Micah Richards defends Arsenal following the postponement of the North London derby

‘They’ve done nothing wrong!’: Micah Richards defends Arsenal following the postponement of the north London derby and says ‘any other Premier League team would have done the same’

  • Micah Richards has defender Arsenal for postponing the North London derby
  • Arsenal were due to play Tottenham on Sunday afternoon away from home 
  • The Premier League accepted a request from depleted Arsenal to call game off
  • Arsenal would be without at least 12 players due to Covid, injuries and AFCON 
  • Richards said that any other Premier League team would have done the same 

Micah Richards has defender Arsenal for postponing the North London derby and said that any other Premier League team would have done the same.

Arsenal asked for the game to be rescheduled as they were missing players due to positive Covid cases, injuries, suspension and international duty at the Africa Cup of Nations.

Mikel Arteta’s request for the game to be called off was approved by the Premier League on Friday afternoon. However, the decision did not sit well with Spurs. 

Micah Richards (above) has defender Arsenal for postponing the North London derby

🗣 “In my opinion they’ve done nothing wrong, let’s be honest, other clubs would do the same thing, it’s not an Arsenal thing. Every team in the Premier League would look after themselves and if they say they wouldn’t then they’re lying.”@MicahRichards on the NLD postponement pic.twitter.com/9kRCcY4KrP

— Football Daily (@footballdaily) January 16, 2022

Tottenham accused the Premier League of inconsistency and suggested that the original intention of the rules around Covid postponements were now being abused.

A Spurs statement read: ‘We are extremely surprised that this application has been approved. We ourselves were disqualified from the Euopean Conference League after a significant number of Covid cases meant we needed to reschedule a fixture and our application to move our Leicester game was not approved, only for it to be subsequently postponed when Leicester applied.

Mikel Arteta's side were due to play Tottenham on Sunday afternoon away from home

 Mikel Arteta’s side were due to play Tottenham on Sunday afternoon away from home

Arteta's (second right) made the request to postpone in the absence of several players

Arteta’s (second right) made the request to postpone in the absence of several players

‘The original intention of the guidance was to deal with player availability directly after Covid cases … we do not believe it was the intent to deal with player availability unrelated to Covid.

‘The original intention of the guidance was to deal with player availability directly after Covid cases … we do not believe it was the intent to deal with player availability unrelated to Covid.

Fans and pundits were also quick to criticise Arsenal for the decision. However, Richards came to the North London club’s defence. 

The Premier League confirmed the news, apologising to both sets of fans for the disruption

The Premier League confirmed the news, apologising to both sets of fans for the disruption

Speaking on Sky Sports, Richards said: ‘In my opinion they’ve done nothing wrong, let’s be honest, other clubs would do the same thing, it’s not an Arsenal thing. 

‘Every team in the Premier League would look after themselves and if they say they wouldn’t then they’re lying.’  

Arsenal are back in action on Thursday in the second leg of the Carabao Cup semi-final against Liverpool. 

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https://www.dailymail.co.uk/sport/football/article-10408415/Micah-Richards-defends-Arsenal-following-postponement-North-London-derby.html

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