Bournemouth, Everton, Manchester United and West Ham United to play in Premier League Summer Series
Bournemouth, Everton, Manchester United and West Ham United to play in Premier League Summer Series
Bournemouth, Everton, Manchester United and West Ham United will play preseason matches in the United States as part of the second Premier League Summer Series.
The teams will play in three doubleheaders this summer as they prepare for the 2025-26 Premier League season. The announcement was made Sunday during halftime of the match between Manchester United and Arsenal, which aired on NBC, Peacock and Telemundo.
“We know from our previous tournament and Premier League Mornings Live events that we and our clubs have incredibly loyal and passionate fans in the U.S. who get up early to follow their teams during the season,” Premier League CEO Richard Masters said. “In these four clubs we have world-class players and managers who will undoubtedly give supporters a fantastic Premier League experience just before the season starts.”
The series begins on July 26 at MetLife Stadium in East Rutherford, New Jersey, which will host the 2026 World Cup final. Everton faces Bournemouth and Manchester United will take on West Ham United. On July 30 at Soldier Field in Chicago, West Ham United will play Everton and Manchester United faces Bournemouth.
The series wraps up at Atlanta’s Mercedes-Benz Stadium on Aug. 3, with Bournemouth facing West Ham United and Manchester United against Everton.
“Being a part of this series is super exciting for us as players and the team,” Everton defender James Tarkowski said. “We know that there plenty of fans out there when we get there in the summer.”
Three of the clubs have American owners. The Friedkin Group took over as Everton’s owner this past fall, while the Glazer family — owners of the NFL’s Tampa Bay Buccaneers — own Manchester United. William Foley owns Bournemouth as well as the NHL’s Vegas Golden Knights.
U.S. national team midfielder Tyler Adams, who captained the 2022 World Cup squad, is in his first season with Bournemouth and has three assists in 17 games.
The 2023 Summer Series featured six clubs — Aston Villa, Brentford, Brighton & Hove Albion, Chelsea, Fulham and Newcastle United — as each team played three games. The nine matches took place across five venues. Chelsea won the series with two wins and a draw.
NBC analyst Tim Howard said what they saw in the first Summer Series helped them during the season in their breakdown of the Premier League.
All six matches will be streamed on Peacock, with two airing on NBC.
“The manager has very little time to get everybody on the same page, implement ideas, lay the groundwork from a fitness standpoint, tactical standpoint, technical standpoint,” Howard said. “All that work is going to be used throughout the course of the season, as a group we get to witness that and we get to reference it all year long. And then we get to speak to the managers and the players, and they’re very open and candid and honest with us. It really helped us from from the analytical standpoint to assess teams and break things down.”
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AP soccer: https://apnews.com/hub/soccer
By JOE REEDY
AP Sports Writer
