Villa v Spurs brought forward over Europa final

Ange Postecoglou's Tottenham are 16th in the Premier League while (right) Unai Emery's Villa are seventh

Tottenham Hotspur's Premier League game at Aston Villa has been brought forward two days to 16 May to allow Spurs extra time to prepare for their possible appearance in the Europa League final.

Spurs were scheduled to travel to Villa Park on 18 May at 14:15 BST but submitted a request to the Premier League for the game to be played earlier in order for Ange Postecoglou's side to have longer to prepare should they reach the Europa League final on 21 May.

Tottenham are 3-1 ahead in their semi-final against Bodo/Glimt and could meet Manchester United, who are 3-0 up in their tie with Athletic Bilbao, in the final. Both second legs will be played on Thursday.

The change of date for Spurs' game at Villa will remain even if Postecoglou's side are knocked out and do not reach the final in Bilbao.

Villa objected to the request for the alteration, citing no precedent for the Premier League to move fixtures to help clubs in European competition.

It was pointed out to BBC Sport at the time that Villa had played every three or four days during April as a result of their participation in the Champions League and FA Cup.

Another reason for the objection was that it is Villa's final home game of the season and could include a number of pre-organised family activation activities that would not be possible if the game was held on the evening of a school night.

Tottenham originally asked for the game to be moved to the evening of 15 May but the Premier League has confirmed it will kick off at 19:30 BST on the following evening.

Manchester United's game against Chelsea on the same night will kick off at 20:15 BST, meaning the two possible Europa League finalists would have the same amount of recovery time.