Tottenham have released a punchy statement revealing their disbelief that Arsenal’s request to postpone Sunday’s north London derby was accepted by the Premier League.
The Gunners have fewer than the available 13 outfield players required to fulfil a fixture, though only one member of the squad has returned a positive Covid-19 test.
Spurs are understandably annoyed that the game has been called off for reasons other than a Covid outbreak, particularly as they had to forfeit their place in the Europa Conference League due to one.
“We regret to announce that Sunday’s north London derby against Arsenal has been postponed,” the statement read.
“This follows an application from Arsenal to the Premier League on the basis of a combination of COVID, existing and recent injuries and players on international duty at the Africa Cup of Nations.
“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 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.
“Yet again fans have seen their plans disrupted at unacceptably short notice. We shall once again send food deliveries to the local food banks to avoid unacceptable waste.
“We are sincerely sorry for our fans – some of whom will have travelled great distances.”
