Opinion: Football becoming a night game for United
There was a time when top-flight football was played, almost exclusively, on a Saturday afternoon at three o'clock.
Of course, that has long since changed and it is no surprise that Manchester United have not had a fixture kick off at that time all season. After all, the picture has been altered dramatically since COVID-19 struck and fans, in the large part, have not been allowed to enter stadiums.
Yet there have been eight different start times for Ole Gunnar Solskjaer's men already in the 2020/21 season and a marked shift away from afternoon action altogether.
Undoubtedly, United's pull makes us a natural choice for many of the evening slots for television coverage and, as the year changes, we'll have three successive matches at 20:00 GMT.
There could be other cup games to consider but the January schedule now includes successive midweek Premier League games not starting until 20:15 GMT. While this does not stray into Moscow 2008 territory, it is pretty late for a domestic fixture to be getting under way.
So playing under the floodlights is something United are getting used to this term, it is no longer mainly the preserve of European football, FA Cup replays and League Cup ties, as was the case in the past.
Of the confirmed fixtures in 2020/21, 16 are at 20:00 GMT or later with another that started at 19:45 BST (the Carabao Cup clash at Brighton & Hove Albion). The away leg at Real Sociedad in the Europa League will be a second clash kicking off just before six o'clock and most of the other games would classify as teatime affairs.
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An early start on Boxing Day may not be everybody's cup of tea but the Leicester City away game is only the third 12:30pm fixture of our campaign thus far and we've had only one two o'clock encounter, the recent thriller at Southampton.
Football has changed rapidly and the fact all the Premier League matches are currently being televised has clearly had an impact but one by-product of the current situation is watching, and supporting, United is now more of an evening than an afternoon pastime.
The opinions in this article are those of the author and do not necessarily represent the views of Manchester United Football Club.