As fans look forward to Premier League football this weekend, they will quickly notice that the fixture schedule is very unusual.
Normally, matches will be scheduled either for 12:30 p.m., 3 p.m. or 5:30 p.m. on Saturday, or at 2 p.m. or 4:30 p.m. on Sunday.
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However, this weekend the action deviated from the usual plan due to a strange schedule change.
Aston Villa v Bournemouth and Crystal Palace v West Ham are both scheduled to take place at 3 p.m. Sunday afternoon.
And this was forced due to the midweek European matches.
The Premier League explained on its website that the match had been postponed from Saturday “due to the participation of Aston Villa and West Ham in the UEFA competitions”.
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Villa will play the second leg of the European Conference League quarter-final against Lille on Thursday.
Meanwhile, the Hammers travel to Germany to face new Bundesliga champions Bayer Leverkusen in the Europa League on the same evening.
To allow sufficient recovery and travel time for both teams, the matches were moved to Sunday afternoon.
There is, however, no official reason from the Premier League or any of the clubs why the match will take place at 3 p.m. instead of the usual 2 p.m. start.
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Aston Villa announced the change last month with the sole reasoning being “due to the club’s participation in the UEFA Europa Conference League”.
Crystal Palace revealed the same for their match, announcing that “this decision is necessary due to West Ham’s participation in the Europa League quarter-finals the previous Thursday.”
In addition to the strange change from Sunday, Saturday is also different.
There are only two games in the traditional 3pm slot and Wolves then host Arsenal at 7.30pm.
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