The first chapter of the 2026\/27 Premier League season has already been completed, but there will be no league football for the next two weekends. An international break has taken over, and the domestic calendar will remain on hold until October 10.<\/p>\n
That pause comes after a strong start from Arsenal, whose perfect record drew talk of a potentially one-sided title race. Yet Brighton & Hove Albion halted that run before the break, a result that offered a reminder that the leaders are not beyond reach.<\/p>\n
For now, though, attention shifts away from club football and back to national teams. This is the first time sides have come together since the 2026 World Cup, and the next couple of weeks will be filled with fixtures that should keep supporters occupied.<\/p>\n
The Premier League\u2019s return is set for Matchday 6, when Arsenal open the weekend at Emirates Stadium against Leeds United. It will mark the restart of a schedule that has been interrupted by an extended pause created by the international calendar.<\/p>\n
That calendar was changed by the FIFA Council in 2023, leaving only three international breaks this season. September and October have effectively been combined into one longer window, with further breaks still due in November and March.<\/p>\n
The stoppage is not limited to England\u2019s top flight. Club football across Europe has also been paused until the second weekend of October, while the 2026\/27 UEFA Nations League begins to take centre stage.<\/p>\n
Teams will play four times during this window, and several matches stand out. League A includes a rematch of the Euro 2024 final between England and Spain on Sept. 26, Germany against the Netherlands on Sept. 24, France at home to Italy on Oct. 2, and Portugal facing Norway on Oct. 4.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
The Premier League is paused for three weeks as international football takes over until October 10.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":19974,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[192,773,961,702,172],"tags":[1836,59,182],"class_list":["post-19975","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-arsenal","category-brighton-hove-albion","category-international","category-leeds-united","category-epl","tag-2026-27-premier-league","tag-featured","tag-transfers"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19975","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=19975"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19975\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/19974"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=19975"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=19975"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=19975"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}