Premier League’s new normal? 12 minutes of added time

Players have been warned to expect “more pain” after a crackdown on time-wasting saw the average length of Premier League matches exceed 100 minutes in this season’s opening round of games.

Nearly 104 minutes were played in cumulative added time across nine games on Friday, Saturday and Sunday. The average amount of injury time per game was a record high of 11mins 34secs.

Law changes by the International Football Association Board, adopted worldwide by Fifa, have seen referees instructed by PGMOL chief refereeing officer Howard Webb to calculate lost time and punish offenders.

Former top-flight referee and ex-PGMOL general manager Keith Hackett urged Webb to stand firm, despite seeing match times surge this season. “Players and managers were warned that this would happen,” he told Telegraph Sport. “Howard Webb would never call it a crackdown – but that is what it is. We will go through some more pain until we get players and managers reacting in a better way – but Webb has to hold his nerve.”

In the wake of the new rules, Liverpool manager Jurgen Klopp criticised referee Anthony Taylor for cautioning Trent Alexander-Arnold in Sunday’s 1-1 draw at Chelsea for failing to take a throw-in quickly enough.

“Last season some teams stretched it – and we were not one of them,” he said. “And I knew we would get a yellow card for ‘time-wasting’. Trent was looking for a player, he can’t just throw it. This is a tactical thing – like Brentford when they take a free-kick. That takes ages.”

Five of the weekend’s Premier League fixtures saw the clock reach the 100-minute mark with Newcastle’s 5-1 thrashing of Aston Villa the longest at 107min 39sec – although the ball was actually in play for only 55min and 23sec.

Manchester City’s 3-0 win at Burnley on Friday night saw the ball in play for 67 minutes and 42 seconds, the highest amount of action.

Tottenham’s 2-2 draw at Brentford on Sunday was delayed twice for lengthy VAR checks and eventually clocked in at 105mins 21sec.

The Bees hold the record for the lengthiest Premier League game, a 2-1 defeat at home to Wolves in January 2022 which lasted five seconds short of 125 minutes after both teams had to leave the pitch because a drone was flying over the ground.

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