The two simultaneous Sunday afternoon matches started at 14:00 BST in the 2026–27 Premier League opening weekend.
Brighton & Hove Albion versus Aston Villa and Manchester City versus Bournemouth were both scheduled for 14:00 on Sunday 23 August 2026. The simultaneous kick-offs created the first Sunday block of the opening round.
The Premier League gave Brighton’s match that time because Brighton had been involved in a UEFA Conference League qualification play-off on the preceding Thursday. This scheduling detail helped avoid placing the club in an excessively compressed run of fixtures.
Newcastle United versus Liverpool followed later at 16:30 BST. The opening round therefore used three different Sunday start times: 14:00 for the two early matches and 16:30 for the later fixture. Kick-off times can be changed for broadcasting or European-competition reasons, so the published schedule identified these as planned times rather than permanent league rules.