The full schedule for Blank Gameweek 31 is now known after the completion of Wednesday’s FA Cup fifth round ties.
Victories for Leicester City and Norwich City meant that two more Premier League fixtures fell by the wayside and will now need to be rearranged due to the clash with the FA Cup quarter-finals later this month.
Manchester City also progressed after a win over Sheffield Wednesday but Pep Guardiola’s side were already assured of a Blank Gameweek 31 after Chelsea‘s victory over Liverpool on Tuesday.
Arsenal, Newcastle United and Sheffield United made it through to the last eight of the FA Cup earlier in the week.
Manchester United face Derby County on Thursday evening but the result of that match will be immaterial to the Gameweek 31 picture.
The confirmed line-up for Blank Gameweek 31 is as follows:
Burnley v Watford
Liverpool v Crystal Palace
Tottenham Hotspur v West Ham United
Wolverhampton Wanderers v Bournemouth
Gameweek 34
The FA Cup results also have implications further down the road.
The semi-finals of that competition clash with Gameweek 34, so a maximum of four Premier League matches will be postponed on the weekend of April 18/19.
Manchester City v Newcastle United is one of those fixtures, as the pair meet in the FA Cup quarter-finals and one of the two clubs will make it through to the semis, thus necessitating a rescheduling of their Gameweek 34 match.
However, a free midweek follows that round of league fixtures, so the games in question could simply be moved to the Tuesday/Wednesday/Thursday afterwards.
Aston Villa v Sheffield United, originally earmarked for Gameweek 28, and the six postponed Gameweek 31 fixtures also have to be rescheduled, however, so it remains to be seen how the Premier League will go about setting new dates for those matches and whether Double Gameweek 34 will absorb some of them.
A Double Gameweek 37 looks fairly assured, given the lack of available midweeks elsewhere.
We currently have only four Premier League fixtures definitely going ahead on their original dates in Blank Gameweek 34:
Bournemouth v Tottenham Hotspur
Brighton and Hove Albion v Liverpool
Everton v Southampton
West Ham United v Burnley
OUTSTANDING FIXTURES
The following games still have to be rearranged:
Aston Villa v Sheffield United (originally scheduled for Gameweek 28)
Chelsea v Manchester City (originally scheduled for Gameweek 31)
Leicester City v Brighton and Hove Albion (originally scheduled for Gameweek 31)
Manchester United v Sheffield United (originally scheduled for Gameweek 31)
Newcastle United v Aston Villa (originally scheduled for Gameweek 31)
Norwich City v Everton (originally scheduled for Gameweek 31)
Southampton v Arsenal (originally scheduled for Gameweek 31)
Manchester City v Newcastle United (originally scheduled for Gameweek 34)
It probably won’t be until just after Gameweek 31 that we will know when some, possibly all, of the outstanding Premier League fixtures will take place, as the results of the FA Cup quarter-finals will have a huge bearing on the season run-in.
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