Other than recent West Ham issues, you don't hear of the smaller incidents that go on.

Obviously on a bank holiday, it doesn't have to be a late kick off and Sky might fancy 2 games in a row on that day before Playoffs start.

But they only have one kick off slot on a Monday ???
If they want 2 games they will have EFL

Think they had 3 last season

Exactly, and they have supposedly fitter players who will generally play less than FL clubs/players do during the course of a season, plus bigger and better squads to choose from unlike FL clubs. I find it stupid that the bigger players/clubs moan so much. If they can't cope, they should, to put it politely, sod off and do something less strenuous.

How many players from FL clubs, who are less likely to be in teams that go on long Cup runs and certainly aren't playing in European competition, travel all around the world on international duty or end up playing in major international tournaments in the summer?

Oh dear me!!

No big games on Boxing Day then

All the Top 7 won their first Christmas match

BT must be pleased to have the Saturday night game

Finally catching up with the Feb picks right now!

Is there a consensus on the 'radio rule' regarding whether a 5Live game in a TS slot (Sat 1730 / Sun 13:30) is a Package F / G game? It seemed a great spot initially but without ploughing through the thread has it been debunked?

And if it is likely true, is there a convenient list of TS games for all of this season?

It looks exceedingly likely that TS have all the games in package B and C only

The list at the moment goes only up to the end of January

Talk Sport Games confirmed so far

13-Aug-16 Man City v Sunderland 17:30 BT B
20-Aug-16 Leicester v Arsenal 17:30 BT B
27-Aug-16 Hull v Man Utd 17:30 BT B
10-Sep-16 Liverpool v Leicester 17:30 BT B
17-Sep-16 Everton v Middlesbrough 17:30 BT B
24-Sep-16 Arsenal v Chelsea 17:30 BT B
02-Oct-16 Man Utd v Stoke 12:00 BT B
22-Oct-16 Liverpool v West Brom 17:30 BT B
05-Nov-16 Chelsea v Everton 17:30 BT B
06-Nov-16 Arsenal v Tottenham 12:00 BT B
26-Nov-16 Chelsea v Tottenham 17:30 BT B
03-Dec-16 West Ham v Arsenal 17:30 BT B
10-Dec-16 Leicester v Man City 17:30 BT B
17-Dec-16 West Brom v Man Utd 17:30 BT B
31-Dec-16 Liverpool v Man City 17:30 BT B
14-Jan-17 Leicester v Chelsea 17:30 BT B
21-Jan-17 Man City v Tottenham 17:30 BT B

14-Aug-16 Bournemouth v Man Utd 13:30 SKY C
21-Aug-16 Sunderland v Middlesbrough 13:30 SKY C
28-Aug-16 West Brom v Middlesbrough 13:30 SKY C
18-Sep-16 Crystal Palace v Stoke 14:15 SKY C
02-Oct-16 Tottenham v Man City 14:15 SKY C
15-Oct-16 Chelsea v Leicester 12:30 SKY C
30-Oct-16 Everton v West Ham 13:30 SKY C
06-Nov-16 Liverpool v Watford 14:15 SKY C
27-Nov-16 Arsenal v Bournemouth 14:15 SKY C
04-Dec-16 Bournemouth v Liverpool 13:30 SKY C
11-Dec-16 Man Utd v Tottenham 14:15 SKY C
18-Dec-16 Bournemouth v Southampton 13:30 SKY C
01-Jan-17 Watford v Tottenham 13:30 SKY C
15-Jan-17 Everton v Man City 13:30 SKY C
22-Jan-17 Arsenal v Burnley 14:15 SKY C

Just catching up - I was in that very same group of Arsenal fans being attacked by the Spurs mob after that league cup game! Small world!

Thanks!

Something has definitely changed this season. In the past it seemed like the radio companies paid for a time slot and they showed whatever ended up being shown in that slot even if games were swapped about to accommodate European games. That doesn't seem to be the case now. A few weeks ago the 5 Live covered Southampton v Everton rather than Man Utd v West Ham. I am sure that in the past that the BBC would do the Man Utd game even thought it wasn't the game picked for TV.

Counter to that however, I still find it odd that BT decided to use one of their Package F games on Crystal Palace v West Ham. Even if they're offered fourth pick, BT don't have to use it. They own the Saturday 17:30 slot so there is no reason why they could not have picked that game with a fifth pick in Package B. I cannot for the life of me work out why BT would waste a pick in Package F on a game not featuring a Big 6 team. So I would say until we've seen Palace picked again by BT, there's still an outside chance that the radio rule isn't a perfect fit. But if I had to put money on it, I reckon it holds true.

BT could go for Chelsea v Palace in early April

After the midweek that may be their last chance of Chelsea as Sky normally hoover up all of the Title contenders last 6 games

It's interesting to note that BT have filled fewer min quotas by this point in the season (end of Feb) compared with the last three seasons. With seven picks left in Package A, BT had to fill the following quotas:

2013-14: West Brom
2014-15: Southampton and Leicester
2015-16: Aston Villa and Swansea

With nine picks left in Package B (we think), BT have to fill the min quota for Bournemouth, Burnley, Crystal Palace, Southampton and Swansea. Obviously having two more games left means four more chances to fill quotas so you might expect one or two more quotas to be unfilled. But I am surprised that BT still have five to fill. Here are the weeks that I think BT could have done things differently:

Week 2: Personally I wouldn't have taken first pick - Burnley v Liverpool would have been a decent fifth pick.

Week 8: Take Crystal Palace v West Ham as a Package B game rather than a Package F game.

Week 9: I don't think Liverpool v West Brom was a great fifth pick given BT had Liverpool as a second pick in Week 10. Possibly Swansea v Watford or Leicester v Crystal Palace could have been picked.

Week 14: BT could have passed third pick and saved an Arsenal game in Package B. Crystal Palace v Southampton would have been a decent quota filler.

I wonder if BT have prioritised picking the big teams this season with a view to giving the impression that they have better picks than last season? Whatever, I think some of their picks in the last third of the season will be dictated to a large extent by quota filling.

not backed up by any research but i think BT like to get teams on in consecutive weeks (or 2 out of 3) to drive subs, that's my theory behind the liv vs wba game anyway

re the quota fillers

i bet BT have their eye on Bournemouth vs Swansea on March 18, Soton vs Bournemouth on April 1 and Palace vs Burnley on April 29 to kill 2 birds with 1 stone. But they should be able to get them filled in no problem, Wouldn't be shocked if deals aren't done on early picks to guarantee them the chance to pick games like these

Next season the PL matchdays over Christmas will be December 16/20/23/26/30 and January 1. Definitely no lack of football like this year !

Where was this announced or have you just taken it from Gary Lineker's tweet?

They surely won't all be PL match days?

It wouldn't be entirely surprising.

That's Saturday-midweek-Saturday-Boxing Day-Saturday-New Year's Day.

Christmas Eve might be a problem for TV games.

From Lineker, would be a weird thing for him to Tweet incorrectly.

Can play a game on the Friday night, two on the Saturday and one early on Christmas Eve, should be fine.

Friday night would be constrained by the preceding midweek, and by extension the previous weekend, i.e. the Friday fixture could only be between two teams who played on the Tuesday, and thus also didn't play on the Sunday.

As we know well, Christmas means that wouldn't necessarily be a restriction.

We have to go back to the 2006-07 season for the last time that Christmas fell on a Monday. Statto is down at the moment but I'm pretty sure all 10 games were played on Saturday 23 December. I guess there were games at 12:45 and 17:30, perhaps Mr Williams of this parish can remember which.

There was a midweek round of fixtures at the end of November in the slot usually occupied by the League Cup Quarter Finals. Instead, the quarter finals were scheduled for the midweek before Christmas (though Liverpool v Arsenal was fogged off and played after Christmas). The previous midweek was left blank - though Wigan v Arsenal was played as their midweek game from August was postponed by Arsenal's Champions League qualifier.

Given that we didn't get a midweek round of fixtures in the week before Christmas this season, I find it hard to believe that we'll get one next season. I can't remember what the packages looked like in 2006-07, but I'm guessing someone had to defer a pick in the 23 December round of fixtures. Given each weekend now has at least four picks (excepting maybe the final week), I find it hard to see how the 23 December round next season won't feature a Friday night game. As has been noted already, that would put a constraint on a midweek round which in turn would constrain the previous weekend.

Could Christmas Eve be used? I'm not sure. In theory it would be needed to avoid an enforced deferral of a third/fourth pick. What it would do is put pressure on the Boxing Day games. Would they have to move a game featuring a team playing on 24 December? I suppose teams have played two games in three days this year so maybe it wouldn't be an issue.

The other thing next season is that 27 December is not a bank holiday so Sky are limited to one evening kick off that day.


I take it this was a joke?