Tottenham to play Fulham instead of Villa after virus issues

LONDON: Tottenham Hotspur’s match against coronavirus-ravaged Aston Villa has been postponed with Jose Mourinho’s men instead set to face Fulham in a rearranged fixture on Wednesday.

Fulham’s match against Spurs on December 30 was itself postponed because of a Covid-19 outbreak among Scott Parker’s squad. “Following Aston Villa’s request to rearrange the fixture, and due to the number of players and staff who have either tested positive for COVID-19 or have been placed in isolation by the club, the Premier League had no other option than to reschedule the match,” the Premier League said in a statement on Monday.

“As a result of this rescheduling, Spurs will now play their home match against Fulham in its place, on Wednesday 13 January at 20:15 GMT.” Mourinho had said it was “completely impossible” for any more of his side’s matches to be postponed amid a fixture pile-up with Spurs still involved in four competitions.

However, the solution at least eases Tottenham’s backlog with another clash with Fulham also needing to be rescheduled from the weekend they face Manchester City in the League Cup final on April 25.

Fulham’s west London derby with Chelsea has been put back from Friday to Saturday, while Villa’s next match at home to Everton has also been delayed from Saturday to Sunday, by which point some of their affected players will have fulfilled a 10-day isolation period.

Villa fielded a youth team without any first-team players or coaches for Friday’s 4-1 FA Cup third round defeat to Liverpool.