Today’s a big day for British soccer, as five Barclays Premier League matches and an FA Cup semi-final match between Arsenal and Reading are scheduled to take place.  With the Premier League season winding down, most teams will only have five more league matches after this weekend, so every single match is important for a majority of teams.

There are only a handful of British teams in the top flight either not currently fighting for a European place in next season’s Champions League or Europa League, or just squabbling to stay afloat and retain a spot in next year’s Premier League competition.

The two most important matches of the day are undeniably a Premier League clash between Chelsea and Manchester United and the aforementioned Arsenal and Reading FA Cup match at the famous Wembley Stadium.

While many soccer fans (not only in England, but around the world) would love to be able to watch both massive matches on Saturday, television scheduling has put both games on at relatively the same time.  The Arsenal-Reading match starts at 12:20pm (EST, live on FOX network) and the Chelsea-Manchester United match begins at 12:30pm (EST, live on NBC network).

Due to the two big matches on Saturday being aired on two different channels (BBC and Sky Sports, for example, in England), the FA Cup game is not receiving the respect that it rightfully deserves.

Arsenal manager Arsene Wenger spoke on Thursday about the issue during his weekly press conference.  The Frenchman stated, “Something should be done about it.  I’m surprised they did not analyze that in television deals because, basically, what happens there, it is something that should have been planned.  Two television channels who pay a lot of money for football have conflicted interests in promoting games.  That, inside the country, shouldn’t happen.”

Wenger went on to say, “You would like [the Cup semi-final] to be the unique competition that is played, especially a semi-final and a final.  You would want it not to conflict with other competitions.  It is a surprise to me [that it goes up against a very big game].”

Reading manager, Steve Clarke, also joined Wenger’s feelings on the issue.  The Scot said, “I thought it was a shame in the last round when we had to play on a Monday night after playing on a Saturday.  There are things that we should do to protect this great competition.  It should be special.”

Because both matches are set to remain in their current time slots, soccer fans better have their DVRs ready to record whichever game that they do not watch live on Saturday.