As the second gameweek of the Premier League descends upon football fans in the States and across the world, supporters scramble and plan how they’ll view matches and just how many they’ll be able to fit into their crowded weekends. As new ways to view the Premier League constantly introduce themselves to the masses, more fans are watching more matches each weekend.

Gone are the weekends of the casual fan watching only their club perform. Here to stay are the weekends spent as countless hours tick by on the couch in front of HD televisions or laptops as matches begin to stack up like a child’s set of building blocks. No longer is it sufficient to catch the one marquee match of the weekend without having a peek or four concerning the exploits of your rival or second favorite club.

For quite some years now, Saturdays approach like they did in my younger years as the great release from school. The weekends themselves bring a sort of temporary freedom to my life until the clock resets itself each Monday when I ready myself for the long haul to Saturday again.

A minimum Premier League football weekend for me is six matches. Six because as passionate as I am about football, I have a life and tend to enjoy leaving the house from time to time. Once the Bundesliga starts this weekend, six might jump to ten. When La Liga and Serie A start next week, ten might jump to fifteen until this trend multiplies itself into a downward spiral of time and laziness.

One of the other problems football fans have is that of accidentally finding out the score to a match they’ve previously planned to watch at a later time. This is a tricky obstacle when attempting to maximize Premier League viewing. Text, Twitter, Facebook, tickers and the Internet in general makes avoiding a final score almost impossible. Trying to watch a match where you already know the outcome is never quite the same. The build up of tension and eventual release never replicates itself or feels the same as when viewing live.

If you reside in the UK, I’m curious to know how many matches are available to you each weekend. Do supporters stay in or go to the pub for the afternoon? In the States, we generally have all ten available to us in one format or another either live or on replay. 

Whatever your rituals, number of matches viewed or preferred methods to view them, enjoy your Premier League football this weekend because it’ll be another five days before it comes again.