Oops, Man Utd Vs Brighton And 4 Other Matches In Premier League Were Postponed Due To COVID-19 Spike

Illustration of Manchester United club (Twitter @premierleague)

JAKARTA - The operator of the English Premier League announced early Friday that an additional four matches originally scheduled to be played this weekend were postponed due to a spike in COVID-19 cases at several clubs.

Among the four matches are Southampton vs Brentford, Watford vs Crystal Palace, and West Ham United vs Norwich City which were previously scheduled to take place tomorrow Saturday.

Meanwhile, one other match that has been postponed is Everton vs Leicester City, which was originally scheduled to be played on Sunday the day after tomorrow.

With this latest announcement, it is recorded that there have been five matches in the 18th-week series that had to be postponed due to the spike in COVID-19 after previously the Manchester United vs Brighton & Hove Albion match had also been postponed.

The Premier League have confirmed that Saturday's fixture with Brighton has been postponed.#MUFC | #MUNBHA

— Manchester United (@ManUtd) December 16, 2021

The Premier League operator stated that it is currently still applying a casuistic approach to determining the status of each match based on applicable rules.

Several aspects are taken into consideration such as the ability of a team to reduce a squad that is sufficient for a match.

Then the status, severity, and potential impact of the spike in COVID-19 cases in a team's squad and whether or not the players had time to safely prepare for a match.

Of the matches that were decided to be suspended above, Brentford, Watford, and Leicester experienced a spike in Covid-19 cases in their squad and had to close training facilities.

Meanwhile, Norwich does not have enough players to play due to a combination of Covid-19 cases, injuries, and several other health conditions.

With this latest announcement, ten matches have been suspended due to the spike in Covid-19 since last month.