Chelsea's league opener pushed back to August 18th

Football season just got a little bit further away. Chelsea had been scheduled to kick off their Premier League campaign with a visit to Burnley on August 16th, but Sky, in Their infinite wisdom, have decided that it would be better for the Blues to play on Monday instead. And so we will now kick off at 8pm on August 18th.

There was already some suspicion that a move was happening thanks to the announcement of a home friendly against Real Sociedad for August 12th, but that doesn't make it any less annoying. The trip to and from Burnley is far easier on a weekend than on a Monday night, but we've got to accept that television basically rules the game at the moment and there's not a lot Chelsea can do about it.

Six other fixtures have also been moved:

• Everton (A) -- August 30, 5:30pm BST.
• Manchester City (A) -- September 21, 4:00pm BST.
• Arsenal (H) -- October 5, 2:05pm BST
• Manchester United (A) -- October 26, 4:00pm BST
• Liverpool (A) -- November 8, 12:45pm BST
• Sunderland (A) -- November 29, 5:30pm BST.