When the Premier League fixture supercomputer came up with Arsenal against Coventry City for the opening match of the 2026-27 Premier League season, many fans felt they had been robbed of a dramatic opening night.
A newly-promoted side visiting the home of the champions? Many feel this can only go one way.
But Coventry fans of a certain vintage will take heart from the opening day in 1993-94, when the Sky Blues made that same trip -- albeit to Highbury rather than the Emirates -- and came back with a 3-0 victory courtesy of a Micky Quinn hat trick.
Such is the propensity for the Premier League's opening game to throw up a shock that Coventry's win does not even make it onto our list.
Look away Arsenal fans -- here are ESPN's picks for the biggest opening day shocks in Premier League history.
Arsenal 2-4 Norwich City (1992-93)
Most remember the first matchday in Premier League history for the league's first ever goal -- Brian Deane's opener for Sheffield United against Manchester United.
Not Norwich City fans, though.
Having finished 14 places and 27 points behind Arsenal in the final season before the Premier League, Norwich kicked off at Highbury at the same time as the two United teams.
They were 2-0 down by halftime, and facing the unenviable task of trying to find a way past David Seaman, Tony Adams, Steve Bould, Lee Dixon and Nigel Winterburn.
Yet somehow, in a miraculous 15-minute period, the Canaries scored four times to win the game and set themselves up for their best ever season, in which they finished third.
Aston Villa 3-1 Manchester United (1995-96)
The gap between Aston Villa and Manchester United was even larger coming into the 1995-96 season.
Sir Alex Ferguson's side had been pipped to the previous season's title on the final day by Blackburn Rovers, while Villa had survived relegation from the league that same day.
What followed was one of the biggest opening day shocks in Premier League history, as goals from Ian Taylor, Mark Draper and Dwight Yorke -- three years before his move to United -- put Villa 3-0 up, before David Beckham scored a late consolation.
With Beckham, Paul Scholes and Gary Neville all featuring, it was the game which prompted Match of the Day's Alan Hansen to offer the iconic claim: "You can't win anything with kids."
No prizes for guessing who would go on to win the league that season.
West Bromwich Albion 3-0 Liverpool (2012-13)
Brendan Rodgers would go on to come as close as any Liverpool manager for more than two decades to winning a league title, but his tenure at Anfield could not have got off to a worse start.
In the other dugout, Steve Clarke -- who had left Liverpool alongside Kenny Dalglish in the summer -- masterminded a stunning 3-0 victory.
Zoltan Gera opened the scoring with a 25-yard screamer, before Daniel Agger was sent off for bringing down Shane Long in the area.
Long missed the resulting penalty, but Peter Odemwingie would convert a second spot-kick five minutes later before Romelu Lukaku put the icing on the cake with his first ever Premier League goal.
Manchester United 1-2 Swansea City (2014-15)
After David Moyes' disastrous season had ended in his departure with three games of the 2013-14 season remaining, Manchester United looked to enter a new era with the appointment of Louis van Gaal.
The arrivals of the likes of Luke Shaw and Ander Herrera had given fresh cause for optimism but that was quickly dashed when Gylfi Sigurdsson scored a second-half winner to silence Old Trafford once again.
Disappointing draws against Sunderland and Burnley would follow -- perhaps the catalyst for the unsuccessful signings of Ángel Di María and Radamel Falcao.
Curiously, the result also began a run of three consecutive 2-1 defeats for United against the Welsh side.
Brentford 2-0 Arsenal (2021-22)
Ask any Premier League fan what the biggest opening-game shock in recent memory is and most will point to Arsenal's 2-0 defeat to Brentford.
Having not played a game in England's top flight for 74 years, Brentford announced themselves to the Premier League with goals from Sergi Canós and Christian Norgaard, the latter coming from their now-famous long throw.
Brentford would go on to finish 13th that season. As for Arsenal, the result ended up proving extremely costly as they missed out on the Champions League spots, finishing two points below rivals Tottenham.
Nørgaard and goalkeeper David Raya have, of course, since joined Arsenal and will be hoping not to suffer their own shock defeat when Coventry visit the Emirates on Aug. 21.