Crystal Palace’s progress to the EFL Cup quarter-finals creates a scheduling headache in mid-December.
The last eight of that competition is due to be contested in the week beginning December 15. Palace have been drawn to play Arsenal in the quarter-finals.
*This article has been updated at 11:55 BST following a BBC Sport story
LACK OF FREE MIDWEEKS
But Palace’s schedule is already pretty packed, thanks to their UEFA Conference League involvement (below image from BBC Sport):
*fixtures from Dec 27 onwards have yet to be finalised
The problem is the lack of other free midweeks between now and January.
There is only one for Palace – and that’s on December 23/24.
COULD TWO GAMEWEEK 17 MATCHES BE POSTPONED?
One suggestion is that Leeds v Crystal Palace and Arsenal v Everton in Gameweek 17 are instead postponed.
That would help accommodate the EFL Cup quarter-final between Arsenal and Palace on Sunday 21 December.
LATEST REPORTS: BLANK GAMEWEEK 17 LOOKING UNLIKELY
However, BBC Sport are now reporting that Blank Gameweek 17 doesn’t look likely. Instead, the Eagles would contest two cup ties in the space of 48 hours.
If the BBC are correct, Palace’s schedule would now read as follows:
- Sunday 14 December: Gameweek 16 – Man City (h)
- Tuesday 16 December: EFL Cup quarter-final – Arsenal (a)
- Thursday 18 December: Conference League – KuPS (h)
- Sunday 21 December: Gameweek 17 – Leeds (a)
ONLY SPECULATION AT THIS STAGE
It’s still not confirmed at this early stage, then, but something just to be aware of regarding future FPL planning and (especially) chip usage. If you’ve got a Free Hit intact, for instance, this might come in useful if we do get a ‘blank’ – not that now looks likely.
We’ll hopefully not have to speculate much longer and get a definitive answer from the Premier League and the Football League soon.
