Why is there no Sunday 2pm kick-off in the Premier League this weekend?
Aston Villa's Champions League commitments have forced a schedule change for their match against Fulham.
Photo: Wikimedia Commons / CC BY-SA 2.0 / Author: dalli58
This Sunday, the Premier League schedule features a rare gap in its usual programming, with no match scheduled for the traditional 14:00 GMT kick-off slot. This time slot is usually a staple of the league's weekend, but it will remain empty this time around.
The scheduling adjustment is directly linked to Aston Villa's involvement in the Champions League. Their match against Fulham was originally slated for Sunday afternoon, but it has been moved forward to 20:00 on Saturday. This change was necessary because Unai Emery's squad is scheduled to face Barcelona in a Champions League fixture just two days later, on Tuesday, 3 November.
Sky Sports, the original broadcaster for the fixture, will continue to cover the game in its new slot. As a result of this change, the Saturday schedule has been adjusted, leaving only one game on the Sunday slate: the marquee clash between Liverpool and Arsenal at 16:30.