The Premier League has scheduled games with Chelsea and Tottenham Hotspur for this Sunday at 7:00 p.m. GMT (2:00 p.m. ET) after both clubs played in Europe on Thursday night.

Tottenham traveled from London to Glasgow on Thursday evening to play Rangers in the UEFA Europa League. They drew 1-1 and were in ninth place in the table.

Chelsea have made it to the top of the table in the UEFA Conference League while fielding a varied team. Their most recent victory came on Thursday when they traveled 3,500 miles to Kazakhstan to face Astana, a game that ended 3-1.

Both teams’ next Premier League games will now take place on Sunday at 7pm GMT, so the schedule for December 15th now looks like this:

Why 7 p.m.?

Neither game could be played on Saturday as both Chelsea and Tottenham were involved in games on Thursday evening.

Chelsea requested a later kick-off on Sunday as the return flight from Kazakhstan to London takes eight hours.

The Premier League then offered Spurs a later kick-off, despite the journey to Glasgow being just 340 miles away.

The 7pm slot is unusual but represents a contingency in the league if other kick-off times are unavailable or not feasible.

Neither game could be rescheduled for midweek next week as Chelsea play again in the European Cup against Shamrock Rovers on Thursday, while Chelsea’s opponents on Sunday, Brentford, play Newcastle in the quarter-finals of the League Cup on Wednesday. Tottenham play Manchester United in the League Cup on Thursday, while Southampton play Liverpool in the same competition on Wednesday.

Have Sunday games ever been played this late?

35 Premier League games started at 7pm or later on Sundays (29 of them in the 2020/21 season, a season with many adjustments due to the impact of Covid-19). The first was Everton vs Liverpool in June 2020. The last was West Ham vs Manchester United in May 2023.

Typically Sunday games take place at 2pm and 4.30pm as part of Sky Sports’ Super Sundays coverage.

Will they be on TV?

Tottenham v Southampton will be shown on TNT Sports, which is another reason it landed in the 7pm slot on Sunday – Sky will show the games at 2pm and 4.30pm, so the Spurs game couldn’t meet.

Chelsea’s game against Brentford will not be televised.

Premier League fixtures will change throughout the season to accommodate domestic and European cup competitions and broadcasters. Expanded European competitions taking up extra weeks on the calendar have put further pressure on the Premier League schedule.

What impact does this have on fans?

The kick-off on Sunday at 7 p.m. is controversial.

Southampton host Tottenham Hotspur at St Mary’s on Sunday, meaning any Spurs fans making the trip will face a late arrival, but UK public transport is running limited services on Sundays. This is even more problematic when many people have to work on Monday mornings.

“Fans have already gotten used to so many random kick-off times on random days that this is just another to add to the list,” says Ben Stansfield, founder of Southampton fan media Total Saints Podcast The athlete. “The convenience of the fans is clearly irrelevant.”

The backlash against the 5.30pm kick-off of the 2023 Community Shield between Manchester City and Arsenal resulted in it being pushed back to 4pm.

The fact that fans may not be able to travel may also lead to reduced ticket sales and a poorer atmosphere in the stadium.

(Top photo: Stamford Bridge during Chelsea vs Newcastle last season; Robbie Jay Barratt/AMA via Getty Images)