Sunday, January 16, 2022 is a date Antonio Conte and Tottenham will remember for all the wrong reasons. Set to host Arsenal in the first North London Derby in front of a capacity crowd at Tottenham Hotspur Stadium, the showdown in N17 was postponed after the Premier League accepted a request from the Gunners.
Official confirmation from the Premier League finally came around 24 hours before the game was due to commence, with a statement outlining that Mikel Arteta's men had fewer than the required number of players available for the match (13 outfield players and one goalkeeper). Their low numbers were down to a result of a combination of Covid-19, existing and recent injuries and players on international duty at the Africa Cup of Nations.
It was a major talking point at the time and undoubtedly one of the biggest of the 2021/22 Premier League season.
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One month earlier Tottenham were eliminated from the Europa Conference League after they could not play their final group game against Rennes due to a significant Covid outbreak at the club, which had forced them to temporarily close the first-team area of their training ground on the advice of the Health Security Agency. Conte revealed in his pre-match press conference that eight players and five members of staff had tested positive and the number would potentially continue to increase as every day had brought new Covid cases.
Wanting to reschedule the European tie and willing to move their Premier League fixture against Leicester City to accommodate the Rennes match, their application was not approved and it resulted in the French team being awarded a 3-0 victory. It was a decision that did not sit well with Tottenham.
Extremely unhappy about their treatment given the major Covid concerns at the club at that time, the news of the North London Derby postponement a month later did not go down well at all with Conte and Tottenham. Making their feelings crystal clear in a statement following official confirmation of the postponement from the Premier League, Spurs stated that they were "extremely surprised" that Arsenal's application had been approved.
The Gunners, who had played in a Carabao Cup semi-final against Liverpool a few days earlier, had reportedly only had one Covid-19 case when the postponement was announced, with the vast majority of their absences down to injury and international commitments.
With injuries and international call-ups part and parcel of football, it's not hard to see why Tottenham were so upset about the Premier League's decision. A major talking point at the time, the fallout from the game continued to rumble on until the sides finally met at Tottenham Hotspur Stadium in May.
That is why it may come as a shock to supporters that there is actually no mention of the January postponement in episode five of the Amazon All or Nothing Series that focuses on Arsenal's 2021/22 campaign. Given the story dominated the back pages and sport channels at the time, many will be surprised to see that it is totally glossed over in the episode.
Starting with Arsenal's FA Cup third round defeat at Championship side Nottingham Forest, Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang and Granit Xhaka are the next subjects before it moves on to their Carabao Cup semi-final first leg vs Liverpool, which was played three days before the North London Derby was due to be held.
Following the coverage of the 0-0 draw at Anfield, the decision to part with Aubameyang and a number of other players is then the main focus. It is mentioned by the narrator that Arsenal's squad is now half the size it was last season, although the that was due to their transfer movement and not the injuries and international call-ups that happened in the middle of January.
Coverage of their Carabao Cup semi-final second leg defeat at home to Liverpool follows as the North London Derby postponement is skipped over. The reason for not mentioning the derby clash may simply be that it all comes in the final episode of Arsenal's All or Nothing series, with Tottenham running out 3-0 winners in the rearranged fixture to dent the Gunners' Champions League aspirations.
Given everything that was said at the time and leading up to the fixture, there is surely no way Amazon simply cannot mention it as they reflect on Arsenal's campaign.
You can watch episodes 4-6 of Arsenal: All or Nothing exclusively on Amazon Prime Video from this Thursday, August 11.
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