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Football London
Football London
Sport
Joe Doyle

Vitoria vs Arsenal: Why Europa League clash kick-off is at 3.50pm on Wednesday

It's matchday for Arsenal.

The Gunners are in Portugal for a Europa League clash this week and the game is not taking place in its usual Thursday slot.

The Europa League clash with Vitoria is actually taking place on Wednesday, and not in the evening either - kick-off is at 3.50pm.

That means a whole host of Gunners supporters could miss the clash because of work commitments.

Don't fear though, we've got you covered.

All the action is in our live blog right here.

The two teams played out an entertaining encounter at the Emirates Stadium two weeks ago, with the Gunners coming back from 2-1 down to win 3-2 with two late goals from Nicolas Pepe.

But why is the return clash on Wednesday, rather than Thursday?

UEFA have switched the date due to scheduling conflicts.

Vitoria are planning on playing all of their home matches in the Europa League on a Wednesday this season, as Portuguese police do not allow multiple teams from the Porto region to play on the same day due to security concerns.

The Guimares-based Vitoria are joined in the competition this year by both Porto and Braga, so as the lowest-ranked team of the three, their games must be played on a separate day.

As well as this, games must be played earlier in the day to avoid scheduling conflicts with the Champions League fixtures on the same day.

As such, the kick-off time will be at 3.50pm, both local time and UK time after the end of Daylight Savings Time on October 27.

Arsenal have named their Europa League squad for the season, with Unai Emery expected to give young talent such as Emile Smith Rowe, Joe Willock and Reiss Nelson plenty of game time in the group stages.

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