The Athletic FC

Welcome to the preview from the Athletic FC

It's the show where we get you set for the weekend's Premier League action

This week we're looking ahead to the biggest games of match week 15

And joining me today we have stalwart of the preview show, Tim Spears. How are you doing, Tim?

Wehe. All right, Matt. That was a very convincing wahay. And after a stellar debut last time out,

Kerris Jones is back for the difficult second podcast. You okay, Kerris? I'm good. I'm nervous now.

You said that, but thank you very much. Just keep up the standard of last week. You will be fine.

Right, you simply cannot beat a midweek bonus Barclays this time round. It blessed us with

plenty of talking points and goals. Here's Tim Spears, opining in article form. As Premier League

midweek games have shown, football is better under under the lights or is it? I mean,

I guess it is if you're at Craven Cottage or the Amex Tim, but maybe if you're not at Old

Trafford or Turf more. But more broadly, I would agree with your points. It's about glistening

pitches. It's about walking to the stadium under streetlight. And it's about excess consumption of alcohol in a lot of

cases that definitely helps definitely helps improve the atmosphere i find i don't know i was just it was

the question was sort of put to me this week and i was like yeah i definitely prefer night matches

certainly in person and it's like you know you wouldn't have a gig at like one in the afternoon

you know football and most forms of entertainment are much better in the evening. It's hard to explain, really, but I think most people would agree if you've been to night matches, they're better than daytimes. But, yeah, interestingly, I sort of looked into the data for this and more goals are scored in early kickoffs than late kickoffs, which is quite surprising. Is it an anticipation thing, Karris? I mean, you had to schlep all the way up to Burnley for an early kickoff the other week. I'm guessing you'd be keener to go there on, I don't know, Tuesday night? Yeah, I don't know. I mean, it helps build the anticipation, I think, especially if everyone's had a long working day or whatever and then you get there but then also

it does have potential to be a much more deflating experience when it goes wrong as well i think

because you sort of if you're getting back at silly o'clock because you've travelled for a game and then

you have work the next day that's a different level of disappointment to if it's, you know,

three o'clock on a Saturday. Well, the West Ham fans traveling back from Old Trafford

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