Aston Villa vs Everton Premier League match scheduled for Sunday, January 17 has been postponed due to a high rate of coronavirus infection at Aston Villa.
The outbreak of the virus at the club has forced Aston Villa to close their training ground since last week Thursday and managed to play against Liverpool in the third round of the FA Cup on January 8 by fielding seven under-23 players and four under-18 players. Unfortunately for the embattled club, they were knocked out of the competition with a 4-1 defeat in the hands of Liverpool.
Recall that the Aston Villa vs Newcastle United Premier League match which was scheduled for December 4 had to be postponed due to coronavirus issues but then, it was Newcastle that were battling with the outbreak of the disease. The game has been rescheduled for January 23.
Also, Aston Villa were supposed to play against Manchester City in the first weekend of the 2020-2021 season but the game was postponed because of City’s progress in the 2019-2020 UEFA Champions League campaign. The game is scheduled to take place on Wednesday, January 20, all things being equal.
As it stands, Aston Villa that are currently sitting on the 8th spot on the league table now have three Premier League game in hand and the virus is still raging in the club. If things don’t normalize before Wednesday, the match between them and City might be postponed again.
Aston Villa can confirm that Sunday's scheduled Premier League fixture with Everton has been postponed.
— Aston Villa (@AVFCOfficial) January 14, 2021
Our fixture with Newcastle United, which was postponed as a result of a similar outbreak at their training ground, will now take place on Saturday, January 23 at 8pm.
Meanwhile, the manager of Manchester City, Pep Guardiola had said it would be difficult to regulate how players celebrate whenever they score a goal because of the emotion that comes with scoring during a competitive game.
The coach who stated this while reacting to the new responsibility giving to referees and coaches to remind players of the need to maintain social distancing during football matches noted that he and his team would follow the instruction of the Premier League but doubt the possibility of controlling how players choose to celebrate when they score a goal.
Premier League’s decision to enforce social distancing during matches is an attempt to prevent the spread of the raging coronavirus but Pep Guardiola of Manchester City sees the attempt as an anthill task.
“We will follow what the Premier League says but I don’t know if we will be able to do it,” Guardiola said after Manchester City’s 1-0 win over Brighton on Wednesday.
“I respect the Premier League protocols. I understand completely what they are trying to do. When we are indoors everyone respects social distancing. We have to do it. But outdoors, on the training pitch, after being tested many times, in the real moment of joy, [hugging] is instinct and reaction. It is difficult. I don’t know if we will be able to do it.”
Manchester City are currently sitting on the 3rd spot on the league table with 32 points in 16 games. Their next Premier League game is against Crystal Palace scheduled for January 17, 2020, at 20:15.
