LONDON (AP):

MANCHESTER UNITED will begin the defence of their Premier League title with a home game against Reading while Newcastle manager Sam Allardyce will return to former club Bolton on the opening day of the season.

The Premier League yesterday released its fixtures for 2007-08 season, which starts on August 11. Of the promoted clubs, Birmingham are at Chelsea, Sunderland host Tottenham and Derby play Portsmouth at Pride Park.

United won their ninth Premier League title and 16th overall with two games to spare. Chelsea were second, Liverpool third and Arsenal fourth.

Reading were the surprise club last season during their first stint in the Premier League. They finished eighth, just missing qualification for the UEFA Cup.

Allardyce quit Bolton shortly before the end of last season, after eight years in charge. He joined Newcastle shortly after, with Sammy Lee promoted to Bolton manager.

"It will be very interesting to go back to the Reebok Stadium and I look forward to it," Allardyce said. "I wasn't dreading it, I had nearly eight fantastic years there. They will be right up for trying to beat me so we'll see what we do when we get there."

Fined heavily

West Ham were included in the fixtures list, despite an arbitration hearing next week to determine if the Hammers should have been docked points for signing Carlos Tevez and Javier Mascherano in August on contracts that broke Premier League rules on third-party ownership.

West Ham would have been relegated if they had been docked points by a Premier League commission that investigated the transfers in April. Instead, West Ham were heavily fined.

Sheffield United, one the three clubs relegated, have led the campaign to demote West Ham.

The Hammers will host Manchester City on the opening day.

The rest of opening day's fixtures are: Arsenal vs Fulham; Aston Villa vs Liverpool; Everton vs Wigan and Middlesbrough vs Blackburn.

Sunderland were promoted to the Premier League as winners of the League Championship and have former Manchester United midfielder Roy Keane as their manager.