Arsenal handed major fitness blow ahead of Wolves match

The football schedule in the Premier League is absorbing from a fans’ perspective, and grueling for the inside looking out. Arsenal, like the rest, have fixtures aplenty.

Taking on Norwich on Boxing Day kicks off the unique event of playing twice inside 48 hours. Fortunately for Mikel Arteta he was able to rest a number of his squad in midweek due to facing League One opposition in the Carabao Cup, as the latest developments will come as a blow.

With Covid cases rising across the nation, club staff and footballers have felt the impact just like the rest. Cases are reaching record numbers and matches are being called off up and down the country.

The latest to be postponed affect Liverpool, Leeds, Watford and Wolves.

Arsenal handed major fitness blow ahead of Wolves with their match against Watford postponed and Lage’s side have additional recovery time

Watford have already seen matches of theirs called off due to cases within the club, and once again they’ve, rightly, been allowed to postpone their clash with Bruno Lage’s side at Molineux to help curb their current situation. Fingers crossed everyone is safe.

This impacts Arsenal, too.

Arteta’s side are due to host Wolves at the Emirates Stadium on December 28, less than 48 hours after they travel to Carrow Road. Such is the schedule and it’s something everyone has to get on with, yet it’s less of a concern, usually, when it’s what all teams face.

However, with Wolves not playing Watford they will be granted over a weeks’ rest from when they last played before their lunchtime kick-off in north London, which it needn’t be mentioned in considerably more time than Arsenal will have.

Preparations have been tough already with the African contingent at Arsenal set to jet off to AFCON on the day after facing Norwich at Carrow Road: Thomas Partey, Mohamed Elneny, Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang and Nicolas Pepe are due to link up with their national sides on December 27.

Furthermore, Sambi Lokonga, Calum Chambers and Pablo Mari have all recently been out with Covid, and will not have been able to train with the rest of the squad. Ainsley Maitland-Niles is ill and Takehiro Tomiyasu is trying to recover from a calf injury in time.

Is there anything Arsenal can do? Sadly not. It is the nature of the Premier League and their own fitness issues wouldn’t be anything to overly worry about were their opposition to find themselves in a similar situation, which on this occasion they are not.

Elneny, Partey and Pepe might all be in line for starts against the Canaries as a result.