Marcos Alonso has taken a dig at the Premier League’s decision to postpone Arsenal’s game against Tottenham.
The north London derby was schedule for 4:30pm on Sunday but a decision was made to suspend the clash on Saturday, after an application from the Gunners.
Arsenal argued that they’d be under the ’13 player’ threshold, because they have recorded a positive Covid-19 case, are without Granit Xhaka through suspension and have some injuries.
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But the decision has been controversial, with many feeling that the lack of positive Covid-19 cases means the clash should have gone ahead.
There is a sense that clubs are exploiting the rules to their benefit, as the Gunners played just three days ago in a Carabao Cup semi-final game against Liverpool.
The decision has annoyed Chelsea in particular, because they had their request to postpone a December game with Wolves denied by the Premier League.
The Blues recorded a total of seven positive Covid-19 cases, which included three on the eve of the game – which meant that they couldn’t be sure about the spread of the virus to other members of the team who tested negative.
And, speaking after Chelsea’s defeat to Man City, Alonso said the rules hadn’t been applied ‘fairly’ to other teams.
‘It’s difficult but I think it should be the same for everyone and all teams treated the same,’ said Alonso. ‘We had some games with a lot of players out, some games with only four defenders, but we still had to play.
‘It has to be fair for everyone to have the same treatment from the Premier League, not just some games yes, some games no.’