‘Strange and surprising’: Conte hits out over Spurs v Arsenal postponement

Antonio Conte has called the decision to call off Sunday’s north London derby “strange and surprising”. The Premier League accepted Arsenal’s request to postpone the game despite the club having only one confirmed Covid-19 case.

Tottenham’s manager said: “This is the first time in my life that there is a league that has postponed the game for injuries. It is very strange and surprising for this.”

Conte said the league should reduce the number of matches “if they don’t want injuries and if they don’t want the risk to postpone for injuries”.

Conte is adamant that coronavirus should be the only factor for games getting called off. Arsenal’s absentee list was mainly down to injuries and a number of players away at the Africa Cup of Nations.

“My feeling is that when there is a situation to play, we have to play,” Conte said. “Not to postpone games for injuries, for international duty. I think we have a big problem to solve and it’s Covid, but only about this situation can you decide to postpone, not for other situations.”

Arsenal are optimistic their Carabao Cup semi-final second leg against Liverpool will go ahead as planned on Thursday night. It is understood there have been no additional Covid cases in the past two days and a couple of players are likely to be fit after short-term injuries.