Leeds vs. Aston Villa becomes 14th postponed Premier League game while Crystal Palace request rejected

Leeds United’s Tuesday home game against Aston Villa has become the latest Premier League match to be postponed due to COVID-19 amid growing scrutiny over how the English top flight decides which fixtures can be scrubbed off the list.

The announcement of Leeds’ second postponement in two days — they had their Boxing Day clash with Liverpool delayed due to a combination of five coronavirus cases, illness and injuries that left them short of the 13 outfield players and goalkeeper required. Hours earlier Crystal Palace had had rejected their request to put on ice Sunday’s game against Tottenham. The Eagles were hit with COVID-19 cases that included head coach Patrick Vieira but were instructed to make the trip to north London.

The Premier League does not have a set number of COVID positive cases that will force a game postponement and indicated to clubs in a meeting on Monday that on six key factors, including: availability of senior players and experienced youngsters, whether players are able to train safely, the sequencing of any outbreak within the club, and medical advice.

When the status of a club’s COVID-19 outbreak is not clear prior to kick-off the Premier League board has previously chosen to postpone a game.

A statement from the league said: “Following a request from Leeds United, the Premier League board met today and regrettably agreed to postpone the club’s home fixture against Aston Villa, due to be played at 17:30 GMT on Tuesday 28 December.

“The board was able to make its decision in advance of the match to give clarity to the affected clubs and their fans. We apologise for the inconvenience and disruption caused to supporters’ festive plans.

“The postponement is a result of the ongoing COVID-19 cases and injuries at Leeds which saw their Boxing Day match against Liverpool called off. The Board accepted the postponement application as the club does not have the required number of players available for the match (13 outfield players and one goalkeeper).”

Leeds added that though there had been no additional cases beyond the five that prompted the postponement of the Liverpool game the majority of those players were still isolating. Their game is the 14th in the English top flight to be struck of the fixture list due to the pandemic.

That number could have been 15 but the Premier League board rejected Palace’s request to postpone their trip to Spurs. Vieira is among those unable to travel to Tottenham Hotspur Stadium; he revealed on Christmas Eve that there were “a couple of cases” in his squad, a number that is believed to have increased in recent days but not sufficiently for the game to be called off.

With assistant manager Osain Roberts in charge the Eagles named a team with seven substitutes, albeit with only one player changed from the side who had drawn with Southampton on December 15.