In this post we take a look at the Premier League programme covers for two gameweeks that took place between Saturday 19th and Monday 28th September.
Gameweek 2 – 19th to 21st September 2020
The second gameweek of the season saw ten more clubs unveiling their programme designs for the new season. These included newly promoted Leeds United and the long-awaited return of Premier League football to Elland Road, after a gap of 16 years. Defender Luke Ayling was featured on the cover of the programme for the visit of Fulham. Arsenal marked their first home fixture of the season with a cover that included images of the two trophies won by the club since their last home match – namely last season’s FA Cup and this season’s Community Shield. The cover of Southampton’s programme for the visit of Tottenham Hotspur included some classy design work that replicated the white sash of the Saints’ new home shirt.
Aston Villa’s programme cover for the new season includes a graphic in the top-right corner marking 40 years since the club’s Division One title success in 1980-81. Chelsea, Leicester City, and Manchester United have opted for familiar looking covers for 2020/21, whilst perhaps the best that can be said about the new Newcastle United and Wolverhampton Wanderers covers at this point is that they might prove to be ‘growers’. The latter’s issue in particular may take some adjusting to, following a couple of years of brilliant artwork by Louise Cobbold.
Gameweek 3 – 26th to 28th September 2020
Gameweek 3 saw the first home games of the season for Burnley and Manchester City, after their first home fixtures were postponed. Disappointingly, both clubs have opted to produce digital only issues. City’s online programme takes the same form as those issued for the behind closed doors games in the latter part of last season, while Burnley’s issue appears to only be available by purchasing a subscription to the club’s media channel. This is a particularly frustrating choice from Burnley, especially given their track record of producing high quality issues in recent times – for example, taking our 2017/18 Gold Award for the best programme in the Premier League. With clubs much further down the English league system continuing to produce printed issues, including many non-league clubs for whom finances are currently somewhat precarious, it is a poor reflection on both City and Burnley that they have chosen to go digital only. Even a smaller printed issue of, say, 16 pages, would surely be more meaningful to most supporters of the two clubs, than a digital issue that may only be looked at once.
This season’s Crystal Palace issues, rather like last year’s programmes from Burnley, will likely have some covers that stand out more than others, depending on the opposition’s shirt colours used in the designs – this week’s issue for the match against Everton being a good example of a really striking cover. Elsewhere, the Sheffield United and West Bromwich Albion issues stand out for the quality of their retro designs, whilst the well presented issues from Brighton & Hove Albion and Fulham are also similarly impressive. The issues from these four clubs are already looking like being among the front-runners for our 2020/21 awards.