Football: Arsenal win but Premier League schedule decimated by Covid chaos

Arsenal’s 4-1 win at Leeds was the only action of a Premier League Saturday decimated by coronavirus call-offs with five games postponed due to outbreaks.

Aston Villa’s home match with Burnley became the latest casualty of surging infection rates across Britain due to the Omicron strain of Covid-19 following a worsening outbreak among the Villa squad.

Just four games are now due to be played in total this weekend out of the original 10, with the growing crisis causing chaos during the busiest time in the English football calendar.

Three games are still listed for Sunday – Manchester City’s clash with Newcastle, Wolves v Chelsea and Tottenham v Liverpool.

Tottenham revealed they will be missing just two players after an outbreak affecting at least 13 players and staff saw their last three matches postponed.

However, the justification for that match going ahead in front of a 62,000 crowd was called into question after London’s mayor Sadiq Khan declared a “major incident” in the capital due to the spiking case numbers.

The British government on Friday reported 93,045 new coronavirus cases, a third consecutive record daily tally, as the new variant fuels a surge in infections across the country.

– No ‘scientific evidence’ for break –
A meeting of Premier League clubs on Monday is set to…

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