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Why Man United, Tottenham and Chelsea are playing on a Friday night as strange kick-off explained

Four Premier League teams are in action on Friday evening, in an unusual double bill of Friday night action.

Chelsea will host Manchester United at Stamford Bridge while Tottenham will head to Aston Villa in the West Midlands.

Those matches will be their penultimate of the top flight campaign. However, both Spurs and Chelsea will have one eye on bigger priorities as they prepare to compete in the Europa League and Europa Conference League finals, respectively.

But why are all four teams playing on a Friday night? Here, football.london brings you all the information you need to know.

Why the Friday night kick-off?

Tottenham's fixture with Villa was initially scheduled to be played on Sunday afternoon (May 18), but the Premier League confirmed the new kick-off times and date last month.

Ange Postecoglou's side will be in Europa League final action on May 21 - just 72 hours after their originally scheduled game on Sunday.

Spurs then moved quickly to request their game be rescheduled for the same evening as United's, as Ruben Amorim's side would otherwise have had two extra days of rest before the final.

Villa, meanwhile, initially rejected the proposal, citing that it was their final home game and family-focused events were planned, making an evening kick-off difficult.

Tottenham and Aston Villa

Tottenham and Aston Villa will go head-to-head in the Premier League (Image: Getty Images)

However, in the end, Spurs were granted their wish.

Furthermore, last season, the Premier League and Football Association agreed to reserve a dedicated day for the men’s FA Cup final, meaning no top-flight matches would be scheduled for Saturday.

Manchester City will play Crystal Palace in the FA Cup final on Saturday afternoon (4:30pm).

As for Sunday, Chelsea and United are set to face each other in the Women’s FA Cup final.

As a result, both clubs requested that their Premier League fixture be moved to a different day to avoid drawing attention away from their respective women’s teams.

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