Premier League fans have been left fuming after finding out the rearranged Christmas and New Year schedule following the World Cup. Manchester United, Chelsea and Manchester City are among the teams to have had games moved, with the league granting the three clubs special dispensation to avoid playing Boxing Day to allow more rest time following Qatar.
Three full rounds of games will take place over the festive period – but the rearrangements have not been well received by fans. The changes were announced two weeks after they were originally supposed to and some supporters have been left forced to change their travel plans at late notice.
With United, Chelsea and City’s matches all moved away from Boxing Day to allow greater recovery time from the World Cup, fans of the three clubs, in addition to supporters of opponents Nottingham Forest, Bournemouth and Leeds have been left particularly unhappy as many had already made plans to watch their teams immediately after Christmas.
Arsenal and West Ham fans are also up in arms after their team’s match on Boxing Day was moved to the strange kick-off time of 8pm making it more difficult to get home on a day of reduced public transport. The Gunners’ fixture against Brighton on New Year’s Eve is another that has been poorly received, being played at 5:30pm, the latest fixture of the day.
All of the matches across the period between the 26th and the 28th will be shown live on Amazon Prime with BT Sport and Sky Sports each showing multiple matches over the rest of the period.
Fans took to Twitter to show their discontent, with the late notice one of the primary concerns. @Chewy_HK wrote: “Oh great! Things have already been booked and paid for and now you’ve decided to change the dates. Well done for screwing the fans over and over again!”. While @mikeosterdahl wrote: “Those fixtures were due ages ago, but as always you’re unable to keep what you promise. Absolutely useless you are.”
Others were just angry that they would not be able to see their teams on action on Boxing Day, a day which holds a culturally significant role in the English football calendar. @_red_7 said: “Are you kidding us? For the second year in a row no United game on Boxing Day!?!? This is absolutely disgusting!” while Arsenal fan @telthegooner spoke of their anger: “8pm on Boxing Day? Get in the bin, absolute shambles that deserves an empty ground.”
The Festive Schedule in Full
(kick-offs 15:00 unless stated. All times GMT)
Monday December 26
12:30 Brentford vs Spurs (Prime Video)
Crystal Palace vs Fulham (Prime Video)
Everton vs Wolves (Prime Video)
Leicester vs Newcastle (Prime Video)
Southampton vs Brighton (Prime Video)
17:30 Aston Villa vs Liverpool (Prime Video)
20:00 Arsenal vs West Ham (Prime Video)
Tuesday December 27
17:30 Chelsea vs AFC Bournemouth (Prime Video)
20:00 Man Utd vs Nott’m Forest (Prime Video)
Wednesday December 28
20:00 Leeds vs Man City (Prime Video)
Friday December 30
19:45 West Ham vs Brentford
20:00 Liverpool vs Leicester (Sky Sports)
Saturday December 31
12:30 Wolves vs Man Utd (BT Sport)
AFC Bournemouth vs Crystal Palace
Fulham vs Southampton
Man City vs Everton
Newcastle vs Leeds
17:30 Brighton vs Arsenal (Sky Sports)
Sunday January 1
14:00 Spurs vs Aston Villa (Sky Sports)
16:30 Nott’m Forest vs Chelsea (Sky Sports)
Monday January 2
17:30 Brentford vs Liverpool (Sky Sports)
Tuesday January3
19:45 Everton vs Brighton
19:45 Leicester vs Fulham
20:00 Arsenal vs Newcastle (Sky Sports)
20:00 Man Utd vs AFC Bournemouth
Wednesday January 4
19:30 Southampton vs Nott’m Forest
19:45 Leeds vs West Ham
20:00 Aston Villa vs Wolves
20:00 Crystal Palace vs Spurs (Sky Sports)
Thursday January 5
20:00 Chelsea vs Man City (Sky Sports)
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