Tottenham Hotspur "extremely surprised" as Arsenal clash postponed

Tottenham Hotspur have been left "extremely surprised" after the Premier League granted Arsenal's request to postpone Sunday's North London derby.

Martin Odegaard is the only confirmed COVID-19 case within Mikel Arteta's ranks, but the Gunners are missing numerous players through suspension, injuries and Africa Cup of Nations duty.

The Premier League announced the postponement of the fixture on Saturday afternoon, and Tottenham have hit out at the decision following their recent COVID-19 cluster and subsequent Europa Conference League debacle.

A statement on tottenhamhotspur.com read: "We are extremely surprised that this application has been approved. We ourselves were disqualified from the European Conference League after a significant number of COVID cases meant we needed to reschedule a fixture and our application to move our Leicester fixture was not approved - only for it to be subsequently postponed when Leicester applied.

"The original intention of the guidance was to deal with player availability directly affected by COVID cases, resulting in depleted squads that when taken together with injuries would result in the club being unable to field a team.

"We do not believe it was the intent to deal with player availability unrelated to COVID. We may now be seeing the unintended consequences of this rule. It is important to have clarity and consistency on the application of the rule.

"Yet again fans have seen their plans disrupted at unacceptably short notice. We shall once again send food deliveries to the local food banks to avoid unacceptable waste. We are sincerely sorry for our fans - some of whom will have travelled great distances."

The Premier League accepted Arsenal's request to reschedule the clash due to the Gunners having fewer than 13 eligible outfield players available, which is the required number for games to go ahead.

Tottenham remain one place and two points below their North London rivals in the table having played two games fewer.