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

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.

The first of what we’re sure will be many Sporting Fare “You Could Not Make It Up”s comes from that “hotbed of football”, Newcastle, where owner Mike Ashley, on the look out for a stadium sponsor, has decided to rename St. James’ Park.

Yes, with immediate effect that famous old stadium will now be known as the sportsdirect.com @ St James’ Park Stadium.

Doesn’t quite trip off the tongue does it.

In an attempt to appease angry Newcastle United supporters, managing director Derek Llambias said:

With the renaming it was always going to be whatever brand it was, at St James’ Park. For the remainder of this season, we already have sportsdirect.com on the Gallowgate so we’d like to take that branding through the rest of the stadium.

Oh yeah, that’ll work, Derek.