Why is there no 12:30pm kick-off this weekend? Premier League fixture schedule impacted by return of European football

Premier League fans will be disappointed to find out that there is no early kick-off scheduled for this weekend.

The 12:30pm kick-off time usually gets the top-flight action underway on Saturdays, being broadcast live on television every week. 

There will be no early kick-off in the Premier League on SaturdayGetty

However, this Saturday, there is no early match and instead, the fixtures are spread out across the weekend at some unusual times. 

talkSPORT.com takes a look at why this is the case…

Why is there no 12:30pm kick-off? 

There is no 12:30pm kick-off in the Premier League this Saturday due to no games being selected for broadcast.

The slot is usually picked by TNT Sports, however, they will not show an early match this weekend, broadcasting an 8pm game instead. 

And this is likely because of the European fixtures taking place in midweek.

Manchester City, Manchester United, Arsenal, Liverpool, Newcastle, Brighton, West Ham and Aston Villa are all featuring in Europe. 

Therefore, as they are playing in midweek, they cannot have an early slot on Saturday due to not having enough recovery time. 

That will have been the likely reason that Burnley vs Man United will be shown at the changed time of 8pm on TNT Sports. 

Man City are playing the earliest out of all top-flight team who featured in EuropeGetty

Only three 3pm games will be taking place in the Premier League too, with three matches moved due to European participation. 

Brighton vs Bournemouth, Chelsea vs Aston Villa and Liverpool vs West Ham will all be played at 2pm on Sunday instead. 

Arsenal and Newcastle are also scheduled to be playing on Sunday afternoon. 

This will be a common occurrence on weekends following a round of Champions League, Europa League and Europa Conference League fixtures.

And therefore the 12:30pm slot will be filled by teams not featuring in those competitions following a European matchweek.