Everton v Liverpool has been postponed following a safety meeting this morning.
The Merseyside derby, the last one at Goodison Park in the Premier League, was due to kick off at 12.30pm GMT.
Storm Darragh had other plans though: an amber alert was in force for the north-west of England, with winds of up to 70mph hitting the area.
The clash at Goodison was subsequently called off on safety grounds.
A statement said:
“Following a Safety Advisory Group meeting at Goodison Park, attended by officials from both clubs, as well as representatives from Merseyside Police and Liverpool City Council this morning, it was decided that, due to the risk to safety in the local area due to strong wind gusts, and an amber severe wind warning that remains in place until 6am on Sunday, today’s fixture should be postponed on safety grounds.”
WHAT DOES IT MEAN FOR THE GAMEWEEK 15 DEADLINE?
The Gameweek 15 deadline for Fantasy Premier League (FPL) will NOT move as a result of the postponement – despite it doing so in the past.
Transfers will have to be made for 11:00 GMT, then.
Gameweek 15 will now get underway with the three 15:00 GMT kick-offs:
COULD ANY MORE GAMEWEEK 15 FIXTURES BE POSTPONED?
At the moment, we’re not aware of any other Gameweek 15 fixtures being at risk.
Liverpool was the only Premier League venue this weekend where there was an amber alert out in force.
There are yellow warnings in place for Birmingham, London and Manchester, where the day’s other games are.
Villa Park has the highest winds forecast, with 60mph gusts anticipated for around kick-off time.
DOUBLE GAMEWEEK AHEAD
For FPL managers, this of course means that we’ll get a Double Gameweek – involving Liverpool – at some point this season.
It may not happen any time soon: the Reds are playing every midweek for the next three weeks.
Gameweek 19 is the earliest free midweek for both clubs (ie December 31/January 1).
If Liverpool get knocked out of the EFL Cup by Southampton in the quarter-finals (and that’s a big if), they would get free midweeks after Gameweek 20 and Gameweek 24.
With Everton v Liverpool being selected by TNT Sports as a televised game, however, the broadcaster may not wish to clash with the EFL Cup semi-finals in those midweek.
Liverpool are unlikely to be in the UEFA Champions League play-off rounds, so there are possible slots on either side of Gameweek 25.
Gameweek 33 is the next completely free midweek (with no other competitions taking place).
With a long way of the season to go, the Premier League may decide to bide their time and track Liverpool’s progress through the various cup competitions before finalising a new date.
CAPTAIN POLL RESET
We’ve reset the Gameweek 15 captain poll, removing Liverpool players and allowing you to vote again on a choice of captain.
GAMEWEEK 15 SCOUT PICKS REVISED
We’ve revised our Gameweek 15 Scout Picks as a result of this morning’s postponement.
Mohamed Salah (£13.3m) and Trent Alexander-Arnold (£7.0m) are replaced by Nicolas Jackson (£8.2m) and Josko Gvardiol (£6.2m).
The money freed up on that has also allowed us to upgrade Martin Odegaard (£8.3m) to Bukayo Saka (£10.5m). We would have selected the England international originally had budgetary restrictions not prevented it.
Read more about the revised picks here.
4 months, 23 hours agoHow essential is Saka?
I don’t have him and sweating.