Today’s North London Derby has been postponed after a request from Arsenal because of a lack of outfield players. This is the 21st game that has been put back by the Premier League but the first one that the Gunners themselves have requested.
The glut of postponements is because the EPL brought in new rules as the Omicron variant spread across the country like wildfire, but there is uproar from our opponents because of the fact that Arsenal reportedly only have one player that has Covid in the squad.
The League stated in their announcement: “The decision is a result of a combination of COVID-19, existing and recent injuries and players on international duty at the Africa Cup of Nations. All clubs are able to apply for a postponement if COVID-19 infections are a factor in their request.”
“So, one player infected counts as “a factor” and many pundits are not happy with the decision, and I am sure we all remember a couple of weeks ago when Gooners slammed Liverpool for postponing our League Cup semi-final….
This is what our very own Dan Smith has to say about the situation….
Apparently we have 1 covid case.
I mean …..,
Bollocks, if Liverpool can get away with it then why can’t we. We were wronged and followed suit. Can’t be one rule for them and another for us
What’s bollocks about my post
1 covid case =facts
Unless you know different
Our club as just used a deadly virus as an excuse because of poor planning .
Pretty scummy move on our part and any other club that as done the same .
I think the fact that Liverpool had their game cancelled for what turned out to be 0 covid cases and only 5 players were false positive where as arsenal have 14 players out including another positive today
14 players out
One with covid .
say it like it is DK…you always know you’re on the right side of an argument whenever James disagrees with your opinion
all the bought and paid for are out in force. At least you had the intelligence to skirt the debate but you back up each other up every time. Always negative. I stopped commenting because I said wait nov/dec, nov/dec happened end of. You back up negative constantly not arsenal fans in my subjective opinion. Here Liverpool did everything wrong fake positives and the story is arsenal being honest and getting a game called. How as Arsenal fans do you justify not being outraged? This is being used to bury the fake positive story.
Less swearing please…. No need on a family website.
You could not have put that any better Pat! 👍👍
Shortboygooner that is such an unbelievably bad attitude. Just because someone else has done it, doesn’t mean it’s right. I’d rather do the right thing than do something we moaned about another team doing, nothing worse than a hypocrite.
From my understanding it’s not Covid, injury or players at AFCON specific. I believe postponements happen based on the number of 1st team players available to be in the match day squad regardless of why they are absent.
Agree PJ SA
They all need they weekly fix …Arsenals…nonsense what’s good for others is good for everyone
Not that you have ever cared about facts but Liverpool returned an impossible number of fake positive covid cases (12 to get there game called off._ To date we don’t actually know the official figure when we called the game off. We do know that we were actually honest about it. The 1 case is being repeated because Ode was the only case vs Liverpool there have been no public statements since. It might 3+ it might 1 we were honest. So spare the Liverpool defence. A lot of bought and paid for posters out in force to defend Liverpool on this issue.
I agree that this is not totally fair but I don’t require we apologise to any team. No one apologize to us for all the wrong calls we have been having. Let’s just get on with it.
What wrong calls ?
We have just been favoured
So? What if we was favored? Liverpool did it, United did it, everyone got postponement why can’t we?
Doesn’t matter what the cause of the postponement is, and why should Arsenal tender any apologies?
I think that the big complaint against Liverpool by our fans and some bloggers was that they faked most of the Covid results just in order to get a postponement, while Arsenal have been open about having just the one with the rest of the absences being a mixture of illness, injuries and players taking part in the ACON tournament. I can understand other teams criticising us over this but Arsenal have not been dishonest in any way and as such I’d say that we owe no apologies at all other than for possibly inconveniencing travelling supporters.
Liverpool had false positive tests that most people didn’t know about when they were calling Liverpool. There has been no proof of “fake” tests. I know from where i work, people have had false positive readings, i knew two on the same day.
They had more false positives than remotely possible, no investigation so all good.
This article seems to be suggesting that Gooners all speak with one voice. That’s absurd. It would be like me asking why do all Gooners take every opportunity to slag off their club? Wouldn’t that be silly…
Unless you are unable to field 11 players, no team should have a game called off for any reason. The Premier league have allowed this too get out of hand and it is getting to the stage where we will have games every 2 or 3 days for some and then there will be another problem. Squads of all team should have been forced to be used. That would have been fairer to every team, put more emphasis on managing their squads better as far as jabs, loans, sales and not disrupted the league. Just a note, i believe no FA cup games were cancelled due to covid.
Or injuries!!!
I wholly agree with you Reggie! Stuff is getting out of hand, especially with this latest one involving us.
All the previous postponements were for illness and injuries as well as Coviaàd. Arsenal suffered in the first three games with illness and injury but the request for postponement had not yet been introduced. Arteta was the first manager in the league to get covid. Liverpool got a request for a postponement granted so the FA were obligated to grant Arsenals request. Simple straightforward and fair decision.
‘Big club’ spurs crying tears they couldn’t play a severely weakened Arsenal team. Too scared to play our full side? Absolutely classless club statement too
Just like some Arsenal fans they wanted to play a weak Liverpool side .
Too scared to play their full side ?
100% Daniel
First time I’ve ever heard a gooner talk sense, you lot have some weird obsession with Liverpool cos you once once won a title at Anfield against 11 players drained by Hillsborough. Relegation threatened Leeds postponed against Liverpool before Christmas and there’s been a run of clubs doing it since, did we moan and cry conspiracy, No. Liverpool postpone one leg of a league Cup game handing 2nd leg advantage to arsenal and all hell breaks loose due to delusional gooners stirring the pot. Maybe if your fans stopped arguing with each other like babies your club might get back on track you cranks… Get back in your lane! you have never been our rivals that’s Utd and Everton. Stick to trying to fight for Europa league leftovers with man u and spurs, the prem doesn’t revolve around arsenal anymore, you haven’t won anything since Wenger got forced out.
We won the FA Cup (our trophy) two years ago.
Oh yeah, I forgot, I stand corrected. A trophy so devalued since Man Utd decided to send a team to the club world Cup instead that since then most clubs have been putting their second and third string players in. As City are running away with the league we might have to loan ‘your’ trophy this year just like you have loaned out players like Maitland Niles while claiming you’ve got no players to play your Derby.
God you are petty. No-one disputes that Liverpool were a true force in football having won European trophies under some of your finest managers and players. You did though, go through a lean spell. It happens, but needless gloating is puerile
Well said Sue
9 years out of CL, won only the League Cup in 12 years and now the tables turn back to you, you talk. I am sad because Liverpool is my second team and I don’t expect this from a Red. Shame.
Arsenal fans dragged us into the papers asking for us to be investigated and possibly expelled from the league cup, which was classless on their part, one comment on here by Dax even claimed we faked tests! As I said earlier Arsenal fans seem to have some mysterious beef with us that I can’t fathom. Spurs your rivals, have had a number of postponements but not the same level of hubris from your fans. Now that arsenal have been allowed to postpone a game all is right with the world. This blogger is the first sensible gooner I’ve heard in years and half of the comments shot him down in flames, Just concentrate on your London rivals and leave us out of it. We’ll know the result on Friday and thankfully won’t have to hear too much more from your divided fanbase.
In all honesty, you should consider why you bothered to join in. Why on earth would I bother with a Liverpool fan site? I mean, why would I? I am interested in Arsenal, first and foremost and not you and your issues
Nice one @HH. But I think you need to put up a bigger argument than the FA Cup of 2 years ago. But no one can accuse you of telling porkies😇😇
Thanks PJennings. He is undermining the FA Cup when his club can’t play fair to reach the EFL final.
Having listened to your video in its entirety, it is going to be difficult to be succinct due to the amount of issues you raised.
Firstly, being disparaging about you at a personal level is shoddy and downright disgusting.
To me, this is an issue between the clubs and the league, and it hasn’t been handled very well, which is leading to decisions being made that appear not to be transparent enough and have enabled Arsenal to call for a postponement. It may not be the Arsenal way but I can’t blame them for giving it a go. Every other team has.
There are small margins that can make a difference. Our Covid outbreak and injuries at the beginning of the season were disregarded. Now, there is a change in policy and the rules have been rewritten. The waters have been muddied, but if the rule is there, regardless of how many players we have sent on loan or have in Cameroon, then why not take advantage of it? I imagine a host of other clubs will have done the same.
As for Liverpool, I don’t hold any malice against them trying and succeeding to get a postponement. It is no different from players trying to influence the ref in getting an opposition player sent off. Small margins can make all the difference.
Again, well said Sue
👍
Apologies my furry ass. Everyone Suddenly gets a dose of their own medicine and Suddenly Arsenal lacks class, Arsenal is this and that and Arsenal needs to apologize to Liverpool?
Maybe since you’d think I’m being bias cus I’m a fan, you should go listen to what Micah Richards had to say, and what even John Cross of all people said.
I hope you are aware of the fact that Covid cases at Arsenal has been going on for a couple of weeks now?
It was ESR first, then Arteta and a few other staff at the club, before it was Ødegaard, and I hope you know another player turned up positive after the latest test yesterday? Are you aware of all this or you’re just gonna pretend this isn’t the case?
Now imagine playing that game yesterday without the knowledge of who turned up positive whoever turned out positive.
Why does Dan Smith take every possible opportunity to bash his own club?
The rules are there (they weren’t for the Brentford game when we had far greater issues but were refused) but by adhering to them like every other club we are suddenly ungentlemanly?
This reminds me of Arsenal being criticised for being a “soft touch” and “too nice” (and losing) and then when we stand up for ourselves and winning the same people blame us for being undisciplined and “not playing the Arsenal way”.
I swear there’s a fifth column at work within the fans…
Dan, I totally disagree with you on this.
It really should be liverpool apologising to us, as Klopp admitted he bent the rules to suit his club… and it backfired.
It is the innefective FA AND PL who have let this farcical situation get out of hand, that supporters around the country, who should be apologising to clubs, sponsors, media and, most of all, the fans.
The Arsenal haven’t broken any rules, they ASKED for a postponement, gave their reasons why and it was accepted… END OF.
Sorry – “that supporters around the country ” should have been deleted.
Good opinions from both @ken1945 and @SueP. I suppose the moral of this whole shambles is that “two wrongs don’t make a right “. Since Covid we have witnessed worldwide the good and the bad. Everyone somehow has been effected. Football clubs are not the only organisations that are trying to use Covid to their advantages. Back here in Australia, people are rejoicing our Ashes series win over England. This wasn’t the usual Ashes series that’s drawn out. England had f_ck all preparation. No warm up matches, limited squad meaning back up players in case of injuries. And they suffered injuries. Not once did they complain. I totally disagree with what Ian Botham said on national television about his own countrymen. It will be very interesting as to how Australia will go playing on the sub continent. I sincerely hope they leave the YELLOW SANDPAPER back at home. Your captain Joe Root can hold his head high despite the series loss. In this current climate we will see the good and we will continue seeing the bad. It’s a dog eat dog world out there,,, and it doesn’t have to be
Fine comments there pjennings.
@SueP good result Westham 2 Leeds United 3. And another manager bites the dust. It’s 2.30 in the morning here. Now I’m glad the North London Derby has been postponed. I can get some beauty sleep 😴 💤
Night night
It was a great result for Leeds and for our top4 aspirations
The fact that we are taking advantage of the rule to get our match postponed doesn’t make what Liverpool did or what we did right? Others took advantage of the lacuna in the rule that guides postponement. The FA should have stated clearly that postponement will only be granted if due to just COVID related issues, ours is majorly due to injuries, Afcon, player indiscipline which are suppose not to be acceptable conditions but the football league granted such flimsy excuses in the past and should deal with the effects. More are still coming from other clubs.
Look let’s not get too bogged down about pointing fingers. The Premier league are at fault for allowing this to happen more or less all the premiership teams have exploited poor management of the situation. Wolves did it to us on boxing day and come out yesterday criticising teams for calling g off fixtures.
The league is a massive hypocrisy and the treatment of Arsenal by the media and fans from other clubs is disgusting. We have been open and honest about being 14 players short for many reasons including illness, injury, CoVID and AFCON. We have done nothing wrong and we would be absolutely stupid not to take the opportunity to do what every other club has already done and 3 times to us.
BS
For once something goes in our favour, we owe no apologies, they did so we followed suit. Spurs whingeing about no consideration for fans? Really? So where was there consideration for the away fans that travelled on flights, trains and ferries and booked hotels for their Eurovision song contest? Where was their consideration for their own fans when after a sprinkling of snow at Burnley they agreed to postpone that one too? I grew up in a time when their was only 11 players, I remember the 1 substitute rule coming in. I remember when the snow was iled so high little kids had to sit on shoulders of adults to see over the snow that had been swept and the ball used to get bigger as it rolled in the snow.
And them were the days @Atid that goalkeepers wore green gardening gloves and had snowballs thrown at them by rival supporters 😳
Watched the vid by Dan. Towards the end of it he mentioned Arsenal fans not being able to separate life from the game. But isn’t he doing the same thing ! I don’t know those fans that he’s referring to that he is gonna ‘call out’ But so what if some people sounded out Liverpool for getting their game postponed. Isn’t it all part of ‘the game’.
Why is Dan spending 21 minutes attempting to be the moral arbiter asking for people to own up for their supposed sins and moral wrongs. Why are so many of his vids and written articles full of piety and self righteousness.
Calling for Arsenal and Arsenal fans to atone for their ‘sins. I don’t know why he feels he has to take it upon himself try and calibrate everyone’s moral compass.
But it got your attention and made you write a responce
I actually agree with your question mate .
I guess the answer is there’s allot morally wrong with football at moment
Equally fellow gooners were self righteousness when Liverpool called game off
Not sure I calibrate a moral compass but having one is crucial
But it got my attention for the wrong reason. I wasn’t in support or against your views regarding the rights and wrongs of Arsenal or any other club. I just feel as I said there’s a lot of piety and self righteousness in your views.
You mention it being a game as you’ve also cited in some of your other posts but in the same breath you preach to us about things such as the COVID crisis etc as if we don’t already know.
I don’t know if you just like to court controversy or just some cheap stunt like we’d expect from a radio shock jock
I mention COVID as COVID is a big part of the story mate
Can I ask why you didn’t say this a week ago when Arsenal fans were bringing up COVID to attack Liverpool ?
We brought up covid because they returned a bunch of “fake positives”. You should be talking about that and fighting that your not. I don’t need to speak to motive your just talking about it. We by contrast lied about nothing and offered the entire truth and got our game called off… 1st game we’ve called off all season. Who do you support? Your running defence for Liverpool’s wrong doing so I question your integrity.
Because I’m not on this forum with any real regularity. Plus, I don’t come on here to become involved with every discussion that takes place. Especially when they’re just socio political speeches.
I come here to revel in arsenal in a true sporting sense ie the successes and the woes and enjoy the fun of a sporting forum. Not to become embroiled in arguments of Rights and Wrongs or or dictate to others how they should think!
Yeah an article about Arsenal getting a game called off due to a rule about COVID was always going to have COVID discussed
I still don’t see why you need to be so self righteous and preach to everyone as though your the moral arbiter. Telling people how to think and act based on your views. I haven’t seen the replies yoU received to your posts/vids. But it no surprise that you receive negative feedback !
This is wrong. Arsenal regardless should have played this game. One COVID case only. Unfortunately the Premier league hierarchy have created this situation and have degenerated the status of the league. So what it means going forward is that clubs will evaluate squad strength and if it I is not up to standard and their best team will apply for postponement under the COVID banner. In the past players have been sick or a team sick with a bug and the game goes on Shocking precedent and how do the Premier league dig themselves out of this hole
Wait for next season I suppose
Here in the UK everyone is entitled to claim for benefits. You put in a claim, it’s assessed by the benefits office, if the claim’s successful you get the benefits, if not you don’t get them. Arsenal had every right to put in a claim to have the game postponed, it was assessed and granted. Arsenal did nothing wrong. What’s the problem.
Mr Dan, I want to ask you one simple question: What are you trying to prove with your articles? If you reverse the situation, would Liverpool fans have acted any differently? We are fans, we would never be objective. Even club managements would never be. Let us moan when we should and be over the moon even when we shouldn’t
I dont try and prove anything
I give my opinion on the relevant news
That’s just it. You give ‘your’ un called for opinion and ram it down people’s throats. Which is why you elicit the negatives that come back to you. If you think that Arsenal have a duty to make amends to Liverpool or anyone else that the team, club or its fans might offend then that’s your opinion. Don’t be dictating to everyone else as though they’re obliged to follow your lead. You’re not the authority on behaviour and have no reason to be threatening to sound people out, as you mention in your vid just because they don’t agree with you.
To be honest. The long and short of it was you think arsenal owe an apology to Liverpool. Obviously, Arsenal as organisation didn’t think they owed Liverpool anything. Hence, no apology was supplied. It’s there opinion and stance that matters and not your pious and disingenuous views.
But there were Arsenal fans who were dictating to Liverpool fans and you said nothing ?
Negative ?
I don’t see people disagreeing as negative mate
It’s an opinion , no right or wrong .
Hence this story been covered by various outlets .
Some say game should go ahead , some say it shouldn’t
Dude people have seen my work and invited me on YouTube channels , to do book reviews , to go to Mr Wenger’s film premiere where I got to meet him
I started a predictions game which made money for charity
I get some of the highest views on here
So I’m doing okay
Its embarrassing you got to meet the legend on the back of your prediction leagues which outside of being fun for a lot of people, helped the fanbase how? what do you think he would personally say behind close doors about your articles?
Pro tip arteta is his friend and the guy he made captain and only ex-player he ever offered a 1st team coaching role too so think about that.
Wenger would put an arm around me and tell me he’s disappointed about me calling you out, it’s not how it’s done. I’ll take that so it was said.
Think you can be objective mate and still be a fan
i firmly believe that this article is one of the worst ever written on here. i further believe that the author is let get away with , basically, murder,on here.such bad writing , he only produces an article to cause ill feeling between the supporters on here.please dont be fooled by this nonsense, he is sitting back right now and laughing. enough is enough.
Think you take things too serious .
How does this caus Ill feeling between supporters .
You either agree or disagree and we get on with our life lol
I@dan Smith. It’s as i thought. You write articles to court controversy and act like a shock jock. There was nothing sincere about this article, it wasn’t in pursuit of justice it was just you being disingenuous. Trying to play Devi’s advocate for amusement sake. As I said before. You’re not the moral arbiter and don’t speak for anyone other than yourself and your own self interests.
Why in your comment above did you have to mention your so called celebrity with your you tube and book review invites or going to the Wenger film premiere? No one asked about your media or celeb conqueats but you had to let them s all know. That just shows how disingenuous and self absorbed you really are.
Thank god you don’t yield any real power or authority !
Got puskas cos you scored against the arsenal
Dan has a reason to write a negative article about Arsenal yet again, did you write this article about Liverpool in these terms when Liverpool happened to us? Fact we are playing the same game as Liverpool is bad why? It already happened to us, I don’t get it.
I reiterate my desire that those who attend the 2nd league cup match vs Liverpool make it a cauldron for them. Dan and others can try to distract/stop you but I have faith they won’t. Liverpool did a good job on Suarez, they are trying to do it again don’t let them. We are their threat. We will win.
false positives is the story, shout it at the game. No investigation into Liverpools false positive but huge fanfare on our postponed game with no false positive.
There’s no such thing as ‘false positives’. English is a second language to our German manager so it has been lost in translation. Our manager was Covid positive, various other coaches positive, Allison, Van Dyke, Trent and a couple of other players. If after lateral flow tests show a number of positives in the training ground Liverpool were duty bound to protect not only our players but possibly Arsenal players they come into contact with during the match. They later followed up with PCR tests which are more accurate and showed less players with Covid than it first seemed hence the ‘false positive’ description from the manager. There was no great conspiracy on our part. It seems this blog has touched a raw nerve!
Pain in the ass!!
Funny enough, that’s the style of ‘Article’ he gives..
You need to see my ‘Face’ expression whenever am reading Dan’s story.
Lord!
I don’t know what he’s trying to achieve with some of his articles. They’re all tinged with Arsenal being held to higher standards than other clubs and having to atone for the sins they commit. What will be his next dig at us. Will we be hauled into the court of Dan Smith because we committed more fouls than any other team in a give period. Should we be disgraced and marched up and down the White Hart Lane of the seven sisters road. Dan Smith is has to be forum a shock jock, as some of his articles are just ridiculous!
Got your attention though
You been responding since Sunday after 15-30
Over 48 hours on your still talking
You’re so ridiculously conceited. The thread is still going because no one can fathom your levels of idiocy and I respond accordingly. It’s not a personal reply to you and it’s not because I still need to be convinced of what an arse you are!