Arsenal are set to take on Leeds in the coming hours, despite an extensive number of players absent for the home side.
The Gunners head into today’s clash with a near-full squad of options to choose from, but the same cannot be said for their rivals.
Unfortunately for Leeds however is that other teams are having their matches called off due to positive Coronavirus cases, whilst the Yorkshire club are struggling with actual injuries instead.
Despite the above fact, Jeff Stelling believes it is ‘absolutely staggering’ that the fixture has been allowed to go ahead.
“It’s ironic isn’t it?” he said live on Sky Sports(via MOTLeedsNews). “Listen to their injuries at the moment; Kalvin Phillips, Patrick Bamford, Liam Cooper, Rodrigo, [Pascal] Struijk, [Jamie] Shackleton, probably Dan James as well.
“It’s ironic that with all the games going off, their game is going ahead – absolutely staggering.”
It is hardly Arsenal’s fault that their rivals are struggling with injuries, and their thin squad means they are likely to be strongly affected by their absences, but the fact of the matter is that the postponed matches are due to the spread of infection.
We will still need to stay focused despite our rivals issues, but it would definitely have been unfair to call this off simply due to stacked up injuries.
Patrick
what goes around, comes around
We had covid and injuries + late comers back from the euros, game still went ahead against Brentford
Jeff Stelling may be a Leeds fan cuz in the history of the EPL, I haven’t learn of any match postponed cuz a Particular team has numerous injury players. It is always postponed cuz of weather conditions or a corona virus issue. Maybe he’s new 2 the EPL or totally inept of the EPL rules.
Its well and widely known that he is a massive HARTLEPOOL FAN.
Time to get on with life come now! People are getting more resilient and virus is getting weaker, maybe highly contagious,but weaker.
Howmany of the players/staff have died or been seriously hospitalised to the point where they may not recover?
PJ- SA, as a total non medical fan, but as one who listens intently to respected scientists on Covid constantly, it appears that there will be many more variants, all getting less and less virulent .
Until Covid, in effect, becomes like the common cold, highly catchable by all but hardly more than a nuisance and certainly not to be feared or isolated for.
EARLY EVIDENCE SEEMS TO SAY THAT OMICRON IS DOING EXACTLY THAT .
👍👍
i dont see what his point is. How many of the absentees are covid related? nothing to see here. we’ve played with massively depleted sides oursevlves before.