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
