Midweek EPL Fixtures - Not so fast, Man United…

[pedro1918]

Brentford-Man United postponed by the COVID outbreak in the United squad.

Norwich-Villa and Man City-Leeds get things started this afternoon. Games today, tomorrow and Thursday.

 

[the1andonly3003]

Norwich-Villa has a chance to be canceled too
Spurs may not take place

 

[DJnVa]

Spurs may not take place

Seems to be trending in the right direction:

Already planning for the Leicester game to go ahead, the reopening of the first-team areas, as well as some players returning to training following their isolations, should raise optimism that the encounter at the King Power Stadium is given the green light.

Tottenham handed big training boost ahead of Leicester as players return after Covid outbreak - football.london

 

[OCST]

I fear that the whole season is going to be put on hold shortly, and maybe NFL, NBA etc also.

I fear that because if it happens it will mean that the PL season will be the least of our concerns.

Although if it did happen maybe it would give our idiot owner some time to line up a replacement and fire Rafa gracefully, instead of having his hand forced by a rapidly-accelerating shitstorm of bad news which might lead to an even worse hire.

 

[Smiling Joe Hesketh]

May I just say that I'm STILL upset over the Norwich-ManU match? Goddammit we deserved three points and got none. So terribly unjust.

God I hate football. God I love football.

 

[Section30]

Leeds looking pretty lost out there. MC almost scoring at will. 7-0 at the 80 min mark.

 

[pedro1918]

VIlla with a tidy 2-0 victory over Norwich. I find myself rooting for Villa, because of Gerrard, until I remember Ashley Young is out there.

 

[teddykgb]

God bless Bielsa who decided to try to man mark City all over the pitch. Haven’t had that much space to operate against in ages

 

[SocrManiac]

God bless Bielsa who decided to try to man mark City all over the pitch. Haven’t had that much space to operate against in ages

He’s deservedly gotten a lot of rope but he may have just used it to hang himself. He needed to change things up and instead just shat in his bucket.

 

[teddykgb]

He’s deservedly gotten a lot of rope but he may have just used it to hang himself. He needed to change things up and instead just shat in his bucket.

Unless they get relegated on goal difference it doesn’t really matter if they lose 3-0 or 7-0 at the Etihad. I’m sure Leeds fans will be grumpy but when aren’t they and that match won’t define their season. They are in an unexpected relegation fight so it could snowball on him from here but in the end he got the same number of points as Wolves who showed up and played a back 11

 

[DJnVa]

Leicester apparently requested postponement of tomorrow's game versus Tottenham and were turned down.

 

[Morgan's Magic Snowplow]

It's insane that the Premier League doesn't have a meaningful policy regarding what it takes for a fixture to be postponed due to Covid. Its just basically a never-ending series of ad hoc decisions based on mysterious criteria.

 

[DJnVa]

It's insane that the Premier League doesn't have a meaningful policy regarding what it takes for a fixture to be postponed due to Covid. Its just basically a never-ending series of ad hoc decisions based on mysterious criteria.

Tottenham is gonna end up playing like kids do in the weekend travel team tourneys: 2 on Saturday, 1 on Sunday.

 

[SocrManiac]

Tottenham is gonna end up playing like kids do in the weekend travel team tourneys: 2 on Saturday, 1 on Sunday.

With Conte's conditioning program I really don't think that'll be an issue.

 

[Morgan's Magic Snowplow]

Burnley v. Watford postponed due to Covid.

 

[the1andonly3003]

Leicester just needs a few more positive tests to get their match ppd for tomorrow....

 

[SocrManiac]

There's no way this season won't be postponed. Afcon could really set this over the top.

 

[Morgan's Magic Snowplow]

Leicester just needs a few more positive tests to get their match ppd for tomorrow....

There doesn't seem to be any magic number of tests that triggers a postponement.

If anything, the logic of not postponing Leicester-Spurs seems to rest more on the fact that Spurs have already missed two matches, which is a totally insane reason for making what should be health-guided decisions. And also completely shortsighted given that the way things are trending Spurs (like every other club) are going to miss more of them eventually anyway.

 

[DJnVa]

There doesn't seem to be any magic number of tests that triggers a postponement.

If anything, the logic of not postponing Leicester-Spurs seems to rest more on the fact that Spurs have already missed two matches, which is a totally insane reason for making what should be health-guided decisions. And also completely shortsighted given that the way things are trending Spurs (like every other club) are going to miss more of them eventually anyway.

Apparently Tottenham offered to postpone the Leicester match and play the Rennes match and even offered to play at Rennes. And they were turned down.

 

[DJnVa]

There's no way this season won't be postponed. Afcon could really set this over the top.

I don't think it will. We've heard this about just about every season and once things kicked back off no season has shut down. Also, these teams lost a lot of money last time. They aren't going to do that again. Not for what is seen as a more contagious but less lethal strain.

They're going to power through.


EDIT: Cue shutdown in 5...4...3...2...

 

[teddykgb]

Matches should be suspended before it gets out of hand. They’re creating incentive to rush people back or not be honest at the outset about potential exposure. Injuries are a part of sports and matches shouldn’t be postponed for injury but this has the potential of spreading from one play to another and causing outbreaks at entire other clubs. It’s better to miss a few fixtures than it is to jeopardize the entire season

 

[Morgan's Magic Snowplow]

Matches should be suspended before it gets out of hand. They’re creating incentive to rush people back or not be honest at the outset about potential exposure. Injuries are a part of sports and matches shouldn’t be postponed for injury but this has the potential of spreading from one play to another and causing outbreaks at entire other clubs. It’s better to miss a few fixtures than it is to jeopardize the entire season

Its really stupid.

It feels like they're just trying to justify getting as many matches in as possible before they are forced to shut down the league for a stretch, without any clear criteria for why certain matches are allowed to go forward and others aren't and certainly without any regard for the spread of Covid among players or between teams.

 

[candylandriots]

Palace with a very early goal from Zaha against Southampton.

 

[candylandriots]

Fucking bullshit - James Ward-Prowse continues to kill Palace, but the free kick that he scored from was due to a “foul” that was total simulation.

 

[candylandriots]

Now Broja with a really nice goal from distance to put Southampton ahead 2-1.

 

[candylandriots]

It's a Christmas miracle!

Jordan Ayew with a goal!

 

[candylandriots]

This game is end-to-end action. I'd be surprised if there isn't at least one more goal scored.

 

[the1andonly3003]

Pierre who?

 

[the1andonly3003]

clumsy challenge by Coufal to see his 2nd yellow

 

[fletcherpost]

Penalty and yellow seems harsh to me.

 

[Catcher Block]

That was a real harsh yellow/PK. He got the ball before the man, seems unfair to blame him that he didn't get the ball flush. He won the challenge.

 

[fletcherpost]

Laca misses the penalty.

 

[the1andonly3003]

ball don't lie...Fabianski saves vs his former team

 

[the1andonly3003]

Wolve strikers falling left and right, and they sneak one by the Seagulls

 

[the1andonly3003]

Spurs-Leicester finally cancelled

 

[mikeford]

There's no way this season won't be postponed. Afcon could really set this over the top.

Oh AFCON is almost certainly getting postponed.

View: https://twitter.com/dmlynch/status/1471052037030879238

 

[OCST]

Chelsea-Everton might be in doubt

View: https://twitter.com/CincyToffees/status/1471464977206710274?s=20


Tweet says positive tests at Chelsea

They should put it on hiatus. All indications are that omicron is doubling every 3-4 days. Especially with 2+ fixtures/wk now, it's untenable. Not just for the squads but for everyone - there are tweets from Everton supporters who travelled to Stamford Bridge for Clockwork Orange treatment, and they're furious. Now they have to travel back and just being on a train is a spreader event, even for the vaccinated.

Even if games go forward squads are likely missing key players, they will be the XIs that teams roll out in first round Carabao Cup games against Rotherham or Crawley Town

Shut it down

 

[OCST]

I fear that the whole season is going to be put on hold shortly, and maybe NFL, NBA etc also.

I fear that because if it happens it will mean that the PL season will be the least of our concerns.

Although if it did happen maybe it would give our idiot owner some time to line up a replacement and fire Rafa gracefully, instead of having his hand forced by a rapidly-accelerating shitstorm of bad news which might lead to an even worse hire.

 

[Morgan's Magic Snowplow]

Multiple clubs now advocating for a shutdown until January. It feels inevitable at this point. The question is really just whether this weekend's fixtures get played or not.

View: https://twitter.com/alexshawespn/status/1471485778727477250?s=21

 

[Morgan's Magic Snowplow]

Having thought some more about the problem, I really don't know what the league should do.

There is basically no flexibility in moving the start date of the 22-23 season, due to the World Cup already making scheduling very difficult. The Championship and below start in late July, the PL the first weekend of August.

So if you're shutting the league down now we're talking about rescheduling into the midweek periods of the remaining season, maybe extending the season a couple weeks. There are some empty midweeks but not a lot between international breaks and European fixtures.

If every club missed 3-4 matches right now, you could definitely reschedule them. If every club missed 6-7 league matches plus the next rounds of the League Cup and FA Cup, it would be a nightmare verging on impossible.

The big question then is how long realistically the league would need to shut down. I don't see much reason to believe that the Covid situation is going to be better in early January. Omnicron is doubling so fast that it will assumedly crest and fall relatively quickly, but I'd be shocked if it happens in 2-3 weeks.

I can see the argument for shutting down right now but I think there's a good chance it ends up with the league coming under intense pressure to restart football in early January when the situation isn't really any better. Maybe that is still worth doing, just taking a pause during at least part of the omnicron wave? But it feels like either football and high levels of Covid are going to have to coexist at some point or the league/cups are going to have to be curtailed, and nobody wants the latter from a commercial perspective.

 

[Jimy Hendrix]

Qatar 2022 is just gonna be a festival of popping hamstrings

 

[Zososoxfan]

Oh how I wish the Qatar WC gets cancelled.

 

[Morgan's Magic Snowplow]

One way to think about things: Chelsea have the highest number of remaining fixtures in English football, since they're in all four competitions plus the club world cup.

If the PL pauses until the weekend of January 8/9 as reportedly being discussed, there will be 17 weeks left before the scheduled end date of the season (May 22), accounting for two international breaks.

Chelsea have the following remaining fixtures: 22 league, 2-7 Champions League, 1-4 League Cup, 1-6 FA Cup, 1-2 Club World Cup.

So that is 27-41 fixtures to fit into 17 weeks. Even if they intentionally crash out of the domestic cups at the first available opportunity, you're probably talking about 30-32 fixtures, essentially playing twice a week almost every week for five months.

There is probably 2-3 weeks slack to potentially extend the season into early/mid June. On the other hand, there is no guarantee that the Covid situation will be better by the weekend of January 8/9.

 

[teddykgb]

Although a lousy solution they could conceivably just not play 38. It would be unfair in a lot of ways but often a champion is clear by matchweek 32 or 33.

 

[Morgan's Magic Snowplow]

Although a lousy solution they could conceivably just not play 38. It would be unfair in a lot of ways but often a champion is clear by matchweek 32 or 33.

My guess is that this is possible but will be a last resort. The PL clubs will try to either withdraw from the domestic cups or get authorization to field youth teams before they sacrifice league fixtures, due to the financial and contractual implications and also the inherent impossibility of doing it in an equitable way. The FA won't like that of course.

 

[DJnVa]

Although a lousy solution they could conceivably just not play 38. It would be unfair in a lot of ways but often a champion is clear by matchweek 32 or 33.

Sure. But there are teams playing for more than being a champion. There's a lot of money in other positions in the table too.

 

[Morgan's Magic Snowplow]

The EFL recently released a statement about enhanced protocols that included the following note:

The latest vaccine data collated for November has shown that 75% of players across the EFL are either fully vaccinated, have had a single jab or intend to be vaccinated. Double vaccinated players total 59%, 16% are set to get the jab, while 25% of players currently do not intend to get a vaccine.

I have no idea whether its similar for the PL but 59% fully vaxxed is pathetic and one assumes that the proportion boosted is tiny. No wonder omnicron is running wild.

 

[mikeford]

Wow the EPL trails the AMERICAN PUBLIC in being fully vaccinated.

Didn't think it could get worse than that when the jab is readily available.

 

[fletcherpost]

Although a lousy solution they could conceivably just not play 38. It would be unfair in a lot of ways but often a champion is clear by matchweek 32 or 33.

Relegation would not be clear cut with 12-15 points still to play for.

 

[Blundatola]

Relegation would not be clear cut with 12-15 points still to play for.

I believe Newcastle United might just take that as a challenge!