On January 15, Beijing time, the Premier League officially announced that Tottenham's North London derby with Arsenal was postponed! The match was originally scheduled to take place at 0.30am on Monday, but Arsenal applied to postpone the match due to the lack of available players.
According to the rules of the Premier League, when a team has less than 14 available players (13 outfielders + 1 goalkeeper), it can apply for an extension.
In the Arsenal team, players such as Xhaka, Aubameyang, Odegaard, Fuan Jianyang, Pepe, Hernenne, Thomas, Cedric, Smith-Royce and other players are currently unable to participate due to suspensions, injuries, epidemics, participation in the African Cup of Nations and other reasons.
It is worth mentioning that Xhaka was sent off for a direct red card for a foul on Jota in the first leg of the League Cup semi-final, and the North London derby was originally about to be suspended. It just so happens that his suspension has led to Arsenal not having enough 13+1 people at all: in addition to the goalkeeper, there are just 12 people, and there is one less outfielder, so they are eligible to apply for an extension.
In the end, the Premier League agreed to Arsenal's extension request, which Spurs were dissatisfied with, but there was nothing they could do.