The Premier League match was in danger of falling apart like the American football on Saturday as fans endured numerous interruptions countless times.
The game was paused a total of 49 times, including substitutions and drinking breaks, four of which lasted over 100 minutes. The number of interruptions does not include VAR checks or extended injury breaks.
In Brentford’s victory over Manchester United, the ball was in play for just 46.3% of the time, the lowest figure in the league this weekend. In two other games, he had the ball in play for less than half of the games.
Fans’ Fury, Winning Clubs Accused of Abusing Their Power in the Premier League
In addition to that, was the developing frustration on top of the terrace as fans didn’t get to see much action each week and still had to spend a lot of money on tickets.
There are some who have questioned whether the winning clubs are abusing the new five substitution rule to wear out the clock rather than to protect players as the rule was intended.
Early on, Aston Villa seems to have made a triple substitution during the 94th minute (having already made one before) however, the game remained a shaky 2-1.
With temperatures soaring across Britain, the Premier League has decided to allow drink breaks during the match this weekend, considering the abrupt rise in temperature but some lasted more than two minutes, rather than the recommended 60 seconds.
The Wolves playing against Fulham, had their drinking break last for 2 minutes and 34 seconds, which further leads to the speculation that the break was also used by the manager to pass on tactical information.
Read More: Jules Kounde’s omission from Barcelona?
