‘We are EXTREMELY surprised’ – Fuming Tottenham release angry statement after Arsenal match suspended by Premier League

TOTTENHAM have slammed the Premier League’s decision to postpone their North London derby clash against Arsenal on Sunday.

The Gunners appealed for the match to be called off with Mikel Arteta’s side potentially missing up to 13 senior players – although only ONE was due to Covid-19.

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Tottenham have released an angry statement after their clash against Arsenal was axed[/caption]

Attacking midfielder Martin Odegaard is currently out after contracting the virus.

The rest of Arsenal’s absentees are due to injuries, suspensions and the Africa Cup of Nations.

Although reports have since suggested that the Gunners have registerered another positive test AFTER the game was already called off.

Spurs were left furious by the decision to scrap the clash and posted an angry statement linking back to the league’s own rules.

It read: “We are extremely surprised that this application has been approved.

“We ourselves were disqualified from the European Conference League after a significant number of COVID cases meant we needed to reschedule a fixture and our application to move our Leicester fixture was not approved – only for it to be subsequently postponed when Leicester applied.

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“The original intention of the guidance – here – was to deal with player availability directly affected by COVID cases, resulting in depleted squads that when taken together with injuries would result in the club being unable to field a team.

“We do not believe it was the intent to deal with player availability unrelated to Covid. We may now be seeing the unintended consequences of this rule.

“It is important to have clarity and consistency on the application of the rule. Yet again fans have seen their plans disrupted at unacceptably short notice.

“We shall once again send food deliveries to the local food banks to avoid unacceptable waste.

“We are sincerely sorry for our fans – some of whom will have travelled great distances.”

Eric Dier reacted the news of the postponement by tweeting a gif of a confused man as he struggled to understand why the fixture had been axed.

Sky Sports pundit Gary Neville also explained why he thought Arsenal should have been forced to play against Spurs.

He posted on social media: “Game off. What started out as postponements due to a pandemic has now become about clubs not having their best team.

“The Premier League must stop this now, draw a line in the sand and say all games go ahead unless you have an exceptional amount of CV cases. It’s wrong.”

Though Arsenal legend Ian Wright hit back at Neville on Twitter as he stated that he is only saying that as Sky would be losing a key fixture this weekend.

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