Earlier, Liverpool’s fixtures for the coming 2015-16 season were announced.
The Reds were put up with a trip to Stoke City for their first game of the campaign season, the same team they beat in the season opener two years ago, but fresher in the memory will be the 6-1 battering Brendan Rodgers’ men took in May.
Here are the three best and worst opening Premier League games in recent years as far as the Reds are concerned.
Worst opening days
3) Tottenham Hotspur 2-1 Liverpool – 16 August 2009
Fresh off the back of a title challenge but without the departed Xabi Alonso, Rafael Benitez and the Reds travelled to White Hart Lane.
On the stroke of half-time, Benoit Assou Ekotto pulled a strike out of the top drawer beating Pepe Reina all ends up.
Liverpool then equalised through the reliable source that is Steven Gerrard on 56 minutes from the penalty spot, but the tied game was short lived as Sebastian Bassong’s header three minutes later sent Benitez’s side home empty-handed.
2) Liverpool 1-2 Chelsea – 17 August 2003
The next game we look at is back in 2003, in front of 44,082, Gerrard Houllier’s side were stunned late in the game, thanks to Jimmy Floyd Hasselbaink.
With the takeover of the Blues from rich Russian tycoon Roman Abramovich, the stars of the Chelsea side were starting to filter their way in.
The Chelsea side picked by Claudio Ranieri included the likes of Carlo Cudicini, Frank Lampard, John Terry, Marcel Desailly, Geremi, Eidur Gudjohnson, Jimmy Floyd Hasselbank and Juan Sebastian Veron.
It was Veron who opened the scoring after a quarter of an hour, after a bursting run down the far side from Jesper Grønkjær and the Argentine Veron fired through the grasp of Jerzy Dudek in front of the famous Kop.
The game remained 1-0 to Chelsea until the 79th minute when debutant Harry Kewell found El Hadji Diouf who turned Wayne Bridge, the English full-back was left stranded and brought down the Senegal international.
Michael Owen firstly stepped up and fired wide only to fortuitously be made to retake the penalty to the anger of the Chelsea players.
Second time round, Owen made no mistake in blasting the penalty into the roof of the net to send the Kop into pandemonium.
Liverpool were left heartbroken three minutes from time following a long ball from Veron which was well controlled by Hasselbaink who got an extra yard on his marker and squeezed his shot into Dudek’s far corner.
1) West Bromwich Albion 3-0 Liverpool – 18 August 2012
By far the worst opening day in recent memory is the trip to the Hawthorns where Brendan Rodgers made his managerial debut as Reds boss.
It’s fair to say on that day the players on that day, who included Pepe Reina, Daniel Agger, Martin Kelly, Stewart Downing and the strike partnership of Fabio Borini and Luis Suarez, were still on their summer break.
Zoltan Gera opened the scoring after 43 minutes; Reina saved a penalty from Shane Long on the hour mark but four minutes later Peter Obemwingie comfortably placed his penalty past the Spaniard.
To round off the rout from the Baggies, Romelu Lukaku completed the unexpected thumping 13 minutes from time.
This 3-0 loss was the heaviest opening day defeat in the top-flight since 1937 but it wasn’t the heaviest for a managerial debutant, that accolade is held by Bill Shankly who lost 4-0 against Cardiff in 1959.
Best opening days
3) Middlesbrough 3-3 Liverpool – 17 August 1996
This was more entertaining than it was satisfying for Liverpool fans. It was at the Riverside against Bryan Robson’s Middlesbrough in 1996.
The game finished 3-3 and is by far the best evenly matched opening day fixture Liverpool have been involved in.
It took Liverpool’s £600,000 signing Stig Inge Bjørnebye four minutes to open the scoring for Roy Evans’ side.
Fabrizio Ravanelli levelled from the penalty spot, but John Barnes struck back three minutes later.
Unfortunately for the Reds, Ravanelli got the better of David James again 10 minutes after getting his first goal to make it 2-2.
Robbie Fowler got his name on the scoresheet to make it 3-2, but then nine minutes from time, Ravanelli completed his hat-trick to seal an unlikely point for Robson’s side.
These three goals turned out to be the only ones Ravanelli scored against Liverpool in four games for Boro and Derby County.
2) Crystal Palace 1-6 Liverpool – 20 August 1994
One of the best opening days in recent years for Liverpool came against Crystal Palace, as the Reds demolished their hosts thanks to braces from Steve McManaman and Ian Rush respectively.
The game started off with a flurry of goals from. Jan Molby and McManaman scored within two minutes of each other in the opening ten minutes.
Robbie Fowler made it three on half-time, and the Eagles found an avenue back into the game through Chris Armstrong four minutes after the restart.
But goals from Ian Rush (60’, 73’) and McManaman (70’) were enough to put Crystal Palace out of sight and start the 1994-95 season with a bang.
1) Aston Villa 1-2 Liverpool – 11 August 2007
One of the most emotion draining opening days came against Aston Villa in 2007 as it took a late Steven Gerrard goal to cancel out Gareth Barry’s 86th minute penalty.
Liverpool took a first-half lead thanks to a stroke of luck through Martin Laursen’s own goal after Stuart Taylor pushed away Fernando Torres’ shot.
The game remained 1-0 to the visiting Reds but they should’ve been winning by a bigger margin, missing heaps of chances.
Four minutes from time, Liverpool were stunned as Aston Villa were awarded a penalty following Jamie Carragher’s handball, and Barry made no mistake in finishing cooly to seal an all but certain point.
Not all was over though, Gerrard won the initial free-kick after being upended by Petrov, and the captain stepped up and picked out the top corner, beating the diving Taylor.
It was a memorable moment in Gerrard’s career and a major highlight in his free-kick reel.
