Should be an interesting matchup - Arsenal haven't been great away from home, though were unlucky to lose both the Everton and Man United games. Leeds got shellacked by Man City, but everything went in for City as well. Some think this is the beginning of the end for Bielsa at Leeds: a win for Arsenal will certainly accelerate that kind of thinking. Time (if the match happens): 1730 GMT/1230 EST/1130 CST/the clocks work backwards down under so who cares Place: Elland Road TV: NBC
So even if Arsenal somehow miraculously stay healthy until then, if Leeds gets a few cases of Covid positives, they might be allowed to skip out on our game? At this point they’ve canceled 4 of the 6 games this Sat. We’re the only 3pm KO still left. For now. Bleak days. Getting bleaker.
I guess when this game is played depends on how the FA balances their greediness vs. pragmatism vs. fairness. But we know which of those 3 factors the FA prioritizes... I do wish they would report what strain of COVID case a player has, as the new Omicron strain has nowhere close to the severity of any previous variants, but admittedly is far more transmissible. Seeing reports like the one below do give significant evidence for hope. South Africa Hospitalization Rate Plunges 91% in Omicron Wave - Bloomberg
PL meeting Monday which i would think means the game will go on as long as Leeds (or us I guess) don't report a few new cases in the next 24 hours. Hoping we can play and smash em, before the league probably takes a pause for a few weeks. If we win I think not having many postponed games will work in our favor.
This seems true. With Omicron I think "governing bodies" are operating with an abundance of caution, at least for a week or two more, until the "real data" starts to be available. And so it seems that the "traditional" Covid policies, which were written pre-Omicron, probably pre-Delta, may be a bit out of step with Omicron's actual danger, or lack thereof? OTOH we might all just be grasping for a bit of false hope? Time will tell. As for our game, I think for TV contracts, etc, the EPL is desperate to maintain at least one 3:00 KO match and one 5:30... which is us. So even if Leeds or Arsenal picks up a few Covid cases, I suspect our match will be played. Same goes for the Villa-Burnley match which precedes us.
Equity demands that all of these games go forward, like ours against Brentford, Chelsea, and Man City did.
Nice idea, but in this case equity is more like refereeing consistency. An ideal that the league does not seem particularly hell bent on attaining.
Villa v Burnley is off today, so this is the only match happening today. Only a matter of time before it all gets put on hold.
Oh boy! All the eyeballs of the World will be on us today I suspect. That plus going away to Elland Road for a “should win” against a depleted team, makes me a little nervous. COME IN BOYS! Make this count.
why would they wait until 2 hours before kickoff to postpone the villa match? what were they waiting for?
Villa had more players test positive this morning. Still seems like they should be making these decisions with a little more foresight.
Alright, looks like this one will happen! 📋 Tonight’s team news…We are unchanged from Wednesday's win 💪 #LEEARS pic.twitter.com/ISSiyT6I8e— Arsenal (@Arsenal) December 18, 2021
Yeah I'm not surprised given that this is his go to XI for a few prior matches. But if we're not right on the cusp of having an imposed time-off period, it seems a bit risky to starting these same guys every 3 days or so. p.s. Arteta in his pre-match comments says our current Covid positives are "quite a lot of staff members and a few players" (and he mentioned that Colney had to be closed earlier this week.)
Looking at the pre-game images of Elland Road, reminded me of this historic match from 1951, the second time floodlights were used at Highbury...