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Arsenal boss Mikel Arteta expresses concerns ahead of Tottenham match

Arsenal manager Mikel Arteta has expressed his concern over the rescheduling of the north London derby against Tottenham Hotspur.

The fixture was originally scheduled to take place in January in which Arsenal would have been without at least 15 first-teamers for their visit to Tottenham Hotspur Stadium and requested the postponement because they felt they would be unable to meet the league’s criteria for fulfilling a fixture.

At the time of the Premier League‘s decision Martin Ødegaard was the only one of those players known to have Covid-19.

The postponement of the fixture saw Tottenham issue their own statement in which they claimed they were left ‘extremely surprised’ by the decision and claimed the request was down to player unavailability rather than Covid rules.

The fixture could have massive consequences in determining the outcome of who finishes in the top four with both sides in the race to secure the final Champions League place.

When asked whether he has concerns over when the Tottenham game will be scheduled for he told The Independent: “Yes, because I don’t know and it is going to be important.

“It is nothing to do with me, the club has to arrange those conversations. Hopefully (we have a say), I would doubt it but hopefully.”

Given the fact that some clubs are expected to play Wednesday night again on Saturday lunchtime is understandable for teams involved in European competition, but not in the Premier League.
“I heard some comments about when you are in Europe, that is nothing new, that is nothing new to me, but I am not talking about Europe, I am talking about the Premier League and how we schedule the games in the Premier League,” he added.
“When you are in Europe it is a different story, but I am talking about the Premier League and it is very different. We have been the only team who has been scheduled like that. I am not talking about Europe, because some of those teams are not going to be involved in Europe.
“The first thing is to protect the players and we have mentioned that many times, please can we avoid the Wednesday night and the Saturday morning and travelling?
“I understand they have the commitments and TV, we understand that. But if you do it once, OK, please don’t do it twice. We still have to put the fixture of Spurs, are we going to be a third time?”
SpursWeb Opinion
Arteta has the audacity to complain about the potential scheduling of the fixture against Spurs when the match should have gone ahead in January rather than them manipulating Covid rules to their advantage given the number of players they had unavailable due to Afcon duty and general injuries.
Spurs have had their own intensive fixture periods earlier in the year and never complained, hopefully we can silence matters on the pitch and finish above them for yet another season.
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