Man Utd kick-off change explained with no early Premier League match live on TV
This Premier League weekend marks another that will leave fans waiting for their first taste of live action.
And with no game selected on Friday and no early kick-off on Saturday, viewers will have no top-flight coverage to watch until Everton ’s trip to Brentford at 5.30pm. It’s a decision which is sure to frustrate, with a blank space in the fixture list usually reserved for the weekend curtain raiser - the TNT Sports’ lunchtime fixture.
However, due to a quirk in the Premier League scheduling, there will be no such fixture this time around. That’s due to a host of teams needing extra rest following European exploits in midweek.
As well as the four Champions League teams - Manchester City, Manchester United, Arsenal and Newcastle - there are two Europa League entrants in West Ham and Brighton and Aston Villa in the Europa Conference League. And with seven teams needing domestic matches rearranged, the schedulers have been given another headache.
Of those seven sides, six will be playing on Sunday, with four matches kicking off at 2pm and Newcastle’s clash with Sheffield United live on Sky at 4.30pm. United are the odd ones out, put forward to play on Saturday after their game with Burnley was picked by TNT.
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However, rather than forcing the Red Devils to play less than 72 hours after their exhausting slogfest with Bayern Munich, Erik ten Hag’s men have been given some extra rest. The match at Turf Moor will instead get underway at 8pm. BT Sport - now known as TNT - changed their own guidelines to prohibit teams that had played on the Wednesday, from being selected for an early start.
That came following vociferous complaints from a number of Premier League bosses. Liverpool boss Jurgen Klopp has been a notable critic and continued his tirade last week after the Reds’ trip to face Wolves was selected, this time due to his players returning from international duty just hours prior.
“If I say a word about it then the world says, ‘He’s moaning again’. This is a joke,” he said before winning at Molineux. “But it’s like it is and we cannot change it. We will never change that, whoever we talk to.
United lost for the third straight game vs Bayern Munich in midweek (Christina Pahnke - sampics/Getty Images)“Now the TV channel has a different name, but obviously it doesn’t change anything at all. They don’t give a… so why should I talk about that? We didn’t think about it.”
United hope to have made the most of their extra downtime, confirming on their website that “the extra time has allowed Erik ten Hag and his team to spend some more time in Germany and train in the area, following the 4-3 defeat to Bayern Munich in our Group A opener.”
And they will be hoping it helps, with Ten Hag under growing pressure after losing three games in a row in all competitions and winning just two of their opening five Premier League matches.
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