Arsenal and Crystal Palace fixtures moved ahead of Carabao Cup tie after successful appeals | OneFootball

London rivals now have more rest time before their quarter-final clash

Arsenal and Crystal Palace have both succeeded in moving Premier League fixtures in December to make room for their Carabao Cup quarter-final.

The Gunners will now face Everton at Hill Dickinson Stadium at 8pm on Saturday, December 20, with Leeds vs Crystal Palace taking place at the same time.

Both games will be shown live on Sky Sports.

The Carabao Cup quarter-final was initially pencilled in for Tuesday, December 16, which would have handed Palace four games in eight days across three competitions.

That tie was moved to December 23 to give Palace more rest time ahead of their final Conference League league phase game on Thursday, December 18.

The welfare of our players, supporters, and staff is our priority

Arsenal statement

Arsenal will put on a £10 return coach service for their trip to Everton.

An Arsenal statement read: "The welfare of our players, supporters, and staff is our priority, and we fully understand this change of date may result in challenges for supporters travelling to Liverpool for the game.

"Therefore, we are organising additional supporters' coaches for this match. All coach travel will be subsidised for supporters, priced at £10 for the return journey to Everton."

Palace and Arsenal were originally set to play each other on 16 December, but the fixture was moved due to Palace’s involvement in the Conference League.

The Eagles will now have just 48 hours between their Conference League match against Finnish side KuPS and the Leeds game.

Speaking about the fixture scheduling last week, Oliver Glasner blamed UEFA for prioritising money over player welfare, and added that he hoped the Premier League and EFL would also learn lessons from the situation.

Frustration: Oliver Glasner

REUTERS

“It's not about the welfare of the players. It's not about talking together and find what's best. Everybody is just looking at himself to maximise the money,” Glasner said.

“And that's the situation. Now we can say it's the UEFA schedule. It was clear this week before Christmas there is the Conference League played.

“And it's clear, 99%, that the English participants will play there. So why fix the Carabao quarter-final there? Why? I just don't understand. Again, it was clear.

“And then I think, maybe somebody corrects me, there is a hierarchy in football. So it's the UEFA games, it's the Premier League games and then I don't know how it's FA or EFL or it's on the same level. And then if there is a UEFA game day, you can't say we play the quarter-final.”

“I'm always talking about making mistakes as part of development. I think the EFL and Premier League didn't solve this problem before the start of the season,” Glasner continued.

“They will learn from it and I'm pretty sure that next year they will have the solution before the start of the season. So, maybe they needed this experience to solve it and not to rely that this won't happen.”