English Football In Bizarre Uproar After Arsenal File Request To Postpone North London Derby
By The Editor
on 14th January 2022
Arsenal filed their first request of the season to postpone the north London derby, and English football has lost the plot…
Arsenal on Friday confirmed that the club has filed an application to request that Sunday’s north London derby be postponed with the Gunners squad decimated (via Arsenal.com).
Mikel Arteta stated the team was missing 10 first-team players for Thursday’s trip to Anfield as the 10-men of Arsenal secured a heroic draw to keep our Carabao Cup dreams alive.
Granit Xhaka needlessly got himself sent off midway through the first half and given that it’s his second dismissal of the campaign, he’s now serving a two-match ban.
That flashpoint came after Cedric Soares left the field of play with a hip injury suffered in the first minute of the game, while Bukayo Saka was also later substituted due to an injury.
The aforementioned trio, therefore, joined a long list of previously established absentees which has seen the club request the game at the Tottenham Stadium to be postponed – in accordance with the Premier League’s rules.
At this point in the campaign, this comes as no surprise given that 22 games have been postponed in the Premier League this season due to requests filed by a number of clubs.
This is the first time, officially, that the club has attempted to utilise this relief in these testing times – something that should’ve been in place when we were forced to play our opening game at Brentford despite a mass Covid-19 outbreak.
SEE MORE: Latest Arsenal news
Despite those facts, Arsenal’s request has suddenly sent English football into a bizarre rage with a number of ‘impartial’ journalists and pundits inadvertently letting their masks slip.
Check out some of the reactions below.
Just a thought but maybe Arsenal – who have a massive squad anyway – shouldn’t have loaned out Ainsley Maitland-Niles. Not sure I have much sympathy with their request to postpone the Spurs game. They don’t appear ravaged by Covid…
— Jason Burt (@JBurtTelegraph) January 14, 2022
Penny for the thoughts of the youngsters at these clubs requesting games off because of first-team absentees…
— Simon Peach (@SimonPeach) January 14, 2022
Suspect PL will accede to Arsenal’s postponement request. But were I Spurs, I’d point to Xhaka’s self-inflicted absence, AMN and Balogun loans when they knew about injuries, having to play without three SA players in Sep, and *lasagne-gate”.
— Martin Lipton (@MartinLipton) January 14, 2022
Postponements should ONLY be for Covid, not injuries, AFCON and Xhaka’s sending off https://t.co/NRENbxwtfs
— Ian Abrahams (Moose) (@BroadcastMoose) January 14, 2022
🗣 “I honestly believe that all teams must be made to play their fixtures”
🗣 “We’re talking about teams calling games off based on if they think they have their best squad… it’s got to stop”@GNev2 and @Carra23 share their thoughts on recent postponements 💬 pic.twitter.com/6qBsmLOjyM
— Sky Sports Premier League (@SkySportsPL) January 14, 2022
Expect Tottenham’s anger at the Arsenal request will, understandably, centre on the fact Arsenal recently loaned out Maitland-Niles to Roma. Crazy decision so early in window with players at AFCON
— Matt Law (@Matt_Law_DT) January 14, 2022