Well, this was a pleasant surprise. For the first time in my 36 years of covering English football, I came across a listing of who the commentators will be for this weekend’s round of top flight soccer.

Never before, as far as I know, has a list like this been made available ahead of the Premier League games — at least not publicly. The details are kept so secretive that there are message forums that try to guess what commentators will be doing which matches.

All of the matches will feature TWI/IMG commentators (i.e. the international or world feed) except for Swansea-Man United and Chelsea-Hull. Those two matches will feature NBC’s own commentary team.

Compliments to NBC for releasing this information ahead of time. Here’s the list of commentators for this weekend’s matches:

Saturday, August 17:

7:45am  Liverpool vs Stoke, NBC Sports Network — commentary by Alan Parry and Efan Ekoku

10am  Arsenal vs Aston Villa, NBC Sports Network — commentary by Gary Weaver and Davie Provan

10am  Norwich vs Everton, Premier League Extra Time — commentary by Tony Jones and Tony Gale

10am  Sunderland vs Fulham, Premier League Extra Time — commentary by David Stowell and Barry Horne

10am  West Brom vs Southampton, Premier League Extra Time — commentary by Gary Taphouse and Dean Sturridge

10am  West Ham vs Cardiff, Premier League Extra Time — commentary by Joe Speight and Trevor Francis

12:30pm  Swansea vs Man Utd, NBC and mun2 — commentary by Arlo White and Lee Dixon

Sunday, August 18:

8:30am  Crystal Palace vs Tottenham, NBC Sports Network — commentary by Peter Drury and Clive Allen

11am  Chelsea vs Hull, NBC Sports Network — commentary by Arlo White and Graeme Le Saux