Traditional flagship moment of the English Championship, Boxing Day does not promise to be festive this year, because Great Britain and the Premier League clubs are facing a flood of positive cases with the Omicron variant: three matches, scheduled for Sunday, have been postponed. If last year a large part of the English fans had to resolve to follow the matches at home because of the camera, this season it is the players who are missing.
Nearly a hundred positive cases within the workforce and management of elite clubs were identified last week, while the United Kingdom records a record number of Covid infections (122,000 cases in twenty-four hours) . Thirteen games in total have been postponed in recent weeks, including three matches initially scheduled for Sunday for Boxing Day (Matchday 19): Liverpool-Leeds, Wolverhampton-Watford and Burnley-Everton.
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The grumbling of the coaches
How to slip the late matches into an already very dense schedule, which will see the English clubs play every day until January 3, with the exception of December 31? Discussions took place on Thursday by videoconference between the Premier League, club coaches and players. But faced with the sporting and financial challenges of this institution that is Boxing Day, no temporary suspension from the championship has been decided. No more than a return of the camera or gauges as is the case in Wales and Scotland.
“You have a wall in front of you, you can talk and ask what you want, but all the decisions were already made,” lamented Tottenham coach Antonio Conte, whose team, particularly affected by the Covid, has three games late to play. With his Liverpool counterpart, Jürgen Klopp, they had pleaded Thursday for a reduction to one match of the semi-finals of the League Cup Chelsea-Tottenham and Arsenal-Liverpool scheduled for early January, as had been the case. last year due to the pandemic.
Pep Guardiola (Manchester City) gives his instructions on the edge of the lawn, in 2021
Credit: Getty Images
The program of the 19th day
- (16h) Manchester City-Leicester City
- (16h) Norwich City-Arsenal
- (16h) Tottenham-Crystal Palace
- (16) West Ham-Southampton
- (18h30) Aston Villa-Chelsea
- (21h00) Brighton-Brentford
- (Lundi 21h00) Newcastle – Manchester United
The postponed matches:
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