If you follow Manchester City, you should rejoice, for the computer that works only once a year (the Football Association's human resources officer should get onto that almost criminal lack of efficiency, incidentally) has treated City supporters to an almost perfect set of games.
The list, sure to be revised heavily when the TV networks get their eager hands on it, features the following obvious highlights:
• City will be at home on the opening day and at home on the final day.
• City will open against brothers-in-arms and fellow long–sufferers Newcastle United, always a treat of a fixture, which can only have been made more enticing by the arrival of world football's Joe Kinnear. (Every door is open to him, even the pantry door.)
• City will be at home on Boxing Day, the favourite family fixture in the calendar, and against Liverpool too.
• After the opener with Newcastle, City fans have the fresh views of Cardiff and Hull to take in.
• The opening sequence of games (first six distinctly winnable) gives City an ideal opportunity to set the early pace in the League.
• And finally ... Manchester United have been handed a horrible start. A home game with Mourinho's Chelsea and trips to Anfield and the Etihad in the opening games means David Moyes will really be thrown in at the deep end in his attempt to keep up the standards.