The Times - UK (2021-12-21)

the times | Tuesday December 21 2021 2GM 61

Sport

Position

The Premier League has decided against a 'circuit break' in the festive fixture

programme but how many of your club's matches will survive postponements?

Played Pts Covid cases

Sun 26

Dec

Mon 27

Dec

Tues 28

Dec

Wed 29

Dec

Thurs 30

Dec

Fri 31

Dec

Sat 1

Jan

Sun 2

Jan

Mon 3

Jan

4

Jan

5

Jan

6

Jan

Fri 7

Jan

Sat 8

Jan

Sun 9

Jan

Mon 10

Jan

No new cases

Four players

isolating

Seven players

isolating

Two players

isolating

No new cases

Not enough players to

field team at weekend

Two players isolating

Two players

isolating

Not enough players to

field team at weekend

Not enough players to

field team at weekend

No new cases

Not enough players to

field team at weekend

Four players

isolating

No new cases

No new cases

One case and

several injuries

Not enough players to

field team at weekend

One player

isolating

No new cases

Not enough players to

field team at weekend

PREMIER LEAGUE FIXTURES FA CUP THIRD ROUND

The show must

go on... for now

1 18 44

2 18 41

3 18 38

4 18 32

5 17 28

6 16 27

7 15 26

8 18 25

9 16 22

10 17 22

11 17 20

12 16 20

13 16 20

14 17 19

15 17 17

16 18 16

17 16 13

18 15 11

19 18 10

20 17 10

H H A A H H H A H A A H A A A A H H

A

H

A H A A A H A H H H H A

A

H

H

A

H

H

A

A

A H A A H H H A

A H A H A H H H A A

H

A

H H H A A A A A A H H

H A H H H A A

H

A

Swindon

Shrewsbury

Chesterfield

N Forest

Morecambe

Sheff Utd

Millwall

Port Vale

West Brom

Hull

Swansea

Huddersfield

Cambridge

Charlton

Man City

Liverpool

Chelsea

Arsenal

West Ham

Man Utd

Tottenham

Wolves

Leicester

Aston Villa

Crystal Palace

Brentford

Brighton

Everton

Southampton

Leeds

Watford

Burnley

Newcastle

Norwich

H

A

H

Swindon

Jürgen Klopp

has aired his

concerns about

the winter

fixture schedule

decided to press ahead with the Pre-

mier League Christmas fixture pro-

gramme, although there are growing

concerns that the government could

impose further restrictions nationally

for two weeks after Christmas that

would lead to matches having to take

place behind closed doors.

The three Welsh clubs in the EFL —

Cardiff City, Swansea City and New-

port County — may be the first to play

under such rules, with the devolved

Newcastle in

talks with

Ashworth

Martyn Ziegler Chief Sports Reporter

Newcastle United have been given per-

mission to talk to Dan Ashworth about

becoming their director of football.

Ashworth, 50, is the technical direct-

or at Brighton & Hove Albion, who

have allowed him to speak to Newcastle

even though they are keen that he re-

mains with them. Newcastle, taken

over by a Saudi-funded consortium in

October, are trying to make key ap-

pointments before the January transfer

window. They are second from bottom

in the Premier League.

Ashworth, who was the FA’s techni-

cal director for seven years and was

largely responsible for bringing in the

“England DNA” concept across all the

national teams, is seen as one of the

most experienced, intelligent operators

in the game. He has previously said his

focus is on achieving medium to long-

term success for the club or organisa-

tion he works for, rather than short-

term targets, and that encompasses the

men’s, women’s and junior teams.

was called off two hours before the
scheduled kick-off last Wednesday
specifically because some unvaccinat-
ed players had to isolate.
Players who have not been double-
jabbed must isolate for ten days after
coming into contact with a positive
case, instead of just taking a test, and it
is understood that this affected several
Watford players, which in turn led to
the game at Turf Moor being post-
poned at such short notice that most
Watford fans had completed the 200-
mile journey to Lancashire. Watford
last night declined to comment.
The Premier League is keen to per-
suade as many players as possible to get
the jab and will now publish vaccina-
tion figures every month. The number
of positive Covid cases among Premier
League players and staff has more than
doubled in the past week to 90, a record
high, after the league switched to daily
tests instead of twice-weekly ones.
At the meeting of the clubs, it was also

Cases double as Liverpool fail to

get round of fixtures postponed

government already poised to an-

nounce tougher measures.

The top-flight clubs were presented

with three options: to carry on as sched-

uled, cancel the round of matches due

to be played from December 28-30, or

have a circuit-breaker and pause the

season. None of the 20 clubs voted for

the latter, fearing that if the season is

paused, it will be hard to restart.

It was decided not to push for stricter

protocols for unvaccinated players.

The Carabao Cup quarter-finals are

set to be played over the next two nights

as planned, with no formal requests

from any club as yet for a postpone-

ment. Chelsea, who are due to face

Brentford tomorrow, have drafted in

members of the under-23 squad to train

with the first team as a precaution.

However, there will be no FA Cup

replays this season in an effort to ease

the fixture congestion.

Liverpool, who face four matches in

12 days, were keen on a break. It is un-

derstood that Liverpool advocated

postponing one round of games and

were very disappointed that their pro-

posal did not win broad support. Clubs,

including Manchester United, who

have had recent matches postponed

because of Covid infections and isola-

tions reported that they will be in a

position to play the Christmas fixtures.

The Premier League’s executive

stressed to the clubs that there is little

room for manoeuvre this season, with

the calendar squeezed by the need to

start next season early to accommodate

the November World Cup in Qatar.

The FA’s agreement to suspend re-

plays will help with rescheduling the

matches that have been postponed dur-

ing the past fortnight. “Replays will

return up to and including the fourth

round of the FA Cup from the 2022-23

season,” an FA spokesman said.

The EFL will continue with its festive

fixture programme as far as possible.

A Premier League statement read: “It

is [our] intention to continue the fixture

schedule where safely possible. The

league continues to encourage vaccina-

tion among players and club staff.”

continued from back

Wolves winger Adama Traoré received

a Covid-19 booster jab at the weekend

Leeds, which made their subsequent
demotion a topic of intrigue.
“I didn’t rotate today,” Guardiola said
in a separate interview. “If the players
believe I rotated for that game they are
mistaken.
“I decide the best team today for the
way they play. We needed a different

Grealish and Foden set to miss Boxing Day game after night out

pace for the players and that’s why they

play. I don’t know if we are going to play

Leicester [City on Boxing Day] — un-

fortunately they have a lot of [Covid]

cases. Hopefully they are getting better.

“It depends what we see in the train-

ing sessions and it depends what we see

on and off the pitch — how the players

behave in this period — and I will take

a decision.”

A photo of Grealish and Foden

posing with a fan during their night out

was posted online.

Guardiola regards both as talented

players, but it seems unlikely at this

stage that he will recall either of them

for the Leicester City game.

It is expected that the Catalan will

address the matter on Thursday at his

pre-match press conference.

Grealish had a number of disciplina-

ry issues at his previous club, Aston

Villa, while Foden, the academy

graduate, was sent home from

international duty in September last

year after he and Mason Greenwood

invited two Icelandic women to the

team hotel following England’s match

in Reykjavik, in a breach of team rules

and Covid protocols.

continued from back

Foden and Grealish on their night out