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Irish Mirror
Irish Mirror
Sport
Mark Jones

Why isn't Arsenal vs Everton on Sky Sports or BT Sport? Live TV coverage explained

Just 25 days have elapsed since Arsenal were knocked off their title stride by Sean Dyche and Everton, but the chance for revenge has already arisen.

The Gunners welcome the Blues to the Emirates Stadium on Wednesday night, three-and-a-half weeks on from that 1-0 loss at Goodison Park on what was Dyche's first game in charge of his new side.

The win was typical Dyche, right down to the fact that the game's only goal was created and scored by two of his former Burnley players in Dwight McNeil and James Tarkowski.

For Arsenal it was somewhat of a rude awakening, and was the beginning of a miserable 10 days which included the controversial draw at home to Brentford and the 3-1 defeat to Manchester City.

The poise of potential title winners has now been regained though thanks to back-to-back away wins at Aston Villa and Leicester, with this Wednesday fixture serving as Arsenal's game in hand on City and the chance to go five points clear at the top with both having 13 games remaining.

However, if you're expecting to be able to view the game on television in the UK then you are going to be sorely disappointed.

Arsenal lost 1-0 at Everton on February 4 (Getty Images)

That's because the clash is not one of the 200 games selected to be shown live on one of the Premier League's three official broadcasters this season, despite the move to a midweek kick-off time.

Arsenal vs Everton had initially been scheduled to be played on Matchweek 7 of the season, with a 2pm kick-off on Sunday, September 11.

That date had been moved from the Saturday at 3pm due to Arsenal's participation in the Europa League on Thursday, September 8, but it was then called off along with all other fixtures in the country following the death of Queen Elizabeth II.

Arsenal were playing in Zurich when news of the Queen's death was announced (Getty Images)

News of the Queen's passing was actually revealed during Arsenal's Europa League game at FC Zurich, where a minute's silence was held at half-time.

As it wasn't originally selected for broadcast the status of the match now can't be changed, because it remains outside of the seven TV packages agreed at the start of the season which cover 200 of the 380 games.

Those packages are:

Package A: 32 matches to kick off at 12.30pm on Saturdays

Package B: 32 matches to kick off at 5.30pm on Saturdays

Package C: 32 matches, with eight kicking off at 7.45pm on Saturdays and 24 kicking off at 2pm on Sundays

Package D: 32 matches to kick off at 4.30pm on Sundays

Package E: 32 matches, with eight kicking off on Sundays at 2pm and 24 kicking off at either 8pm on a Monday or 7.30pm-8pm on a Friday

Package F: 20 matches, with 10 from one Bank Holiday weekend and 10 from one set of midweek fixtures

Package G: 20 matches, all from two different sets of midweek fixtures

Outside of interruptions due to the pandemic, ownership of these packages has been fairly stable for the last few seasons, with Sky Sports taking package B, C, D and E which makes up 128 games.

BT Sport have package A and G, meaning 52 live games, and then Amazon Prime have package F.

The Saturday 3pm blackout remains in force in the UK, and although Arsenal vs Everton has now been moved twice, it is still effectively coming under it.

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