Arsenal's request to postpone their match against Tottenham should be rejected, proclaims Gary Neville
Manchester United legend Gary Neville has admitted that teams are asking to postpone their games depending on if they've got the best squad to win a game when that should not be the case. Arsenal made a formal request to the Premier League to postpone their game against Tottenham on Sunday.
Premier League rules state that a club must play a game if they have 13 outfield players and one goalkeeper available to feature. The Premier League had accepted Burnley's request of postponing their game against Leicester City due to not having the required amount of players to feature in the game.
Tottenham are set to host Arsenal at the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium this Sunday as the rivals play out a fierce North London derby but the Gunners have made a request to the Premier League to postpone their fixture as they don't have a sufficient number of players in the squad.
The Gunners are missing a number of players due to injury, suspension, coronavirus and some of them being away on duty with their nations at AFCON. Spurs are understood to be frustrated at Arsenal’s request and is not convinced that there is a Covid-19 outbreak in their squad. The league confirmed that it would take a final decision on Saturday regarding the game and Neville has insisted that the game should continue as planned.
"I honestly believe that all teams, not just in the Premier League but the EFL now, must be made to play their fixtures. Folarin Balogun and Ainsley Maitland-Niles have gone on loan, Granit Xhaka's got a red card - that's not the fault of anybody else. We can't be calling fixtures off,” Neville told Sky Sports.
“If it was purely down to Covid in extraordinary circumstances where there was 10 or 15 players out, but we're now talking about teams for the last few weeks where there's no doubt they've been calling games off based upon whether they think they've got the best squad or team to win a game. It's got to stop. For me, it [Arsenal's request] should be rejected,” he added.