Mourinho’s Chelsea return to spark an avalanche of goals at the Bridge

Anticipation is running high through the camps of football fans up and down the nation on the back of the unveiling of next season’s fixtures.

With this summer’s Premier League managerial merry-go-round finally stopped spinning, there’ll be plenty of pressure for good starts and this could have a bearing on which curtain-raising clash in the top flight produces the highest number of goals.

The most prolific contests on the previous opening day involved three teams with new faces in the dugout, with Southampton, Norwich and Swansea all taking a share of the limelight.

Michael Laudrup was the only one smiling following his Swans team walloping eventually relegated QPR by a portentous 5-0 scoreline for the west Londoners.

Norwich’s Chris Hughton got off to a disastrous start with the Canaries, getting tonked by the same margin just down the road at Fulham. While recently promoted Southampton produced a respectable performance for top flight debutant Nigel Adkins at Man City, losing 3-2.

It’s likely to be another new manager taking centre stage in a first-day goalfest this time around too. Stamford Bridge prepares to ring in the second coming of the Special One this August with a spanking of Hull in Jose Mourinho’s first game in charge of tenure number two.

Chelsea’s wealth of attacking talent is likely to feast on a Tigers side still acclimatising to conditions following their promotion from the Championship; this match is rated as 9/2 to be the highest scoring of the opening day.

The manager desperate to get off to a flier, however, is inbound Manchester United boss David Moyes.

This is not a concoction prone to early-August fireworks, as both are renowned slow starters. The defending champions tackle the Capital One Cup winners at Old Trafford, with United v Swansea priced up at 7/1 to be the highest scoring game.

Moyes’ desperation for early points and his rather conservative nature as a coach lends favour to this being a low-scoring affair, so lump on Chelsea providing the entertainment on day one.

All odds and markets accurate as of publication’s time and date