Watch West Ham United vs Aston Villa free live stream

The Premier League season starts this weekend and continues on Saturday 17 August with a match between West Ham United and Aston Villa at the London Stadium in London.

The game is scheduled to begin at 12:30 p.m. EST and will be broadcast on NBC and Universo. Fans who want to watch can do so via FuboTV or DirecTV Stream, both of which offer a free trial. SlingTV does not offer a free trial but does have other special offers available.

Last season, Aston Villa finished fourth in the league table with a record of 20-8-10 and 68 points, 14 points behind third-placed Liverpool.

West Ham finished ninth with a record of 14-10-14 and a goal difference of -14, picking up 52 points, eight points less than Manchester United in eighth place.

• WATCH ALL SPORTS MATCHES FOR FREE ON FUBOTV

WHO: West Ham United vs Aston Villa

When: Saturday, August 17, 12:30pm EST

Where: London Stadium in London

Electricity: FuboTV (free trial); DirecTV Stream (free trial); Sling

Gear: Shop jerseys, shirts, hats, hoodies and more at Fanatics.com

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The Premier League will have a different look from Friday. That has changed

By STEVE DOUGLAS, AP Sports Writer

The Premier League rarely stands still.

For the 2024-25 season, which begins Friday, there are five new managers hired, new players valued at about $1.6 billion and rising, new offside technology, updated financial regulations and a streamlined schedule.

COACH CHANGE

A quarter of the managers will be taking charge of a Premier League match for the first time: Liverpool (Arne Slot), Chelsea (Enzo Maresca) and Brighton (Fabian Hurzeler) all have new managers, and Southampton (Russell Martin) and Ipswich (Kieran McKenna) are promoted without any managerial experience in the top flight. Add in Julen Lopetegui as a newcomer at West Ham after four and a half years under David Moyes, and Steve Cooper replacing Maresca at Leicester, and the dugouts will look different this season. Most of the excitement, however, will focus on Slot and the style he will implement at Liverpool after nearly nine years under the popular Jürgen Klopp. Rock 'n' roll could give way to more control, as Slot prefers a more possession-based game.

SLOWER MARKET

According to transfermarkt.com, the Premier League's 20 clubs have spent as much on new players this transfer window as all the clubs in Spain, Italy and Germany combined. So why does it feel like such a quiet summer in terms of transfers? Perhaps because there have been no blockbuster deals. The most expensive was striker Dominic Solanke's move from Bournemouth to Tottenham for £65 million ($83 million). However, many deals between $30 million and $70 million add up quickly – and there are still three weeks left in the transfer window, with Manchester City, Manchester United, Liverpool, Arsenal and Chelsea expected to have their say. City (Savinho) and Arsenal (Riccardo Calafiori) have only signed one new signing so far, and Liverpool have none. Don't be surprised if Premier League clubs have spent well over $2 billion by the end of the transfer window on August 30 – even if most are balancing their books with sales due to the league's tighter financial rules.

SEMI-AUTOMATIC OFFSIDE ABSIDES

This season, offside decisions in the Premier League are expected to be made much quicker, with the competition introducing semi-automatic offside technology for the first time. The new system is due to be rolled out in the first half of the season. Multiple cameras track players' movements and record data points on parts of the body relevant to an offside decision. The data is processed using artificial intelligence to create a 3D offside line, which notifies the team of VAR referees. This is expected to reduce the time it currently takes VAR referees to manually make a decision by an average of around 30 seconds. Semi-automatic offside decisions have been used at the 2022 World Cup and the recent European Championships. On Tuesday, the league launched an account on social platform X, offering live referee reports and VAR explanations on all matches this season. “For the first time, the social media account will provide near-live explanations and updates on operational and refereeing matters for every Premier League match,” the league said.

SPENDING RULES

Last season in the Premier League was notable because some clubs, such as Everton and Nottingham Forest, received points deductions for breaching the competition's profitability and sustainability rules, which are now more strictly applied. Next season is the final year of those rules, and two new forms of spending caps are being tested before they are introduced from the 2025-26 season. Teams in England's top division will trial a “squad cost rules” system that caps spending on players at 85% of a club's football revenue plus net profit or loss from player sales. A second system, called “top to bottom anchoring”, caps – or anchors – spending at a multiple of the lowest combined prize money and television rights revenue a team is expected to earn. The league said the systems aim to “enhance and preserve the financial sustainability of clubs and the competitive balance of the Premier League”. “Obviously we want to move to a new system that people have confidence in and can adhere to,” Premier League chief executive Richard Masters told the BBC on Tuesday, “and perhaps move away from normalising league tables or lengthy regulatory processes. That is not our aim.”

NO WINTER BREAK

The Premier League is known for being a relentless battle – even more so this season. This time there is no winter break for clubs, the season starts later to give players more time to recover from international tournaments this summer and so they are under pressure. Last year, for example, there were five games each weekend over a two-week period, giving teams at least one weekend off in January. All of Europe's other major leagues have a winter break.

The Associated Press contributed to this article.