Five Brighton fixtures which could move regardless of television
Brighton and Hove Albion’s 2019-20 Premier League fixtures have been announced but as we all know, nothing is set in stone until Sky Sports and BT have finished carving up the list for their televised games.
We won’t find out what our paymasters want to do until later in the year. There are provisional dates for when the games which will be moved for live coverage are set to be announced, which are as follows:
August and September’s televised games – July 5th
October’s televised games – August 6th
November’s televised games – September 16th
December and January’s televised games – October 11th
February’s televised games – December 14th
March’s televised games – January 24th,
April’s televised games – February 21st
May’s televised games – April 3rd
But even without the interference of Sky and BT, there are several fixtures which look likely to move regardless of what the television companies choose to do.
Manchester United away – November 9th
Brighton’s away game with Manchester United was pencilled in for Saturday November 9th but this will definitely not take place on that date as United will have a Europa League fixture on the Thursday beforehand. That will mean a Sunday visit to Old Trafford on November 10th to take on Paul Pogba and company for the Albion.
Watford home – February 8th
The Premier League will be introducing a winter break in the 2019-20 season with 10 teams having the weekend of February 8th off and the other 10 not playing on February 15th. It is yet to be decided who won’t play on which date, meaning that the Albion’s fixture at home to Watford – currently scheduled for the first of those weekends – could be pushed back by a week. Either way, there will be a fortnight without a game in February.
Arsenal home – March 14th
The Europa League could cause further complications to the Albion’s fixture list should Arsenal progress into the third round of the competition. If they were to do so, the Gunners would play their first leg tie on Thursday March 12th. That’s two days before they are scheduled to visit the Amex, which would result in the fixture being pushed back 24 hours to the Sunday. Given that Arsenal have reached the semi finals in the past two seasons, it seems likely that they’ll still be involved at that stage.
Leicester City away – March 21st
Should either Leicester City or the Albion reach the quarter finals of the FA Cup, then that game would take place on the weekend of March 21st which would necessitate our Premier League clash at the King Power Stadium being rescheduled. The Albion have made it to the last eight for the past two seasons but how seriously Graham Potter will treat the competition nobody knows. Brendan Rodgers meanwhile may well consider the FA Cup as a possible route to silverware in his first full season in charge at Leicester. It wouldn’t be a surprise to see one or even both of the Seagulls and the Foxes still in the cup by the time it reaches the last eight.
Liverpool home – April 18th
A month after the quarter finals of the FA Cup come the semi finals. Given the talent that Jurgen Klopp has at his disposal, there’s every chance that Liverpool will have a Wembley date on the weekend they are due to travel to the Amex. Should both Brighton and the Reds both be eliminated from the competition, we do at least know that their Premier League meeting cannot be moved to the Sunday as that is the day of the Brighton Marathon.
