Fixture disaster hits Arsenal

Arsenal and Crystal Palace face a Carabao Cup fixture nightmare with no space left in the calendar to stage their quarter-final clash.

Palace (right) could go through a run of four games in eight days.

The Carabao Cup quarter-finals were scheduled to take place in the week commencing December 16. However, Palace will face KuPS (Finland) in the Europa Conference League on December 18, just four days after facing Man City in the Premier League.

A packed Christmas schedule leaves the EFL with no suitable timeframe to stage the quarter-finals at the Emirates before the semi-finals take place in mid-January.

For Arsenal, the final two Champions League qualifying games also take up midweek fixtures in December, leaving the EFL with virtually no options. This could force Palace to travel to the Emirates on Tuesday, December 16 – meaning they will play three games in five days, and four in eight, an absurdly congested schedule.

The EFL is said to have begun urgent talks with the two clubs, the police and the Premier League to find a solution. EFL leaders admitted that forcing Palace to play so many matches would not only affect the players' physical condition but could also lead to criticism of the tournament for "losing fairness".

Arsenal are scheduled to host Wolves in the Premier League on December 13, but the possibility of postponing this match to make way for the Carabao Cup is very low, because Arteta and the Arsenal board are not interested in the idea of ​​​​shuffling the schedule.

Another option would be to postpone the two teams’ weekend games – Palace play Fulham and Arsenal visit Aston Villa – to allow for a midweek quarter-final, but this would be against the interests of broadcasters.

Arsenal booked their place in the quarter-finals after a comfortable 2-0 win over Brighton, while Palace thrashed Liverpool 3-0 at Anfield.

Source: https://znews.vn/tham-hoa-lich-thi-dau-den-voi-arsenal-post1598570.html