Premier League clubs made the most of the new rule allowing five substitutions on the opening weekend of the new season. The numbers of changes allowed was raised from three for the new season and 13 of the 20 clubs made either four or five changes in their opening fixture.
Here, the PA news agency looks at how managers deployed their additional resources – and which ones chose not to. While only two games saw the full complement of 10 substitutes used – Tottenham’s rout of Southampton and Manchester City’s win at West Ham – every match saw at least four substitutions from a single team and the average team made 3.85 changes.
Crystal Palace and Arsenal kicked things off with four and three substitutions respectively on Friday night, with Palace making the first ‘extra’ substitution over last season’s allocation when Will Hughes and Malcolm Ebiowei were both introduced in the 86th minute.
Saturday’s early game between Fulham (three) and Liverpool (four) repeated the pattern and Newcastle joined Spurs and Southampton as the first teams to make five changes during the 3pm kick-offs.