Tottenham, Arsenal match postponed

Arsenal have been successful in their request to the Premier League to postpone their match against Tottenham Hotspur tomorrow despite having only one confirmed case of Covid.

 The Premier League announced its decision to call off the match Saturday afternoon, having already postponed Burnley’s match against Leicester City today after a request from the home team. Tottenham privately expressed some anger at Arsenal’s request, given that Martin Odegaard was their only Covid absence when they played Liverpool in the Carabao Cup on Thursday.

 But Arsenal, who allowed Ainsley Maitland-Niles to join Roma on loan this week, insisted they had 14 players unavailable and could lose a further three who were injured in the semi-final against Liverpool. Premier League rules state that a game can be called off if a team are unable to field 13 outfield players and a goalkeeper.

 Arsenal have four players at the Africa Cup of Nations, and Granit Xhaka is also unavailable, although his absence is self-inflicted: he is suspended after being sent off at Anfield.

 Odegaard has Covid, Cédric Soares was substituted with injury after 11 minutes on Thursday, and Bukayo Saka, Calum Chambers and Kieran Tierney reported injuries after the match.

Mikel Arteta, the Arsenal manager, said: “We had concerns already before the match against Liverpool, and after the game we had some more issues. It’s gone the other way for us when we were ready to play a match and it was cancelled twice because the other team had issues so it can go both ways. Our intention is always to play.”

 Arsenal had matches postponed because of outbreaks of Covid at Wolverhampton Wanderers, before a league match, and Liverpool, leading to the Carabao Cup semi-final, first leg being moved by a week to Anfield.

 Gary Neville said Friday night that the Premier League should reject Arsenal’s request. “[Folarin] Balogun’s gone on loan, [Ainsley] Maitland-Niles has gone on loan, [Granit] Xhaka’s got a red card — that’s not the fault of anybody else,” Neville said. “If it was purely down to Covid and extraordinary circumstances where there were 10 or 15 players out [it would be acceptable].

“But, we’re now talking about teams in the last few weeks where there’s no doubt they’ve been calling games off whether they think they’ve got the best squad or best team to win a game.”