Manchester United fans scanning the fixture list may have noticed something unusual: the club will not play a single Premier League match on a Saturday until at least mid-January.
After the November international break, United’s next 10 league fixtures are spread across Sundays, Mondays, midweek slots, and even a Friday night — but not one lands on a Saturday. Their last Saturday outing was the 2-2 draw with Tottenham on 8 November, and their next scheduled Saturday fixture is the Manchester derby on 17 January, though TV picks may still move that.
So, why the long Saturday drought? A perfect storm of scheduling rules, TV selections and European commitments across the league has boxed United out of the traditional weekend slot.
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Firstly, three of United’s fixtures were deliberately chosen as Monday Night Football matches. With United currently outside of European competition, broadcasters see them as prime candidates for the Monday slot — a luxury clubs involved in midweek European games seldom have.
Meanwhile, clashes at Crystal Palace and Leeds were originally earmarked as Saturday games but had to be moved. Palace play Strasbourg just three days before hosting United, while Leeds have a Thursday league match beforehand. The Premier League enforces a strict rule that no club should play two matches within 60 hours, prompting both fixtures to be shunted to Sunday lunchtime.
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United’s matches against West Ham, Wolves and Burnley fall within midweek Premier League rounds scheduled across December and early January, while the Boxing Day meeting with Newcastle sits in its own dedicated slot. Their pre-Christmas clash at Aston Villa is Sky Sports’ chosen Sunday broadcast.
Complicating matters further, this season’s broadcasting deal — dominated by Sky Sports — forces networks to balance Saturday picks carefully, while several clubs’ European schedules rule out Saturday availability entirely.
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With United free of midweek European commitments, TV schedulers have leaned heavily on them to fill flexible slots — meaning fans must wait until 2025 for another Saturday at Old Trafford.
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