DOUG King is excited by the prospect of Coventry City facing Premier League champions Arsenal on the opening day of the season.
Coventry will travel to the Emirates Stadium for the opening game of the 2026/27 Premier League season.
The match pits Premier League winners Arsenal against Championship champions Coventry.
And Coventry owner and chairman King is looking forward to the champions versus champions clash on the opening day of the campaign.
Speaking to Sky Sports News, King said: “What can you say – I thought it’d be a big one. Away at the champions, what a way to start it – champions vs champions.
“There was a bit of nervous tension around. It went a bit quiet afterwards but we’ve got to play everybody twice and we’re excited to start it at the home of Arsenal.”
Coventry discovered their fixtures for the 2026/27 campaign with the Sky Blues to play fellow promoted side Hull City in the club’s first home game of the season.
This marks a repeat of Coventry’s opening home fixture of the 2025/26 season which ended in a goalless draw at the Coventry Building Society Arena.
And King cited Sunderland’s strong home form following their promotion last term as the benchmark for Coventry to replicate next season.
King added: “We always like Hull coming here. We’ve done a lot of work out there [at the CBS Arena], it’s all systems go and action stations.
“We’ll need our home support hugely this year. We saw what Sunderland did at home and that’s what we want to make it.”
Coventry have not yet made a signing following promotion to the Premier League although the club recently saw a record £20million bid for goalkeeper Carl Rushworth rejected by Brighton and Hove Albion.
And King admits the ongoing 2026 FIFA World Cup has added an extra complication to the transfer window this summer.
King said: “We’ve got our plans. We know what we think we want to do, we took our time to get that blueprint there and we’ll see how it unfolds.
“Obviously with the World Cup, that makes it a bit more difficult than previous years.”
