Why Premier League games are kicking off at 2.05pm today – it’s not as rare as you might think – The Athletic
Even in a world of changing kick-off times, football viewers in the UK have become used to a pretty familiar routine of when and where they watch their favourite sport.
You have your 12.30pm (7.30am ET) kick-off on TNT Sports to begin a Saturday and your regular 3pm slot — blacked out for broadcast in the UK — after that, before an evening kick-off at 5.30pm on Sky Sports, occasionally an 8pm one too. Sundays also follow a well-worn pattern, with games mostly in two windows, one at 2pm local time and a second, usually the marquee matchup of the weekend, at 4.30pm.
Eagle-eyed viewers will have spotted a change for the current round of matches, however, with three fixtures today (Sunday) — Aston Villa vs Wolverhampton Wanderers, Nottingham Forest vs Brighton & Hove Albion and West Ham United vs Liverpool — kicking off at 2.05pm.
So why the change — and has it ever happened before?
Why are three games on Sunday kicking off at 2.05pm?
The simple answer — as with many things in the modern game — is television.
Crystal Palace’s home meeting with Manchester United, originally scheduled for Saturday, before being shifted to Sunday to accommodate Palace’s participation this season in the UEFA Conference League, a competition where matches are on Thursday nights, kicks off at 12pm.
That game — which will be televised on TNT Sports in the UK, instead of that broadcaster having a 12.30pm Saturday match this weekend — being in a somewhat unorthodox slot means those in the 2pm window have had to be shifted accordingly to avoid any potential overlap between the end of Palace-United and the start of the later fixtures.
With Sky Sports now broadcasting all games in that broadcasting slot in the UK, rather than just one as previously, all three 2pm games had to be moved.
Sky Sports made the request, and the Premier League and the clubs involved approved.
How unusual is a 2.05pm kick-off?
In the history of the Premier League, the 2.05pm slot has been used on 46 previous occasions, all of which have been on Sundays.
The first was in September 2010, with Villa winning 2-1 away to Wolves, and the most recent in May 2021, when Wolves were again on the losing end, beaten 2-0 by Tottenham Hotspur.
This weekend will be the first time that three games have taken place at 2.05pm, and viewers will hope today provides as much entertainment as some of the most notable games in this slot, which include Liverpool winning 6-0 at Villa in February 2016 during Jurgen Klopp’s first season in charge, Arsenal’s 4-2 comeback win against Tottenham in December 2018 — one of the highlights of Unai Emery’s brief spell as coach at the Emirates Sstadium — and a 3-2 victory for Manchester United against Arsenal in February 2016 which saw Marcus Rashford score twice and assist the other on his Premier League debut for the club.
Overall, Premier League games kicking off at 2.05pm have averaged 2.74 goals, with only three 0-0 draws (Manchester United vs Manchester City in October 2015, Sunderland vs Arsenal in April 2016 and Manchester United vs Liverpool in February 2019).
What other unusual kick-off times has the Premier League used?
The 4.05pm slot has been used 77 times, for the same reason as the 2.05pm above, though the main Premier League game on Sunday was moved from 4pm to 4.30pm several years ago to avoid any lengthy overrun from the televised games kicking off at 2pm.
The 8.15pm kickoff has become more common in recent seasons, particularly on midweek rounds of fixtures, where it allows broadcasters to stagger games. We will see this next week, with Newcastle United vs Tottenham on Tuesday and both Leeds United vs Chelsea and Liverpool vs Sunderland the following day all starting at that time.
Gary Pallister is the owner of a very niche Premier League record (Ross Kinnaird/Allsport)
All matches on the weekend of April 12-13 in 2014 kicked off seven minutes later than normal to mark the 25th anniversary of the Hillsborough disaster, while several bespoke kick-off times have been used just once in the 33-year history of the Premier League, including a 7.40pm start for Blackburn Rovers vs Newcastle in May 1995, a 7.35pm for Blackburn vs Portsmouth in January 2006 and a New Year’s Day game between Aston Villa and Spurs in 2008 that got underway at 5.20pm.
The earliest slot ever used by the Premier League remains 11.15am, used just eight times between 1996 and 2005, which means that the earliest goal (by time of day) ever in a Premier League match was by former Manchester United centre-back Gary Pallister, who scored 13 minutes into an 11.15am game against Liverpool in April 1997.
