Premier League ‘consider swapping Aston Villa for Fulham as Tottenham’s next game’ as coronavirus causes fixture chaos
PREMIER LEAGUE chiefs are looking into postponing Aston Villa’s clash with Tottenham on Wednesday and replacing it with the called off December 30 fixture between Spurs and Fulham.
Jose Mourinho’s team are due to travel to Villa Park but that game has been plunged into doubt after a Covid-19 outbreak at the West Midlands club.
Scott Parker’s Fulham are furious they may be forced to play on Wednesday[/caption]Therefore, Premier League chiefs have suggested Tottenham could host Fulham instead – leaving the Craven Cottage outfit extremely unhappy, according to The Athletic.
Scott Parker’s side played 120 minutes in the FA Cup on Friday and are due to host neighbours Chelsea this Friday.
Pushing the West London derby back to Saturday is being discussed and Fulham’s squad have been told to prepare for a potential clash in two days’ time.
However, a final decision is yet to be made as the pandemic continues to cause major headaches for the top-flight and its clubs.
Villa’s entire first-team bubble have been told to isolate since they returned 14 positive Covid-19 tests results on Thursday, meaning they need to quarantine until Friday.
They closed their Bodymoor Heath training ground and were forced into playing their U23 side against Liverpool in the FA Cup last week.
But that is unlikely to be repeated against Mourinho’s men due to a precedent of other Premier League games already being allowed to be called off for similar circumstances.
And there is also a question of integrity as chiefs try to maintain fairness across the whole of the campaign.
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Villa already missed a game against Newcastle on December 4 after an outbreak of the virus in the North East side’s ranks.
Fulham also suffered an outbreak recently, with the Tottenham match and a clash with Burnley on January 3 being postponed.
They did return to action on Friday as they eventually defeated QPR 2-0 in the cup following extra time.
There have been four top-flight matches postponed due to coronavirus already this term, piling further pressure on teams that are already dealing with a packed fixture schedule.
When Mourinho was asked yesterday after the 5-0 FA Cup win at Marine when he thought his side would next be in action, he said: “Wednesday.”
“Nobody told me that I’m not going to play so tomorrow morning, we start to prepare for that game, and the same Tuesday unless somebody tells us different.”