Arsenal’s match with Wolves on 28 December has been postponed after the visitors informed the Premier League that they are struggling to put together a squad due to injuries and a Covid outbreak.
News of the postponement is somewhat bittersweet for the Gunners. On the one hand, Mikel Arteta’s squad have built up momentum and confidence in recent weeks and three points against weakened opponents looked very much up for grabs.
Our trip to @Arsenal on Tuesday 28th December has been postponed, with Bruno Lage having an insufficient number of players available to fulfil the fixture.
🆚⏸️
— Wolves (@Wolves) December 26, 2021
On the other, the visitors, having had a game with Watford postponed, were set to play us having had nine days rest compared to less than 48 hours for Mikel Arteta’s squad.
In an interview with Sky Sports after today’s 5-0 win over Watford, Arteta had complained about the situation.
He said: “That word [fairness] to describe the position that both teams are going to be playing in one and a half days, obviously you cannot use it because it’s not fair, but we will push and we will go there [to the Emirates] to try to recover as good as we can, play as good as we can and prepare the game to win it.”
A statement from the Premier League reads: “The Premier League Board accepted the postponement application as Wolves do not have the required number of players available for the match (13 outfield players and one goalkeeper) as a result of a number of COVID-19 cases and injuries at the club.
The Board was able to make its decision in advance of the fixture to give clarity to the affected clubs and their fans. We apologise for the inconvenience and disruption caused to supporters’ festive plans.”
Arsenal will now have six days to prepare for the New Year’s Day showdown with league leaders Manchester City.
Good news, I guess? Not sure how to react though..
Excellent news I think, we have plenty of empty midweek slots later in the season, and our team can use a break right now.
I’m glad it’s being postponed! I don’t remember any past premier league games being scheduled within two days of each other before (anyone feel free to tell me otherwise), and I think it’s very strange that the EPL even thought it would work in the first place! All of the postponing is going to make for a tough schedule in the latter months of the season though and I really hope injuries don’t start to pile up because of it…
Other teams set to face far worse pile up than us including our main rivals….. this really was the season to be without Europe
As much as it hurt me that we didn’t qualify for Europe, but I have to say that is absolutely true.
It’s becoming a lottery. Some winners, Some losers. We have not done too badly so far.
It didn’t quite go our way at Brentford before you could call matches off.
good, we have some rest before city now. Playing city immediately after playing 2 games in 2 days would have been intense.
I see your point, but we could have 2 weeks rest and City play us with 2 days rest and they will still best us. Hate to say it but no matter what we won’t beat City. At the most we could get a draw if we get our tactics right.
Have you heard of covid?
Im wondering whether his heard of our last two FA cup semi finals against them
I was less concerned about the result against City (they are playing as well as any team in the world right now) or even Wolves. But playing within two days, with no recovery period, vastly increases the chance for injury. And this risk is much greater for squads already depleted by covid and covid protocols. If you watched Tuchel’s post-match press conference, he could barely contain his fury at the Premier League.
Is City still playing in 2 days? This could be a good advantage for us, just wishing the players have time to recuperate and stay away from the virus until New Year’s.
They got Brentford away on Wednesday.
Let’s hope it’s a really tough game with plenty of physical challenges from both sides but mainly Brentford.
Or they could just have a brawl and see half the team red carded, that would be fine too.
Tommie missing for that one??
In theory he could be available if his positive covid was yesterday, or maybe there day before.
Depends on how he is as well, fingers crossed 🤞
Kevin De Bruyne said he was still feeling the after-effects of covid (tired after a single hard sprint) long after he had “recovered.”
Bittersweet indeed but without European football there are plenty of dates available to fit this game in without worrying about rotation.
Oh well, not a bad game to end the year on 👍
We’re fourth for points (as well as goal difference) in 2021: https://www.transfermarkt.us/premier-league/jahrestabelle/wettbewerb/GB1/saison_id/2021
And now fourth in goals scored as well, surprisingly. We’re on the up.
When will all these postponed games be played now?
Talk about “kicking” the can down the road.
Football.
What possible choice was there? Even shutting down would have meant making up the games later.
All things work together for our good. Bring on Man City.
Fantastic news after a fantastic match.
Forcing teams to play two matches in three days is frankly a massive piss-take. How can you prepare for a top-flight game with just one rest day? The PL clubs should demand a rule that says every club should have at least 48 hours between fixtures.
I was visiting family today and missed watching or hearing about the match until tonight. But what a pleasant surprise!
A nice break now and then City. If we keep this level up then we might get something.
As much as I welcome the game being postponed to rest our players, I was really looking forward to this game being my first ever visit to an Arsenal home game. I’ve been a diehard supporter of this club since 2006/07, and I was extremely excited for this fixture (especially because I’d be visiting the game after my night on call).
Regardless, if it’s for the benefit of the players, who am I to say anything. :’)
So…. COVID can take my middle finger salute.
Sorry to hear that, hope you aren’t financially out of pocket with travel/accommodation.
Think the postponement works in our favour – that original fixture was screaming ‘injury waiting to happen’.
We’ve completed more fixtures than those around us, so we can afford the extra match later better than most
It’s hard not to want to play right now with our form, but pretty serious concern over injuries due to this intense workload makes me fairly satisfied with the decision. Wolves looked pretty solid against Chelsea, anyway, before Christmas, and in some other tough games before that. So maybe not the worst thing to avoid them right now. I imagine they’d make us work hard for a win, at the very least.
Man City will complain now is not fair to them lol. Hope we get at least a point against them please attack City don’t give them as much as respect as the last time. Come on, we are the Arsenal!
In the match against Leicester, wide-open spaces did appear in City’s defence. The way our attack’s playing, we should be able to get some joy against them – but our defence will need to be on top form!
If Leicester can score 3 against them, we shouldn’t have any fear.
Yes, Leicester scored three against them but only after City had scored four in the first half-hour or so. Even City can lose focus and get complacent when they lead by four goals at halftime.
Take our good form and confidence into the City game now
Could be a blessing.
City is likely to roll us over but if we can even scrap a draw, it would be well earned.
This is excellent news for us! Playing a rested Wolves on two days rest would have put us at a disadvantage. Now we have five days to prepare for City and five days for Tomiyasu to recover. I think we can get something from the City match. But even if we don’t we’re going to give a better show of ourselves the likely we would have on only two days’ rest.
As a Wolves fan, the decision to postpone is ridiculous not because of Covid – of the 2 players affected, 1 is a long term injury and the other has played about 10 minutes this season – so has nothing to do with it. The problem is the small squad we have which with injuries is down to around 11 fit first team players! Wolves fans have complained to the club on numerous occasions that we need more players and now it has come to this! Sorry Arsenal fans about the postponement and I have to agree, Wolves should be… Read more »
Bummed that we won’t have a match tomorrow for my personal entertainment, but of course good news that we don’t have to play on one day’s rest risking injury to players regardless of how many Wolves might have been missing.