Arsenal
Mikel Arteta said Arsenal was forced to close London Colney’s training facility after they received reports of a few cases from staff and players following the 2-0 win over West Ham United. Albert Sambi Lokonga, a midfielder and Pablo Mari, a defender, were both positive for the disease and missed Leeds’ win.
Aston Villa
After receiving more positive Covid-19 results from their players, the Premier League match against Burnley was postponed on December 18. This happened just 2 hours before kickoff.
Brentford
The Bees have 13 cases among players and staff – the club are now calling for a circuit-breaker szhutdown to help clubs recover. Their trip to Southampton this Saturday was postponed because their training ground is closed.
Leicester
Covid had to postpone Tottenham’s game on Thursday, meaning that they would have lost several of their players. Although their training ground was closed Thursday morning due to the spread of the disease, they are unable to travel to Everton for the weekend because there is not enough players.
Manchester United
While the numbers of these cases are not known, Brentford was forced to postpone their game due to a widespread outbreak. On Thursday, United accepted calls to postpone Saturday’s match with Brighton. However, it was revealed that United had seven players available for the game due to the severity of the epidemic. To reduce transmission risk, their training facility is currently closed.
Brighton
Premier League refused to accept a request that Wednesday’s Wolves game be delayed due to an outbreak. Graham Potter stated that there were at least three to four positive cases prior to the match, which was a 1-0 loss. The Saturday game against Manchester United was postponed.
Norwich
Dean Smith faced a nervous wait as he tried to determine the true extent of the spread at his club. Josh Sargent, Lukas Rupp and Pierre Lees-Melou were absent from the squad that faced Aston Villa in midweek for ‘Covid-related’ reasons, but while Christos Tzolis is the only confirmed player to test positive, more positive test results have been returned. Over Saturday’s match with West Ham, the Canaries met with Premier League representatives and agreed to delay it due to insufficient players.
Watford
Their midweek match with Burnley was postponed hours before kickoff. Their home game against Crystal Palace was also postponed due to the closure of their training grounds. Although the numbers of cases are not known, they don’t have enough players to play in the Palace match.
Tottenham
Spurs became the Premier League’s first to suffer from the Omicron strain last week. Rennes and Brighton had their games postponed due to the high number of cases among staff and players. The virus is expected to be returned by those who have completed their self-isolation period of 10 days. Although initial requests to cancel the Spurs match with Leicester were denied, it was rescheduled for Sunday.
Chelsea
The Blues were the next club to become infected by the Covid virus after Brentford. It was discovered that the outbreak had also affected Everton’s first team players. Mateo Kovacic became the first Chelsea player to be infected by the Covid virus. Romelu Lukaku was next, Callum Hudson Odoi and Timo Werner followed. Ben Chilwell was also affected. The game was still held with Everton and it was drawn. Even though they had seven Covid positive cases, the Blues were denied a request to travel to Wolves. Tuchel was upset at this decision and demanded that the game be allowed to proceed.
Liverpool
Just one hour before the kickoff against Newcastle on Thursday, it was announced that Curtis Jones (Fabinho), Curtis Jones (Virgil van Dijk) and Thiago had tested positive for Covid. Thiago, a midfielder, also tested positive to Covid prior to Sunday’s visit to Spurs. Jurgen Klopp stated that it was ‘not possible for the Reds’ to play if any more players become ill.