Premier League reject Chelsea's request to postpone Wolves clash

The Premier League have rejected a request from Chelsea to postpone Sunday’s fixture against Wolves due to Covid-19 absentees.

Five of the six Premier League games due to take place on Saturday were called off because of the spread of coronavirus among squads.

Chelsea manager Thomas Tuchel confirmed on Friday that Romelu Lukaku, Timo Werner, Callum Hudson-Odoi and Ben Chilwell had all tested positive for Covid-19.

With more players potentially ruled out against Wolves as a result of being deemed close contacts, Chelsea made a request to the Premier League for the match to be postponed.

But the request was turned down on Sunday morning, according to The Telegraph, leaving Chelsea having to pick players lacking match fitness for the trip to Molineux.

At his pre-match press conference, Tuchel admitted he may be forced to make ‘crazy decisions’ to cope with the absentees in the squad, possibly starting Mateo Kovacic and N’Golo Kante following their injury lay-offs.

‘Mateo trained for the first time today,’ Tuchel said. ‘But, my honest opinion, Jorginho is a doubt because he’s in pain, Ruben Loftus-Cheek is also a doubt because he’s in pain.

‘We may need to start with Mateo and N’Golo on Sunday. Would that be fair? Would that be possible? I don’t know.

‘We have to find the balance. Maybe we are forced to do crazy stuff that we would not normally.’

The 20 Premier League clubs are set to meet on Monday to discuss options as coronavirus continues to spread across the UK.

Premier League chief Richard Masters has written to clubs urging players to get the vaccine and stressed the importance of the league completing the season.

Speaking after Arsenal’s 4-1 win over Leeds United on Saturday, Mikel Arteta said: ‘They have to come forward and explain what we are to expect from them.

‘If everyone is healthy and authorities think we have to carry on, we will. We follow the guidance. If they say play as you can, we will play as we can.

‘We want to all play under same rules and all under the same way. Whatever they decide is better for the fairness of the competition.’

The EFL was also severely disrupted this weekend, with 19 matches postponed, while the decision to cancel Aston Villa v Burnley was only made two and a half hours before kick-off.

Former England midfielder Danny Murphy said on BBC Radio 5 Live: ‘It’s a disastrous situation for some of the supporters. I feel for them.

‘There has got to be some logic around the Premier League in trusting the clubs to make the phone call early and say “this game’s got no chance”.

‘There has to be some clarity from the Premier League. It just sounds ridiculous for a billion-pound organisation such as the Premier League to not be giving transparent messages on what the criteria is. What are the rules?’

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