Frank Lampard believes that the decision not to play last weekend’s Premier League fixtures following the death of Queen Elizabeth II was “the right thing to do.” Although Everton’s home match against West Ham United is going ahead on Sunday, three top flight games this weekend are off which will mean, following last week’s postponements, some teams will not have a domestic fixture for a month due to the forthcoming international break.
Everton had been due to travel to Arsenal last Sunday but while most other major sports in the UK decided to continue, football chiefs ruled that all games that weekend – both professional and amateur – would be called off as a mark of respect for her late Majesty who passed away the previous Thursday aged 96 following a record-breaking reign of more than 70 years on the British throne. Lampard said: “I just think it was the right thing to do, that’s my personal opinion. I think in the circumstances, I thought it was right that football and the Premier League took a pause for the weekend out of respect.
“So I think that supersedes any idea of us playing Arsenal and what that might have meant, I thought it was the right thing to do and that decision was obviously taken for us and I thought it was right.”
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Everton’s trip to the Emirates is not expected to be rescheduled until after the New Year but when they return to action following the international break at Southampton on October 1, the Blues have nine games to fulfil over the subsequent six weeks before the unprecedented mid-season break for a winter World Cup finals in Qatar. Lampard remained unfazed though and said: “We’ve lost one game haven’t we? As I say, I think that was the right thing but the schedule is what it is and I know some teams are losing another game.
“From our point of view, October was always going to be a bit busier, the World Cup is in the middle of the season this year so we have to adapt around that and at some point either us or some other teams will be playing catch up but I’ve been used to that my whole career, busy schedules in different ways. Let’s just hope that we find a way that fulfils it in the fairest way for everybody.”
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