Crystal Palace have joined Arsenal in asking the Premier League to reschedule their matches before the League Cup quarter-final between the two clubs.
In light of the news that Arsenal will have to play their League Cup quarter-final on Tuesday, December 23rd, just two days after their Premier League fixture against Everton, the Gunners have tried to get that league game rescheduled.
“Hopefully they will move our Premier League match because to play two days later, it doesn’t make any sense obviously,” Mikel Arteta pointed out. “We will now decide the date, I’m sure they will change the Premier League date as well.”
Those quotes were received poorly in some quarters, with pundits claiming that Arteta was trying to get an unfair advantage over their opponents Crystal Palace in the form of an extra day of rest. Yet Oliver Glasner has now confirmed that Palace want the same thing as Arsenal.
“We are trying the same thing that Arsenal are trying, to move our Leeds game [currently scheduled for Sunday 21 December] forward to Saturday [20 December], so we don’t have two days between these games,” Glasner said on Wednesday.
“We didn’t get a response until now from the Premier League, just to have the same as Arsenal, if their game is moved.
“I think that the EFL and the Premier League didn’t solve this problem before the start of the season. They will learn from it and I am pretty sure that next year they will have the solution before the start of the season.”
It’s logical that both managers want more time for their players to rest and recover before the League Cup quarter-final, and from a player welfare standpoint it’s the obvious thing to do.
The problem is that it involves altering two of Sky Sports’ TV slots. The money from Sky tends to trump all other concerns, so it’s still most likely that both Arsenal and Palace’s requests are ignored.