where it hurts – in the pocket. Not for a minute did I think that the apathetic support – which doesn’t include the members of the Manchester United Support Trust (MUST) or the Independent Manchester United Supporters Association (IMUSA) – would go so far as to give up their tickets.

Yet it seems that they have and I applaud them for it. Money is the only language the Glazer family understands. If the supporters, who still provide the biggest income stream to the club on a match day, vote with their feet and refuse to go to watch their team then the Glazers will struggle to finance the interest on those debts, forcing a sale.

Whether or not this will happen is open to debate but the Glazers grip on Manchester United is under threat as never before. Whether or not the Red Knights really have the financial muscle to make a real bid for the club is also open to debate but they will be encouraged by this news and may redouble their efforts.

It will be interesting to see if fan power can truly affect the future of a club as big as Manchester United as it has at smaller clubs in the past.

It is a real surprise that Chelsea have today announced that Joe Cole and Michael Ballack can leave for free when their contracts run out at the end of June and the news will alert some, if not all of Europe’s top clubs.

Manchester United and Arsenal have been sniffing round Cole for some time and it is believed that Arsenal would have already made their move were it not for the former West Ham player’s exorbitant wages. That could also be a stumbling block for cash-strapped United and it certainly rules out almost everyone else bar Manchester City and possibly Spurs.

Ballack will be in demand right across Europe. Again, high wages could be a stumbling block but with the Bundesliga now the most financially strong league in Europe a move back home could be on the cards.

Both will find new clubs with relative ease – it is Chelsea’s decision to let them go that is puzzling. Cole hasn’t featured too much under Carlo Ancelotti, due to injury, a lack of faith from the manager and the form of his team mates but he is still a quality player capable of stepping into most sides in England, if not Europe.

Ancelotti must feel he has plenty of cover for a Cole-type player, but I don’t think the same can be said of Ballack. Age and his injury might be part of the decision but he will have to buy as he cannot rely on the likes of the also injured Mikel or Essien to fill the void the German will leave. It will be a real blow for Ballack too, on top of his misfortune in missing the World Cup.

Chelsea have the cash, of course, and Ancelotti is not one to leave things to chance so he presumably has a plan to replace both players. What that plan is, I can only guess, but this decision does seem to weaken Chelsea in the short term. Expect Chelsea to spend big in the transfer window.