Arsenal had their request for the postponement of the north London derby accepted by the Premier League after a board meeting determined the Gunners qualified due to not having enough players to fulfil the fixture.
The reaction to the postponement online has been frequent, vocal and accusatory of Arsenal in particular. Despite the now twenty-plus postponements prior to the suspension of the Spurs trip, the response has been comparatively far more visceral in nature.
Fans, pundits and even rival footballers have publicly criticised the decision to grant Arsenal’s request. However, in their fury, the irony has been that the Gunners supporters, well-known for their division on several topics from players to coaches, have never seemed more united in their defiance.
One of the first high-profile reactions came from Sky Sports’ Gary Neville. The former Manchester United full-back said that Arsenal had created the problem for themselves with loans and a suspension.
“I honestly believe that all teams, not just actually in the Premier League but in the EFL, now must be made to play their fixtures,” Neville said on Sky Sports.
“Balogun’s gone on-loan, Maitland-Niles has gone on loan, Xhaka got a red card, that’s not the fault of anybody else. We can’t be calling fixtures off.
“If it was down to Covid and extraordinary circumstances where there were 10 or 15 players out but we’re now talking about teams for the last few weeks where there’s no doubt they’ve been calling games off whether they think they’ve got the best team to win a game.”
His rant received backlash from Arsenal supporters. The fans were rightfully asking why Neville had not applied the same level of energy to other postponements also affected by injury and the African Cup of Nations absences.
Neville tweeted, ‘I repeat this is not about Arsenal but all teams should be made to play from now on in the PL and EFL. Also why has the decision been delayed until today when the request was last night at 6.30pm.’
However, not everyone was buying this as ex-Arsenal striker Ian Wright quote-tweeted Neville responding, ‘FROM NOW ON.’
Continuing, ‘It's not about Arsenal or the fans. It's about no more Super Sunday on Sky!’
Arsenal fans in the replies congratulated Wright on standing up against the criticism towards the club.
@clivepafc typing, ‘At least someone is brave enough.’
@leemarkjudges wrote, ‘Exactly Ian all of a sudden very vocal.’
@arseblog simply responding with a proud clapping emoji.
Tottenham Hotspur defender Eric Dier tweeted in response to his club’s official club statement, detailing how they were ‘extremely surprised’ by the decision to approve the request, with a satiric GIF.
There was further back and forth between supporters and members of the media and rival fans.
However, in the end, there was an overriding sense of unity in the Arsenal fan base. The Gunners collective had felt that they were being targeted unfairly and that the Premier League should be the true target.
All Arsenal had done is apply for a postponement within the bounds of the criteria laid out by the authorities and any other club in their position, if able, would surely be advised to do the same.
Had Arsenal played a depleted side despite the opportunity to request a postponement, possibly costing them their chance of the top four, then they arguably would have been looked at with even more puzzlement.
Arsenal face Liverpool on Thursday in the second leg of the League Cup final. Liverpool had the first leg initially postponed in what turned out to be ‘a lot’ of false-positive cases according to Jurgen Klopp.
The game has plenty of narratives already, and the Arsenal supporters will be motivated to make the Emirates as loud as possible to carry their team to another League Cup final.
To see the fan base so together in this moment could be a crucial benefit in their race for silverware and Champions League qualification.
The decision is made, the match will be rescheduled. The criteria need changing, this is widely accepted even on the Gunners side. But Arsenal have done nothing wrong. Pundits, players and fans need to point their swords at the correct target and focus their energy in the right way.
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