Antonio Conte has attacked the Premier League over its “strange” decision to call off Tottenham’s clash with Arsenal over injuries.
The league said that it had “regrettably agreed to postpone” the fixture due to a “combination of Covid-19, existing and recent injuries and players on international duty at the Africa Cup of Nations” in Arsenal’s squad.
Tottenham released a strongly worded statement in response, saying that they were “extremely surprised” that Arsenal’s application had succeeded and that “unintended consequences of this [postponement] rule” are now becoming apparent.
Ahead of Tottenham’s rearranged match against Leicester on Wednesday night, Conte admitted that this is the first time in his career that he has seen matches postponed due to injury.
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“If the Premier League decides to postpone games for injuries it means that maybe they have to try to make a better schedule to reduce games,” he said.
“But I repeat this is the first time in my life that there is a league that postponed a game for injuries. This is very strange and very surprising.
“We have a big problem to solve that is Covid. But only about this situation can you decide to postpone [fixtures]. Otherwise for other situations no.”
At the weekend, the Premier League reiterated that its existing postponement rules are “designed to protect the wellbeing of players and staff”.
However, Conte accused the league of making “excuses”, suggesting that the congested fixture schedule shows that player welfare does not ordinarily come under consideration.
“Sometimes it’s very strange for me to listen about the welfare of the players,” he said. “It’s very strange because if someone has to think about the welfare of the players then you have to play less games and not play games in two or three days [apart].
“Otherwise, why do you speak about the welfare of the players? It’s only an excuse. You protect the players to give them a rest. But if you want only for them to play then you can’t speak about the welfare of the players.”
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Spurs have played as many as four games fewer than some clubs after matches against Burnley (due to snow), Leicester and Arsenal were all called off.
Conte revealed that Cristian Romero is “very close” to returning to action after suffering a serious hamstring injury and Steven Bergwijn has recovered from a calf problem. Eric Dier looks set to miss the game with a muscle issue.
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