On 27 May, Bolton announced that they would be undertaking a three-game, pre-season tour of North America, taking in matches at Charlotte Eagles, Charleston Battery and Toronto F.C.

[5] A 23-man squad, including new signing Martin Petrov but minus those that had participated in the 2010 FIFA World Cup travelled to the United States on 13 July.

The first tour match took place on 14 July against Charlotte Eagles at the Transamerica Field, with Bolton running out 3–0 winners, the goals coming from Gary Cahill, Johan Elmander and Petrov.

[7] The team then travelled across the border to take on Major League Soccer side Toronto where they were joined by Stuart Holden who had played for the USA in the World Cup.

A Robbie Blake penalty opened the scoring, but Bolton could not finish their League One opponents off and the home side's Chris O'Grady equalised with six minutes remaining.

[13] Two days later, St Johnstone welcomed Bolton to McDiarmid Park and the English side finished their pre-season away fixtures with a 2–0 victory, Martin Petrov and Johan Elmander scoring their second goals of the summer.

Johan Elmander finished as the pre season's leading scorer when he netted early in the game, and Lee Chung-Yong scored his first of the summer shortly afterwards.

Although Mark Noble pulled a goal back from the penalty spot after Gary Cahill had been adjudged to have pushed Scott Parker, Elmander scored his second of the game with six minutes remaining.

[23] Bolton's next home was again moved to the Sunday to allow for live television coverage, with the visitors being near neighbours, Manchester United.

The home side almost made it 3–1 soon after, but Johan Elmander failed to make a one on one with United keeper Edwin van der Sar count, and Bolton were made to rue this chance when Michael Owen, on as a substitute three minutes earlier, flicked on a Nani free-kick into Jääskeläinen's right-hand corner to make the final result 2–2.

The game had moved into the fourth minute of injury time when substitute Ivan Klasnić scored what turned out to be the winning goal.

Bolton would eventually play their closest rivals geographically four times, after drawing their FA Cup Fourth round tie.

Hugo Rodallega opened the scoring at the DW Stadium but this was swiftly equalised by Johan Elmander as Bolton consolidated their position in the top half of the Premier League.

[30] However, the following Sunday, a late Maxi Rodríguez goal would see Liverpool beat Bolton and continue their good form at the Reebok Stadium, where they had not lost since 2006.

On 10 November, a late Jermaine Beckford goal saw Everton salvage a draw at Goodison Park after Ivan Klasnić had put Bolton ahead.

[37] The week after, Bolton themselves had a man sent off, with Mark Davies receiving his marching orders for elbowing Phil Jones with the game goalless.

[40] The draw for the fourth round was made the following afternoon and saw Bolton drawn against their nearest local rivals, Wigan Athletic.

The draw for the sixth round took place whilst Bolton were still playing at Craven Cottage and saw the winners of the game drawn away at Birmingham City.

Stoke ran out 5–0 victors, the largest FA Cup Semi-final win since before World War II,[41] with former Bolton player Jonathan Walters scoring twice.

Statistics accurate as of match played 22 May 2011 On the commencement of the summer transfer window on 1 July, Portuguese striker Ricardo Vaz Tê, who has been at the club since 2003, was released.

This allowed the club to let long serving defender Nicky Hunt leave on a free transfer to Bristol City three days later.

[11] A day after Eaves was signed, Bolton sold Chris Basham to Premier League new boys Blackpool, again for an undisclosed fee.

As the summer transfer window closed, a loan deal with Benfica of Portugal was made to bring young Spanish international Rodrigo to the Reebok Stadium for the season.

As the closure of the transfer window does not preclude Premier League clubs loaning players to lower league teams, Danny Ward joined Championship team Coventry City until the New Year, but this was cut short in the middle of October when the player suffered a groin injury and returned to Bolton.

When the January transfer window opened, Irish international Andy O'Brien, who had been on loan at Championship team Leeds United since the end of October, joined them on a permanent basis.

Riga Mustapha, who had rejected a deal to terminate his contract in September, finally agreed and left the club after making twenty two appearances since he joined in 2008.