Man Utd will play just 40 games this season and their light schedule has been a dream for the broadcasters, who have been able to put them on in the slot nobody wants.
It’s a feeling Manchester United regulars are having to get used to this season. While they are watching the FA Cup fourth round from a distance this weekend, they will spend next weekend watching nine more Premier League games before their team eventually return to action, 13 days after they were last seen.
That was Tuesday’s 1-1 draw with West Ham in London. There were seven weekends left in February and March at that point, but United will play on only two of them. Widen it out to include the Easter weekend at the start of April, and six of the next eight weekends will pass by without Michael Carrick’s team playing.
This is partly of their own making. Including this weekend, there are three FA Cup rounds that won’t involve United after they were beaten by Brighton in round three. There is also an international break in there.
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But United’s failure to qualify for European football this season has made them vulnerable to the whims of broadcasters and their trip to Everton next Monday will be a familiar sensation. A first trip to the Hill Dickinson Stadium on Liverpool’s waterfront should be a great away day, but not on the first night of a working week.
It will be the fourth time United will have fulfilled Sky Sports’ Monday night slot in the last 14 weeks, and some of those had no Monday night game at all. To make matters worse, they will play on a Friday night in March. At Bournemouth.
United are ideally placed to be moved to Monday night because they aren’t in Europe. In weeks with European football, none of the Premier League’s nine participants in the Champions League, Europa League, or Conference League can play in that slot. United are always a dream for TV ratings, so sticking them on a Monday is seen as ideal.
Those fixtures wouldn’t normally be seen as TV gold. Maybe there is an argument for home and away games against Everton making the cut for TV, but United have also played Bournemouth, West Ham and Wolves on Monday nights.
It means that in a season with very little midweek football, there are also few weekend games for United. They have played 19 games on a Saturday or Sunday so far, but will play only eight out of 21 weekends between drawing 2-2 with Tottenham in early November and the home game with Leeds on April 11, which could yet be moved.
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Late changes to the schedule have become a recurring theme this season. United are getting plenty of notice for these games, but they are not enjoyable for supporters. Monday night games will never have the same kind of atmosphere and feeling as a weekend fixture.
The production values of Sky Sports’ show are good, and the analysis of the weekend’s football is often a must-watch, but actually being involved in the game isn’t a lot of fun.
But then, at least United’s Monday games have all been on their doorstep, with three at Old Trafford and now a trip to Merseyside. The Friday, March 20 date at Bournemouth is disastrous. It will require a day of work and either an overnight stay or a return from the south coast in the (very) early hours.
And let’s be honest, there is probably more of this to come. TV selections for April and May are yet to be confirmed. That is seven games in total, and while the final day of the season will be on a Sunday, it wouldn’t be a surprise if there was another Monday or Friday date in there for United fans to put up with.
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![Heathrow has said passenger numbers were 60% lower in November than before the coronavirus pandemic and there were “high cancellations” among business travellers concerned about being trapped overseas for Christmas as Omicron spreads. The UK’s largest airport said the government’s travel restrictions had dealt a fresh blow to travel confidence and predicted it was likely to take several years for passenger numbers to return to pre-pandemic levels. This week ministers said passengers arriving in the UK would have to take a pre-departure Covid test, as well as a post-flight test, because of fears about the spread of the new variant. “[The] high level of cancellations by business travellers concerned about being trapped overseas because of pre-departure testing shows the potential harm to the economy of travel restrictions,” the airport said in an update. Heathrow said the drop in traveller confidence owing to the new travel restrictions had negated the benefit of reopening the all-important corridor to North America for business and holiday travel last month. Eleven African countries have been added to the government’s red list, requiring travellers to quarantine before reuniting with families. “By allowing Brits to isolate at home, ministers can make sure they are reunited with their loved ones this Christmas,” said John Holland-Kaye, the chief executive of Heathrow. “It would send a strong signal that restrictions on travel will be removed as soon as safely possible to give passengers the confidence to book for 2022, opening up thousands of new jobs for local people at Heathrow. Let’s reunite families for Christmas.” Heathrow said that if the government could safely signal that restrictions would be lifted soon, then employers at Heathrow would have the confidence to hire thousands of staff in anticipation of a boost in business next summer. The airport is expecting a slow start to 2022, finishing next year with about 45 million passengers – just over half of pre-pandemic levels. This week Tui, Europe’s largest package holiday operator, said it expected bookings for next summer to bounce back to 2019 levels. However, Heathrow said on Friday not to expect the aviation industry to recover for several years. “We do not expect that international travel will recover to 2019 levels until at least all travel restrictions (including testing) are removed from all the markets that we serve, at both ends of the route, and there is no risk of new restrictions, such as quarantine, being imposed,” the airport said.](https://wordupnews.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/02/shutterstock_1100012546-scaled-400x240.jpg)
![Heathrow has said passenger numbers were 60% lower in November than before the coronavirus pandemic and there were “high cancellations” among business travellers concerned about being trapped overseas for Christmas as Omicron spreads. The UK’s largest airport said the government’s travel restrictions had dealt a fresh blow to travel confidence and predicted it was likely to take several years for passenger numbers to return to pre-pandemic levels. This week ministers said passengers arriving in the UK would have to take a pre-departure Covid test, as well as a post-flight test, because of fears about the spread of the new variant. “[The] high level of cancellations by business travellers concerned about being trapped overseas because of pre-departure testing shows the potential harm to the economy of travel restrictions,” the airport said in an update. Heathrow said the drop in traveller confidence owing to the new travel restrictions had negated the benefit of reopening the all-important corridor to North America for business and holiday travel last month. Eleven African countries have been added to the government’s red list, requiring travellers to quarantine before reuniting with families. “By allowing Brits to isolate at home, ministers can make sure they are reunited with their loved ones this Christmas,” said John Holland-Kaye, the chief executive of Heathrow. “It would send a strong signal that restrictions on travel will be removed as soon as safely possible to give passengers the confidence to book for 2022, opening up thousands of new jobs for local people at Heathrow. Let’s reunite families for Christmas.” Heathrow said that if the government could safely signal that restrictions would be lifted soon, then employers at Heathrow would have the confidence to hire thousands of staff in anticipation of a boost in business next summer. The airport is expecting a slow start to 2022, finishing next year with about 45 million passengers – just over half of pre-pandemic levels. This week Tui, Europe’s largest package holiday operator, said it expected bookings for next summer to bounce back to 2019 levels. However, Heathrow said on Friday not to expect the aviation industry to recover for several years. “We do not expect that international travel will recover to 2019 levels until at least all travel restrictions (including testing) are removed from all the markets that we serve, at both ends of the route, and there is no risk of new restrictions, such as quarantine, being imposed,” the airport said.](https://wordupnews.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/02/shutterstock_1100012546-scaled-80x80.jpg)
