Premier League TV fixtures: Sky Sports block BT Sport by dominating best early season games The clashes between last season's top four which Sky has monopolised start with United v Chelsea on Monday, August 26 followed Liverpool v Manchester United on September 1. Sky is also showing Arsenal v Tottenham that same afternoon, realising England manager Roy Hodgson's worst fears that both fixtures would be shown on a Sunday ahead of vital World Cup qualifiers for England. The first Manchester derby of the season on September 22 is also on Sky, as is Chelsea v City (October 27) and Manchester United v Arsenal (November 10). In all, Sky will show 24 matches involving last season's top four until December 1, leaving BT with just eight. Sky Sports managing director Barney Francis said: "This is our biggest ever season of Premier League football. When you look at the opening fixtures in black and white, you can see that no other broadcaster comes close to the quality that we offer. Sky Sports will show every match between last season's top four as well as every club at least twice by December. We'll have more than three times as many matches as BT, and our schedule is even stronger than it was last season. BT also show games involving Arsenal, City and United during the opening month of the season and have been able to secure Tottenham's derby with Chelsea on September 28. It also made a big play of landing the first Merseyside derby of the campaign on November 23, as well as Spurs v United on November 30. Crucially, Sky used up eight of its 20 first picks during the opening round of matches, with BT having taken only five of its 18. That means for the second half of the campaign BT has more first picks remaining - although five of these must be used for the package of midweek matches the company bought. Simon Green, director of BT Sport, said: "This is the first time in Premier League history that top pick matches have been shown anywhere other than on Sky, but Sky TV customers can easily add BT Sport by calling us and if they have BT broadband they can get it for free. We have only used five of our top picks, which means that BT Sport will have another 13 throughout the remainder of the season, so our viewers have many more excellent Premier League games to come. There are also strict rules governing how many times individual teams are shown during the course of the season, something which could also have an impact later in the campaign.