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What is Going to Happen to the Premier League

What is Going to Happen to the Premier League
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Little did we know at the time but Leicester City’s 4-0 win over Aston Villa in the Premier League on Monday the 9th of March is going to be the last game played at least until the 4th of April. The decision was made to postpone the games between these two dates due to the spread of COVID-19 in the United Kingdom.

Despite the government telling people mass gatherings were fine to take place in a news conference on Thursday night, the Premier League decided to take things into their own hands as a manager and players tested positive for the virus.

It is believed the fact that Arsenal manager Mikel Arteta tested positive for the virus was the main factor in the decision taken by the Premier League to postpone 2 weeks’ worth of fixtures.

If the Premier League can resume on the 4th of April then there should be no problem in completing the season. This includes the FA Cup but it remains to be seen what UEFA are going to do regarding the Champions League and Europa League but that is out of the hands of the FA and Premier League officials.

However, despite a date being set for the resumption of the Premier League it is quickly becoming apparent that the League is not going to resume on the 4th of April. In fact, we could be set for a long break in the season without any specific date in mind for it to continue as things stand. If it becomes impossible for the Premier League season to finish by the 17th of May then a difficult decision must be made as what to do with the 2019/20 season.

Many options have been discussed over the past few days on television, websites and social media but the overriding factor must surely be fairness. That means fairness for every club, not only in the Premier League but those in the Championship, League One, League Two and the teams remaining in the FA Cup. Therefore, it is not possible to award teams trophies or promotion based on their current standing in the league tables.

You cannot give Liverpool the title, relegate teams in the relegation zone and promote teams based on their current league position. That is not fair and therefore it leaves us with two options.

The first is to postpone the 2020 European Championship until the summer on 2021. This will allow the Premier League season until the end of June to finish the competition fairly plus the other leagues and cups in the English football system. If it becomes impossible for the season to be completed by the end of June the only other option is for the 2019/20 season to be void.

The latter of the two options may seem drastic but if we start changing the structure, the timings and the integrity of the competitions, it is only going to lead to problems in the future. This is a drastic situation and fairness for all must be the overriding aspect of any decision which is made.

Premier League
OVERALL TABLE PTS GP W D L +/-
1
Arsenal 83 36 26 5 5 60
2
Manchester City 82 35 25 7 3 54
3
Liverpool 78 36 23 9 4 43
4
Aston Villa 67 36 20 7 9 20
5
Tottenham 60 35 18 6 11 11
6
Newcastle United 56 35 17 5 13 22
7
Chelsea 54 35 15 9 11 11
8
Manchester United 54 35 16 6 13 -3
9
West Ham 49 36 13 10 13 -14
10
Bournemouth 48 36 13 9 14 -11
11
Brighton 47 35 12 11 12 -4
12
Wolverhampton 46 36 13 7 16 -11
13
Fulham 44 36 12 8 16 -4
14
Crystal Palace 43 36 11 10 15 -8
15
Everton 37 36 12 9 15 -11
16
Brentford 36 36 9 9 18 -8
17
Nottingham Forest 29 36 8 9 19 -18
18
Luton Town 26 36 6 8 22 -29
19
Burnley 24 36 5 9 22 -35
20
Sheffield United 16 36 3 7 26 -65

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