The Premier League approved Arsenal’s request to have the north London derby postponed due to players being unavailable, even though the Gunners are claimed to only have one covid case.

 

Arsenal’s remaining player absences are due to injuries and players playing at the Africa Cup of Nations, while last week the Gunners loaned Ainsley Maitland-Niles to Roma and then loaned Folarin Balogun to Middlesbrough on Wednesday.

 

 

Tottenham have criticised the postponement, saying in a statement: “We are extremely surprised that this application has been approved.

 

“We ourselves were disqualified from the European Conference League after a significant number of COVID cases meant we needed to reschedule a fixture and our application to move our Leicester fixture was not approved – only for it to be subsequently postponed when Leicester applied.

 

 

“The original intention of the guidance – here – was to deal with player availability directly affected by COVID cases, resulting in depleted squads that when taken together with injuries would result in the club being unable to field a team.

 

“We do not believe it was the intent to deal with player availability unrelated to COVID.

 

 

“We may now be seeing the unintended consequences of this rule.

 

“It is important to have clarity and consistency on the application of the rule.”

 

Spurs first team coach Mason now has backed his club’s statement, taking to social media to post a bullseye emoji.

 

The north London derby is now the 21st Premier League game to be postponed this season due to player absences.