Newcastle United v Liverpool

Matthias Jaissle’s Newcastle host Andoni Iraola’s Liverpool in a marquee opening-weekend clash of new systems.

Newcastle finished 12th in 2025/26; Liverpool finished fifth.

Liverpool hold a clear historical advantage, and BRYME is not going to quote a single all-time figure for it, because the aggregators do not agree. One puts the fixture at 190 meetings across all competitions and friendlies; another counts 60 since 1995. Those are different questions being answered by the same-looking number, and picking whichever is largest would be presenting an editorial choice as a fact.

What is consistent across sources is the recent record, and it is emphatic. In their last five meetings Liverpool have won three, Newcastle one and one was drawn. Newcastle's win in that run came in a cup final rather than a league game.

The more useful framing: Newcastle have not beaten Liverpool in the league in a long sequence of attempts. Their most recent league win over Liverpool does not appear anywhere in the last five meetings, and did not come in the seasons covered above.

• Liverpool 4-1 Newcastle United — Premier League, January 2026.
• Newcastle United 2-3 Liverpool — Premier League, August 2025.
• Newcastle United 2-1 Liverpool — League Cup final, March 2025. Newcastle's only win in this run, and it came on a neutral ground.
• Liverpool 2-0 Newcastle United — Premier League, February 2025.
• Newcastle United 3-3 Liverpool — Premier League, December 2024. The only draw, and the highest-scoring of the five.
• Note on dates: sources differ by a day or two on several of these fixtures, so months are given rather than exact dates. The scorelines and the order are consistent across every source checked.

Last season's league record, as a baseline rather than a prediction.

Newcastle United finished 12th in 2025/26 on 49 points (14W 7D 17L, 53 scored, 55 conceded). Liverpool finished 5th in 2025/26 on 60 points (17W 9D 12L, 63 scored, 53 conceded).

BRYME is not publishing home-only and away-only splits for these sides yet. Those figures exist but have not been reconciled against an official source here, and a split quoted from memory is exactly the kind of number that quietly becomes wrong. The overall records above are verified against the final 2025/26 table; the home and away breakdowns will be added when sourced.

Provisional: multiple Liverpool absences and Newcastle concerns around Anthony Elanga, Lewis Hall and Fabian Schär require rechecking close to kick-off.

No suspensions affecting either side have been confirmed for this fixture at the time of writing.

This is a statement about what has been confirmed, not a guarantee that both squads are fully available. Bans carried over from last season and any late disciplinary decisions are checked again on matchday, and this section is updated if that changes.

Two front-foot, pressing-minded coaches meet without a full runway to install their systems.

The supplied packet describes significant Newcastle turnover and Liverpool’s pre-season fitness and injury questions.

This is the fixture where last season's table and the general perception disagree most sharply.

Liverpool finished 5th on 60 points — 25 behind the champions, with 12 defeats. Newcastle finished 12th on 49 with a negative goal difference. So Liverpool are favourites, but they arrive as a side that finished closer to Newcastle than to Arsenal, and under a manager taking charge of his first competitive Liverpool match after Andoni Iraola replaced Arne Slot.

Newcastle's case is straightforward: a new manager's first league game away from home, at a ground where atmosphere is a genuine variable, against a side whose own season needs correcting. Their case against is that they lost 17 league matches last season, more than any side that finished above 17th.

Liverpool retain more attacking quality, but cohesion and fitness make the fixture less straightforward.

Newcastle United 1–2 Liverpool