Arsenal were due to host Everton on Sunday but that game will now be rescheduled for a later date after the Premier League confirmed the postponement of this weekend's fixtures. The decision came as a result of the death of Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II on Thursday.
The Queen's death prompted the beginning of a 12-day mourning period across the UK. With that in mind, the Premier League made the decision to postpone this weekend's games in order to pay respect to Her Majesty - a decision that was made for all football leagues in England.
A statement from the league's official website read: "At a meeting this morning, Premier League clubs paid tribute to Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II. To honour her extraordinary life and contribution to the nation, and as a mark of respect, this weekend's Premier League match round will be postponed, including Monday evening's game."
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Arsenal have since confirmed that they will update fans about rescheduled fixtures in time: "Following the passing of Her Majesty The Queen, our Premier League and Women’s Super League matches scheduled for this weekend have been postponed. The fixtures will be rescheduled, and ticket holders will receive further information in due course. Information about forthcoming matches, including Academy fixtures will be shared on arsenal.com."
The Premier League are yet to confirm whether any further postponements will take place. In the meantime, Arsenal fans will be wondering when their game against Everton could take place.
As there's such a busy set of fixtures to get through both domestically and in Europe before the World Cup takes place in the middle of November, there aren't actually any weeks without midweek games until the new year.
Of course, the Premier League could decide to make Arsenal's fixture list even more congested, but it's likely they'll wait until at least January. At the moment, Arsenal have three Premier League fixtures scheduled in the month, though there will also potentially be two FA Cup rounds to accommodate in the calendar should the 14-time winners of the competition progress.
Currently, the midweek periods of January 4/5th, 10/11th, 17/18th and 24/25th remain free for games to be scheduled, though there are possibilities of potential FA Cup replays - with replays not set to be scrapped until after the fifth round. Plus, if Arsenal manage to progress to the latter stages of the Carabao Cup, the 24/25th could potentially become unavailable.
If the game is not rearranged in January, further decisions will have to be made regarding FA Cup, Europa League (providing Arsenal make it through the group stages as expected) and Carabao Cup dates. The knockout stages of the Europa League are due to begin on the 16th and 23rd February respectively, depending on the draw.
March is again the same with European rounds in the midweek slots before the first international break of the 2023 takes place after the weekend of Saturday, March 18. European football and a round of Premier League games dominates the midweek calendar in April, but there is one free midweek at the start of the month for now with no European fixtures scheduled for the week of Monday, April 3.
Another possible option for the postponed Premier League round could be week commencing Monday, May 1 as there are no European games in the midweek schedule. There are also no fixtures in the calendar leading up to the final day on Sunday, May 28, although this is normally the case to fit in any other matches that are called off prior to then.
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