By Tony Attwood (Updated at 1507)
Tomorrow’s game at the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium has been postponed after the Premier League accepted Arsenal’s request to postpone the match due to their depleted squad. Although the Daily Mirror never once suggested that Liverpool’s postponement of their League cup game was controversial, this one apparently is.
Mind you they also call it a “grudge match” suggesting they are still using a 1970s dictionary of slang.
The Premier League said in a statement: “Following a request from Arsenal FC, the Premier League Board met today and regrettably agreed to postpone the club’s away fixture against Tottenham Hotspur, due to be played at 4:30pm on Sunday 16 January.
“With Arsenal having fewer than the required number of players available for the match (13 outfield players and one goalkeeper), the Board accepted the club’s application.
“The decision is a result of a combination of COVID-19, existing and recent injuries and players on international duty at the Africa Cup of Nations. All clubs are able to apply for a postponement if COVID-19 infections are a factor in their request.”
According to the Mirror, “The decision has outraged Tottenham, although precedent for such a decision has been set since December. However it does follow the line that the League took in calling off Leicester City’s game away to Everton was postponed for a second time, with the Premier League stating they accepted the Leicester application “due to COVID-19 cases, injuries and players on international duty at the Africa Cup of Nations.”
Among the missing are Martin Odegaard, Emile Smith Rowe and Takehiro Tomiyasu, Cedric Soares, Bukayo Saka, Granit Xhaka, Thomas Partey, Mohamed Elneny, Nicolas Pepe and Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang.
It is not clear if Tottenham supported the move to call off the game as he stated that they too had a range of missing players saying, “For us, much more than other teams it’s very, very important to recover all the important players.
Gary Neville, increasingly an opinion until himself has attacked Arsenal saying that teams should be made to play their fixtures, although he doesn’t seem to have explained exactly why this is important.
According to the Telegraph “Critics of the postponement have also pointed to Arsenal being able to field an Under 23s side against West Ham on Friday night.”
The league stated
“The league apologises for the inconvenience and disruption caused to supporters who would have attended or watched the game – we are fully aware that postponements disappoint clubs and fans. The league aims to provide as much clarity as possible, but unfortunately, postponements sometimes have to be made at short notice, as safety is our priority. Where possible, the League will endeavour to keep supporters updated if games become at risk.”
An Arsenal statement read: “We are disappointed to announce that Sunday’s north London derby at Tottenham Hotspur has been postponed.
“We know how much this match means to our fans around the world, but the Premier League has made the decision to postpone the match, due to many players across our squad currently being unavailable as a result of COVID-19, existing and recent injuries, in addition to players away with their countries at AFCON.”
The Telegraph reports that the match is the 21st top-flight game to be postponed this season because of Covid.
According to the Guardian the team we would have put out if we had played was
Ramsdale
Chambers Holding Gabriel Tierney
Saka White Lokonga Martinelli
Lacazette Nketiah
‘Test’
Why are Leeds games still on, is their situation not worse then Arsenal’s. Suspension, Loan players and International duty should not come into play here. They have 1 player with COVID and two returning. A total farce!
Keith it may be that Leeds did not apply to have the game postponed. But the rules as laid down by the league do say that loan and international duty players should be counted. However suspensions don’t count, as I understand it, so no allowance is made for Xhaka.
It seems that the ” Anti Arsenal Brigade ” are out in force today .I realise that footballers are paid an obscene amount of money but to play a semi final of the League Cup and then have to play less than 72 hours later against Arsenals traditional main foe is just totally unfair. The Spuds have had a week or more to recover from their last game ,Loserpool have their match against Arsenal postponed as they have 40 suspected Covid cases which turn into 1 within 24 hours, forces Arsenal to play 2 games within 3 days !!
Neville is a man who’ mind is suddenly is made up after at least 12 other matches have been postponed that Arsenal’s game should go ahead, he was silent over Loserpool and Manure’s postponed games but it seems Arsenal are different. Xhana was sent off for a professional foul nothing out is the ordinary in that but read in the press it was “reckless or cynical or stupid ” why ?????
I read with great interest your breakdown of Arsenal’s yellow card tally compared with other teams, shame no sports ” journalists” read your report !!!! I look forward to your report at the end of this transfer window of how many hundred players Arsenal are actually going to sign and how many Arsenal actually DID have a real interest in !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Isn’t it strange. As I said in the other article, nearly 20 PL matches and over 100 professional matches in total have been called off due to COVID/player shortage, and apart from us suggesting an explanation was needed for Liverpools science defying false positives, we haven’t had a murmur of discontent about one other match postponement.
I am not even saying there is or isn’t something fishy about our request, I hope not and doubt it, but I’m not there so I don’t know. What I am saying is, isn’t funny that as far as I have heard the media or fans in general, haven’t questioned ONE OTHER request. As soon as we make one there’s uproar.
As I said, strange that.
You are right Nitram.
Talksport have been up in arms since yesterdays application for postponement went in and talked about little else since. They claim it is not Arsenal in particular they are ranting about but the principle in general.
Makes you laugh doesn’t it, as if Talksport knows anything about principles! They wouldn’t know a principle if it hit them in the face.
I see that both Neville and Carragher have been critical of Arsenals approved application but both insisted they are not singling out Arsenal. It just so happens that it is Arsenal involved this time.
Yeah right!!!!
I felt compelled to finally write a response to the utter drivel above & the 12 man v 10 arsenal heroes……no wonder arsenal get slaughtered all the time by every other teams supporters when we have biased/rose tinted articles like these that are not the views of every sane minded gooner…..1) the scousers are the only club who’ve named players 2) we were utter rubbish & got lucky on Thursday 3) the scousers played 3 sides who’d had 2 weeks covid rest in last 4 weeks 4) we’ve missed more PL fixtures than them 5) they’ve missed 1 (Leeds) remarkably just after man Cshity put 7 past them 6)are we cancelling the 2nd leg after a rest weekend just like them (oh sorry they did also play at weekend ) 7) are the writers of the 2 double standard articles going to blame the scousers for our “Thursday night gladiators” for not fancying another live on TV small club mentality / lower league game raising fight against spurts?? 8) wait for the all clear next time before finger pointing 9) did you actually see the game or blinded by our ridiculous strip ? Oliver let us away with everything…..every throw in was 1 minute wasted & 20 yards further away from our goal ! So an Absolute joke we were & the worst footballing arsenal side since that “ex scouse” commentator “Alan smith” played for the gunners!?? So how you arrived at the conclusions in your “articles”……I can only assume you also work for sky ???
Alan Hall, any evidence to support that?
ha ha ha what a result! gives us more time to feild a decent team to put the scousers out the cup next thursday!
Premier League Statement
“Following a request from Arsenal FC, the Premier League Board met today and regrettably agreed to postpone the club’s away fixture against Tottenham Hotspur, due to be played at 4:30pm on Sunday 16 January.
With Arsenal having fewer than the required number of players available for the match (13 outfield players and one goalkeeper), the Board accepted the club’s application. The decision is a result of a combination of COVID-19, existing and recent injuries and players on international duty at the Africa Cup of Nations. All clubs are able to apply for a postponement if COVID-19 infections are a factor in their request.”
So reaching the requirements for a postponement. No different to the other 100 applications.
Yet it’s this application, or rather Arsenals application that has got Neville, carragher and just about everyone else up in arms.
Well I never.
It’s embarrassing. Be honest.. we got away with it. Clever work by the Board but we could have fielded team as the covid rules weren’t designed for clubs with 1 positive case!
I do have an issue that I have not seen mentionned anymore after it popped up.
Imagine Arsenal get Messi or Sp*rs Neymar as the latest tranfer.
So what happens when game 21 that should have been played this weekend happens. Do the rectuits AFTER the original date get to play or do they have to stay out of it.
And there are a few teams with games in hand. Anyone have seen something about it?
Gunner George: be honest, youve provided no evidence
carragher The Spitter moaning about Arsenal yet 10 false positives by Liverpool and the Arsenal injuries in that games was from their cheating. Neville the Valencia Legend didn’t moan about Brentford and Brighton the media are at it again. Hopefully we do give Smellypoo and good rodgering 😀
@ Chris
I get where you’re coming from but, playing Devil’s advocate here, I “Messi & Neymar” would have been eligible to play if today’s game had been postponed because of the weather. That would be just as unfair!
Whatever questions might be asked about Arsenal’s request for a postponement, yet again, the footballing authorities need to take responsibility for this. If they had stuck to their own rules in the early days rather than bending them to suit certain clubs, we might not be in this position.
Ha ha if “alan hall” is an Arsenal fan then I’m Donald effing Trump.
I mean alan seems to have an in depth knowledge of Liverpools fixtures over the past month, who they have played and how much rest their opponents have had! No Arsenal fan would care!! Outed!!!
Oh and ” alan”, when we played 13 covid positive Liverpool,we had only had one game postponed, Wolves, which as an Arsenal fan you should know!
Mikey
Whatever questions might be asked about Arsenal’s request for a postponement, yet again, the footballing authorities need to take responsibility for this. If they had stuck to their own rules in the early days rather than bending them to suit certain clubs, we might not be in this position.
I think this is very much the point.
The PL rules in terms of normal cancellations for one reason or another were adjusted I guess because the PL Board wanted to cover COVID as a separate matter but all they have done is confuse matters. Ironically the rules state that they COVID protocols for cancellation should only apply if what they detail on their COVID Outbreak protocols ( that involves multiple cases either by way of positive tests or individuals in isolation and training grounds closing ) as defined in their rule book
However once the PL complicated matters they got themselves tied into knots. All clubs in the PL have in excess of 50 players. Yep some are academy players but whoever sanctioned the clause re under 21 experience didn’t really think things through .
I will use my club , Chelsea as an example.
Had Callum Hudson Odi not played this season a player who is not yet 21, played in Cup Finals, played for England ,played in the champions league then he would be classified as in experienced
I am surprised to learn that we have in excess of 50 players.
Details as per Arsenals latest accounts
The average monthly number of persons employed by the Group during the year was:
Playing staff. 70
Training staff 77
“Oi, Trent. Pass us that swab, will you?”