Why the Premier League moved Brentford vs Man United back by 5 hours

Manchester United will kick off against Brentford at the rather unusual time of 20:00 GMT on Saturday evening after it was moved from 15:00 GMT.

Manchester United return to Premier League action on Saturday evening following an international break during which 11 of the squad’s current players featured for their countries.

While many fear that their club’s players sustain injuries while away on international duty, Erik ten Hag got off relatively unscathed. Harry Maguire is the only potential worry—although his injury is not described as too serious.

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Back in domestic action, United are looking to take the final 10 games of the season by storm as they try and keep up and take over Tottenham and Aston Villa in the table as they face Brentford, who are winless in their last five games.

Why is the game so late?

Many have questioned why the game is kicking off at the unusual time of 20:00 GMT on Saturday evening. United released a statement surrounding the game when the time was announced in mid-February.

“After the international break, when the fixtures include England v Brazil on Saturday, 23 March, our month will end with an away trip to Brentford,” the club said.

“The 30 March meeting will now be a Saturday-night affair in south-west London (20:00 BST) and will be covered by Sky Sports.”

The Premier League announced at the beginning of the season that more games would start to kick off at this time, as league officials and managers wanted more rest for teams that played on Wednesday evenings. 

With United having had 11 players on international duty over the last two weeks and Brentford having a total of 18 players, the decision was likely made to push the game back by five hours from its original 15:00 GMT kick-off time to compensate for this.