Tottenham Hotspur have this evening announced the tentative rescheduling of their big North London derby clash with Arsenal. The fixture is now currently set to take place on Wednesday April 20, alongside the recently realigned Chelsea vs Birmingham game, putting it firmly into gameweek 33 territory…
This gives both teams rather important gameweeks, as Spurs travel to Champions League rivals Man City and Arsenal host a resurgent Liverpool side, prior to their own midweek clash.
In the long-term, Spurs see this game drop into a relatively kind close to the season (wig, STK, mcy/ARS, WBA, che), while Arsenal have this double land just as their fixtures begin to stiffen (BLA, bpl, LIV/tot, bol, MUN).
Fantasy Managers will need to plan and calibrate just how they will clip their squads ahead of gameweek 28, which has both Arsenal and Spurs facing blank fixtures, now that this new double has been announced.
The slight caveat here inevitably revolves around the FA Cup. If Arsenal can get beyond Leyton Orient next week, and then the considerably more troubling trip to Old Trafford that would follow, their gameweek 33 encounter with Liverpool would take a back-seat to a later date to allow for another Wembley visit.
After already being knocked out of the FA Cup in the earlier rounds by Fulham, Spurs will face no such worries and will have their two gameweek fixtures, unless of course Man City (who they play in their first gameweek 33 fixture) make progres to the last four. It’s complicated.
Our Season Tickers will be updated shortly to reflect this evening’s announcement.
