Why Man City vs Newcastle United will kick off at 8pm

Manchester City supporters will be heading to the Etihad Stadium later than usual on Saturday evening for their clash with Newcastle United.

The Blues will host Eddie Howe's men in an 8pm kick off as both clubs look to continue their 100 per cent starts to the season. However, this decision was met with criticism by supporters, particularly those who are using public transport to get to the match.

Pep Guardiola has also criticised the decision and it is fair to suggest the call has done little to boost the Premier League's popularity in the blue half of the City. But why will the match kick off so late on a Saturday? MEN Sport has the answers.

The decision to kick off at 8pm on a Saturday was made due to two reasons. First of which was because City won the Champions League last season meaning they qualified for the Super Cup on Wednesday, August 16.

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Secondly, the clash was also selected for TV coverage by TNT Sports. Normally the Premier League match on the formerly named BT Sport would be played at 12:30pm on a Saturday.

However, due to City's match in Greece ending in the early hours of Thursday morning, the game is unable to be played as the early kick off on a Saturday due to a tight turnaround. The game could have been moved to Sunday or Monday but TNT Sports did not want it to clash with Sky's coverage on those days.

This is why 8pm has been chosen for Saturday's kick off as it allows for the 48 hour minimum gap between matches to be observed.

Speaking in his press conference, Guardiola issued an impassioned plea to the supporters to stick with his side to get them over the line. "We cannot be at the Etihad just looking at how good we are, because of what we’ve