“Arsenal ‘running scared of Tottenham’?”-Arsenal veteran doesn’t think so in a heated argument

Arsenal vs Tottenham Hotspur

Arsenal’s Premier League clash with North London rivals Tottenham Hotspur has been postponed after the Gunners cited players being unavailable due to COVID, AFCON and injuries as their reasoning. This decision left the football fans from all around the world in a bit of a shock.

It is understood that the Gunners only have 1 confirmed positive COVID case in their squad, midfielder Martin Odegaard. However, important players like Granit Xhaka and Thomas Partey are unavailable for the Gunners due to a red card and AFCON respectively.

Arsenal also let 2 other players leave the club on loan just a few days before their request for postponement. Ainsley Maitland-Niles and Folorin Balogun were allowed to leave the club even when the Gunners knew they didn’t have enough squad depth to cover every position.

FS Video

Also Read: WATCH: Philippe Coutinho scores Aston Villa’s equaliser against Man United on…

‘Arsenal are scared of Tottenham Hotspur’- Heated argument among two former Arsenal players and a journalist

TalkSport host Adrian Durham had a heated argument with former Arsenal players Ray Parlour and Adrian Clarke. The three of them were live on air when the news broke that the North London Derby clash between the Gunners and Tottenham Hotspur was postponed after Arsenal’s request was granted. This shocked the whole football world including Adrian Durham.

Durham said,” Let me say this to you. It’s the north London derby and to a neutral this looks like Arsenal, for some reason, are running scared of Spurs. Unless things have changed in the last 24 hours, Arsenal have 1 COVID case in Martin Odegaard, Xhaka is suspended, 2 first-team players were allowed to leave the club on loan this week, and that’s a decision Arsenal made to let them go.’

The host added,” There are rumours there are 2 more COVID cases, but does it feel right? Arsenal’s under-23 played and drew 1-1 with West Ham on Friday, it was a very young side but they are still players, one of them is an 18 year old full Mexico international, there are 20 year olds in there as well, it’s not as if they are 16 years old.”

But both Ray Parlour and Adrian Clarke defended the Gunners and blamed the Premier League rules over the postponement of games. Both the former players said that Arsenal were being ‘abused’ by clubs all around the country.

Ray Parlour said,” Certainly it’s a bit of a shock. What’s happened so far this season has been really unpredictable, 22 games have been called off, so why is everyone suddenly jumping on the bandwagon with Arsenal? They are just trying to use the system like every other club has used.”

Parlour added,” Whether it’s right or wrong is another matter. The Premier League have really got to look at this a lot more closely, and make it an even field with every club. They made a decision and said if you’ve got 13 outfield players, you have to play. If you want to want to make a rule at the start of the season, you can’t change a rule halfway through a season when 22 games have been called off.”

“This has got to start from day 1 of the season, have a squad of 36 instead of 26 and play the under-23s if you have to, but you can’t suddenly change it halfway through the season. That’s not fair,” said Parlour.

Former Arsenal player Clarke added,” Clubs are using and abusing the situation, that’s for sure, and it definitely needs changing. It doesn’t feel right to me at all, but I don’t blame Arsenal here, I blame the rules.”

Clarke said,” The rules are wrong. Some of these clubs have 50 or 60 professionals on their books, at least 30 of them are high-profile and experienced players, and if you’re already a professional footballer you should qualify to be eligible to play in the Premier League.”

“Clubs are using this situation to get out of games. Liverpool got their league game called off, but we saw the team they put out against Arsenal in the cup a few days later, it was so strong. But I’ve got to be honest, i still thought Arsenal could have got something out of the game even though they were depleted. Spurs with no Son Heung-Min, I feel Arsenal could have got a draw or maybe even a victory,” said Clarke.

Also Read: “All Premier League teams should be made to play their fixtures”-…