Tottenham Hotspur Reveal Their Anger At Postponed North London Derby
Tottenham Hotspur have revealed how annoyed they are at the north London derby being delayed, putting out a statement after the Premier League's decision.
Despite the fact that Arsenal were able to put out a team on Thursday night in the Carabao Cup semi-final, that saw them gain a well earned draw with Liverpool, the Gunners put in a request to have the game with Spurs on Sunday postponed.
The news angered Gary Neville, who said he believed all games should be going ahead short of extenuating circumstances, though Ian Wright wasn't happy with the Sky Sports pundit's viewpoint.
On Saturday afternoon, just over 24 hours before the game was supposed to kick off, it was announced that the league had decided to grant Mikel Arteta's side their request, despite only one positive Covid test, which became two later on.
Spurs have now revealed their anger at the decision, and confusion, after their own request to delay a game in December was turned down.
"We regret to announce that Sunday’s North London derby against Arsenal has been postponed," a statement on the club's website 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 - 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. 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."
Arsenal's reasons for asking for the match to be postponed were heavily criticised on social media as well, with rival fans pointing out that the team's shortage of players was partially self inflicted.
Granit Xhaka was sent off in the game against Liverpool on Thursday, in a way only Xhaka could, whilst Ainsley Maitland-Niles was sent out on loan.
The loss of Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang and Thomas Partey to the Africa Cup of Nations is another reason why the game had to be postponed.
Neville wasn't the only Sky Sports pundit to annoy Arsenal fans, with Jamie Carragher trolling them on social media with his own take on events.
That after Liverpool were also criticised for originally postponing the first leg of the semi final, when the Reds' positive tests turned out to be false positives.
Topics: Premier League, Arsenal, Tottenham Hotspur
Ryan Sidle