What's Behind Chelsea vs Nottingham Forest's Unusual 3 PM Monday Kickoff?

CHELSEA look to reignite their Champions League push as they welcome Nottingham Forest to London.

However, the clash between and will have a different kick-off time to normal.

Nottingham Forest are getting closer to Premier League survival Credit: Alamy Chelsea need a result in their hunt for Champions League football Credit: Getty

side will take on the in-form Forest at 3pm on a Monday at Stamford Bridge.

Forest have scored nine goals in their , and are edging ever closer to safety this season.

Chelsea’s barren run under has seen them drop out of the top five and dragged into a fight for sixth.

SunSport can reveal why Chelsea and Nottingham Forest is started at 3pm on a Monday.

Why is Chelsea vs Nottingham Forest kicking off at 3pm on a Monday?

The fixture is kicking off at 3pm BST on a Monday due to the Early May Bank Holiday.

Factors surrounding TV coverage and the holiday mean Chelsea and Forest will start at 3pm due to it being the only available time-slot.

Sky Sports announced it would show Leeds vs Burnley, Arsenal vs Fulham, Bournemouth vs Palace, Man Utd vs Liverpool, City vs Everton and Chelsea vs Forest over the course of this weekend.

TNT Sports, having purchased the rights to Package A, show 52 games a season, and selected Aston Villa vs Tottenham for their coverage.

As their primaruy time slot for Package A is 12:30, they took priority over Sky Sports in arranging their fixture due to the Europa League.

With Aston Villa and Nottingham Forest facing each other in the Europa League semi-finals on Thursday night, they cannot play again until Sunday night under the Premier League’s 60-hour rule.

Sky Sports had already selected Everton vs Man City as one of their 58 matches to be shown on a Monday/Friday evening this season, so TNT Sports could not select this time.

TNT Sports instead went for 7pm on Sunday evening.

Due to the second leg of the Europa League semi-final kicking off at 8pm on Thursday evening, 3pm on Monday was the only time slot left that allowed Forest enough rest between the fixtures.

It was also the only time-slot that would not overlap with other TV packages that Sky Sports have paid for.

There are five different TV rights packages, that look like this:

Package A

• 52 matches
• Primary kick-off time: 32 matches at Saturday 12:30pm
• Owned by TNT Sports

Package B

• 50 matches
• Primary kick-off time: 32 matches at Saturday 5:30pm
• Owned by Sky Sports

Package C

• 66 matches
• Primary kick-off time: 32 matches at Sunday 2pm
• Owned by Sky Sports

Package D

• 44 matches
• Kick-off times: 32 matches at Sunday 4:30pm
• Owned by Sky Sports

Package E

• 58 matches
• Kick-off times: 32 matches on Monday/Friday evenings
• Owned by Sky Sports