The Premier League schedule was decimated when a series of coronavirus outbreaks in clubs caused the postponement of five games over the weekend, bringing the number of postponed games in the last week to nine.
The Premier stated on Thursday that its intention is “to be able to continue with the current calendar as long as it is safe,” although some technicians recommended a brief suspension of activities.
In addition to the postponement of Manchester United-Brighton on Saturday, the English league announced the postponement of the following games: Southampton-Brentford, Watford-Crystal Palace, West Ham-Norwich (all Saturday) and Everton-Leicester (Sunday).
Only five games would be played over the weekend, reflecting the worsening health situation in Great Britain as the omicron variant spread.
The Premier said her board of directors was weighing criteria for postponing matches on a case-by-case basis.
“The league understands that the fans will be disappointed that these games have to be postponed and apologizes for all the inconvenience and disruption it causes,” said the Premier. “All other games this weekend will proceed as scheduled.”
Two games could be played on Tuesday night. Liverpool hosted Newcastle but reported that three players – Virgil van Dijk, Fabinho and Curtis Jones – were ruled out on suspicion of a positive coronavirus test result.
Chelsea manager Thomas Tuchel reported that three players – Romelu Lukaku, Timo Werner and Callum Hudson-Odoi – were unable to perform at home against Everton due to positive results. Ben Chilwell, out with injury, also tested positive and Kai Havertz was ignored for feeling unwell.
Training facilities at Leicester, Brentford and Watford were closed due to outbreaks, according to the league. Norwich did not have the required minimum number of players due to COVID-19, injuries and other ailments.
United said the decision to suspend activities at its training ground for a short period was done in an attempt to reduce the risk of avoiding further infections.
Earlier in the day, Brentford coach Thomas Frank had asked for the weekend’s session to be postponed so that clubs can deal with the coronavirus outbreaks.
In the middle of a press conference Thursday, prior to Brentford’s visit to Southampton on Saturday, Frank received notification of four additional cases of coronavirus on campus and staff. This brought the number of cases to 13.
Daunted by an outbreak in its own ranks, a previous request by Leicester to postpone its match against Tottenham had been rejected by the Premier League.
“We have to postpone the entire Premier League date this weekend,” Frank said. “The COVID caves have exploded in all Premier League clubs, we are all having problems because of it.”
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