Six games called off as Covid wreaks havoc on EPL

The Premier League Thursday postponed six more matches due to the wave of coronavirus infections hitting Britain, but said it intended to "continue its current fixture schedule where safely possible" as calls for a circuit break intensified.

Leicester City's scheduled match against Tottenham Hotspur was postponed just hours before kick-off Thursday.

Five more games scheduled for this weekend have also been postponed due to outbreaks at Manchester United, Brentford, Norwich City and Watford.

United's home clash with Brighton and Hove Albion, Brentford's trip to Southampton, Watford's meeting with Crystal Palace and West Ham United's fixture against Norwich have all been called off along with Leicester's visit to Everton.

For the second consecutive day, record numbers of Covid-19 cases were recorded in Britain as the Omicron variant runs riot, with fears growing that the crisis could derail the football season.

Brentford boss Thomas Frank led calls for a firebreak of at least a week to allow the infection rate to stabilize.

However, the Premier League insisted games will continue where it is safe to do so and defended the rationale of postponements on a case-by-case basis rather than when a threshold of positive cases is passed.

Brentford, Watford and Leicester have all closed their training grounds to contain the outbreak, while Norwich and United were unable to field a side due to positive cases and injuries.

Two matches did take place Thursday in front of full crowds as Liverpool beat Newcastle United 3-1 and Chelsea were held 1-1 by Everton despite outbreaks at Liverpool and Chelsea.

Both clubs are among those still due to play over the weekend.

Chelsea were without Romelu Lukaku, Timo Werner and Callum Hudson-Odoi as well as injured left-back Ben Chilwell due to positive tests.

Liverpool shrugged off the loss Virgil van Dijk, Fabinho and Curtis Jones but the status of their trip to Tottenham Sunday will depend on how the outbreak is contained in the coming days.

Another 10 matches have been postponed in the English Football League as the authorities urged players to get vaccinated or their booster shot against the virus.

The EFL, which runs the second, third and fourth tiers, said 25% of players were still refusing to get the jab based on their data from November with just 59% double vaccinated.

According to The Times, the level of unvaccinated players is aggravating the crisis as they still have to isolate after coming into close contact with someone who has tested positive.

Liverpool boss Jurgen Klopp reiterated his call for players to ignore "lies and misinformation" around the vaccine.

RESULTS

Chelsea 1 (Mount 70) Everton 1 (Branthwaite 74)

Liverpool 3 (Jota 21, Salah 25, Alexander-Arnold 87) Newcastle 1 (Shelvey 7)