The dust may only be just starting to settle on City's title-winning 2020/21 campaign but anticipation for the new season is already building.

On Wednesday 16 June, the fixtures for the 2021/22 term will be released, as the Champions look ahead to our defence of the trophy.

From 09:00 UK time, check out ManCity.com and our official App for our full list of fixtures and a run-down of key dates for the diary.

Here are some things to look out for...

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Opening day

Our first match of the new season will take place on the weekend of Saturday 14 August - one week after we lock horns with Leicester City in the Community Shield.

City hold an imperious record on the opening day, not tasting defeat since 2008 and winning each of our last ten.

Interestingly, we’ve not kicked off a campaign at the Etihad Stadium since 2016, when Pep Guardiola’s first Premier League match at the helm ended in a 2-1 victory over Sunderland.

Final day

The season is set to conclude on Sunday 22 May 2022, when Pep Guardiola’s men will hopefully have secured a fourth Premier League triumph in the past five seasons.

The title has been secured on the final day eight times in Premier League history, with City clinching the trophy on each of the last three occasions (2012, 2014, 2019).

Festive Period

The run-up to Christmas and the New Year is always a hectic one in the calendar.

Will City play on Boxing Day? Where will we bring in the New Year?

Manchester Derbies

It’s the first fixture many look out for when the calendar is released: the first Manchester Derby of the season!

There have been 185 meetings between the two Manchester Clubs. When will the 186th and 187th take place?

Newly-promoted teams

Both Norwich and Watford secured immediate returns to the Premier League in the automatic promotion spots with the Canaries lifting the Championship title.

City will face Brentford in Premier League competition for the very first time, after the the Bees were promoted to the top-flight for the first time in their history, defeating Swansea at Wembley in the Play-Off Final.

Our last meeting took place in January 1997 in the FA Cup with Nicky Summerbee on the scoresheet. City have won seven of our 13 competitive encounters.

Cup clashes

The Carabao Cup runs from August to February with City set to kick-off our defence of the trophy in the third round.

The Final is scheduled for Sunday 27 February 2022 at Wembley Stadium.

Dates for the FA Cup are still to be confirmed but City will enter at the third round.

Champions League weeks

City will discover our group stage opponents in the draw on Thursday 26 August.

The proposed match schedules have been released with the qualifying rounds taking place between June and August:

Group stage

14/15 September 2021: Matchday 1
28/29 September 2021: Matchday 2
19/20 October 2021: Matchday 3
2/3 November 2021: Matchday 4
23/24 November 2021: Matchday 5
7/8 December 2021: Matchday 6

Knockout phase

15/16/22/23 February & 8/9/15/16 March 2022: Round of 16
5/6 & 12/13 April 2022: Quarter-finals
26/27 & 3/4 May 2022: Semi-finals
28 May 2022: Final

International breaks

Following the conclusion of this summer’s European Championships and Copa America, attentions turn towards the 2022 World Cup in Qatar.

Qualification for the tournament continues in the first week of September, with matches scheduled to take place across September, October and November 2021.

The first international fixtures are due to be played between Wednesday 1 September and Wednesday 8 September, before further breaks from 8-12 October and 11-16 November.

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In Europe, the semi-finals of the Nations League between Italy and Spain and Belgium and France are set to kick-off on Wednesday 6 October and Thursday 7 October respectively, with the final taking place on Sunday 10 October.

The Africa Cup of Nations, curtailed by 12 months due to the COVID-19 pandemic, is taking place in Cameroon from 9 January until 6 February, meaning players representing any of the 24 qualified countries will be on international duty across the month.

In South America, a further round of World Cup qualifiers are scheduled for 27 January - 1 February and 24 March - 29 March.

 

Be sure to stay tuned to ManCity.com and our official App, as we will provide you with all of the important information across fixture release day.