Mikel Arteta, Manager of Arsenal, and Oliver Glasner, Manager of Crystal Palace, look on
Arsenal and Crystal Palace face a busy fixture list
Arsenal and Crystal Palace have had their fixtures against Everton and Leeds rescheduled for December 20. The decision comes after the Gunners requested that their game be played a day earlier, .
v and v fixtures have been moved from 14:00 on Sunday 21 December, to 20:00 on Saturday 20 December. This sees them remain in a televised slot, after both matches had already been selected by broadcasters
It also sees Palace still play two games in three days after UEFA turned down Crystal Palace's plea to reschedule their Conference League match with KuPS, set for 18 December, to Wednesday 17. It's understood bring forward the top-flight matches to Saturday December 20 to enable an extra day of rest for their players ahead of their cup meeting on December 23.
In addition, the said: "Player welfare is a priority for the Premier League, and we have therefore granted requests from Arsenal and Crystal Palace to move their respective fixtures.
"This comes after the scheduling of matches from other competitions around Premier League fixtures without adequate player recovery time. This is also further evidence of the impact the expanded UEFA competitions have on the domestic fixture calendar.
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"The League would like to thank Leeds United and Everton for their co-operation in accommodating these changes. Both matches will remain live on ."
Speaking earlier this month, blasted the scheduling of fixtures by various bodies. The Austrian said: “It's not about the welfare of the players.
"It's not about talking together and find what's best. Everybody is just looking at himself to maximise the money.
“That's the situation. Now we can say it's the UEFA schedule. It was clear this week before there is the Conference League played. It's clear, 99 per cent, that the English participants will play there. So why fix the Carabao quarter-final there? Why? I just don't understand. Again, it was clear.
“Then I think, maybe somebody corrects me, there is a hierarchy in football. So it's the UEFA games, it's the Premier League games and then I don't know how it's FA or EFL or it's on the same level. And then if there is a UEFA game day, you can't say we play the quarter-final.”
Speaking before Arsenal's request was granted, head coach suggesed the Gunners should not be able to play on a Tuesday after playing on a Sunday.
"Well I'm super optimistic that this is not going to be the case because from every angle, from the Premier League, from the EFL, from UEFA, all the time the only thing that we talk about is the welfare of the players and the supporters and if we want to maintain that principle that cannot be the case and we cannot play Sunday and Tuesday," Arteta said.
"So we have very positive talks to the clubs and to the Premier League, and hopefully we'll find a way to help as much as possible because sometimes you cannot help 200 people out there that they have an issue but for that reason you cannot say if I can help 100 I'm not going to do it because what about the other 100?
"No, no, no. Help 100. If you can help 100 and the other 100 next time you have the opportunity, do it as well, and I think we need to be very thorough, and we cannot allow ourselves to put ourselves in that situation."
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