The postponement of Wednesday night’s Man City vs. Arsenal match serves to highlight how fragile the Premier League is now due to Coronavirus concerns.
Jurgen Klopp‘s side can still officially be crowned champions next Monday night at Goodison Park, but the chances of that have been cut by the postponement of City’s game.
City’s game against Arsenal has been postponed due to Coronavirus concerns after some Arsenal players met the Olympiakos owner, who has been infected with the disease, 12 days ago.
Arsenal have self-quarantined the players in question, with their 14-day quarantine ending in two days’ time, so their match against Brighton this weekend is still due to go ahead.
So a Goodison Park title win would now require City to lose against Burnley on Saturday and Liverpool to win against their neighbours on Monday night.
Regardless, the postponement serves to highlight the fragile situation of Premier League fixtures now and there are legitimate concerns about Liverpool hosting a side from Madrid, where infection rates have risen dramatically and account for around half of all of Spain’s cases.
La Liga matches are to be played behind-closed-doors for the next fortnight, but the UK government has allowed Spanish fans from the capital to travel freely.
Journalist David Maddock commented on the “insanity of the Tory Govt’s reckless approach to Coronavirus, as they refuse to take action to restrict travel from Madrid, despite a major outbreak there, where the contagion rate is growing faster than anywhere else in the world.”
“The authorities in Spain (and Italy, France, Austria and Germany) are taking decisive action to try and curtail the spread of the virus. Our Tory Govt though, is happy to see unrestricted access for Atletico fans, and has done nothing to help LFC,” added Maddock.
“If there is a major cluster in Liverpool over the next fortnight, then it is easy to see who will be to blame: the complacency of our ridiculous Govt.”
On Tuesday, Jurgen Klopp gave an angry response to a Madrid-based journalist who asked about the disease and its impact on football, with the Liverpool boss highlighting the hypocrisy of the situation, saying: “You ask me this question, but flew from Madrid to here.
“So stay there—they’ve closed schools and you’re obviously concerned but you think football is worth it to travel,” said Klopp.
“There are things that are more important than football. I think we realise that again in this moment.”
What it currently means is Liverpool’s best chance to win the league title remains the Crystal Palace home game, should they beat Everton and then Palace, with Klopp’s side needing six points to be champions.
But this postponement highlights how fragile the situation is and the thought of Liverpool either officially winning the league title in an empty stadium, or the season itself being postponed, is truly worrying for Liverpool supporters.
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