Twitter reacts to a Match of the Day like no other

Match of the Day was *a little* different to usual on Saturday night, as the ever-eagle-eyed users of Twitter noticed.

Thanks to the footballing world's touching re-enactment of the ending of Spartacus with Gary Lineker in the titular role, the show was to go ahead without any presenters, pundits, commentators or interviews with players and managers.

Given that, many wondered just how long it would last with nothing but highlights of the matches, and the answer was: not very.

It looked like even the team that run the opening credits joined the boycott, meaning the episode was devoid of its iconic theme song, which felt wrong. So very wrong.

However, it quickly became clear that getting rid of the theme song was a good call because playing it in this imitation of Match of the Day - not even worthy of that name with the introductory graphic simply reading "Premier League Highlights" - would have felt as appropriate as playing it in a particularly bleak hospital ward.

Commentators get a lot of stick, but as it turns out, they're actually a bit important in terms of both entertainment and information when it comes to TV coverage. Who would've thought?

While pretty much anybody not completely deranged missed commentary of the highlights though, opinions weren't as universal on the lack of punditry.

Some people claimed they loved everything about this edition and felt it was better than the usual show, but we've got a sneaky feeling they weren't being entirely impartial.

Conservative MP Scott Benton stated that it was an improvement on the norm because it allowed him to leave home and head to the pub at 11pm for a single pint and - *checks notes* - "had all the goals in," seeming to suggest that wasn't the case in the other 5000-odd episodes before it.

For all of the talk about politics and impartiality in the last few days, Dan Walker - a former stand-in for Lineker - summed up the night perfectly in three words.