Why do Man City not play this midweek & why was Arsenal vs Man City postponed?

There are nine midweek Premier League matches this week as the English top flight squeezes in extra fixtures to accommodate the World Cup, but Manchester City aren’t involved.

Their clash with Arsenal is the only match not taking place across Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday, with Manchester United’s encounter against Tottenham Hotspur perhaps the most eagerly-anticipated game over the three days.

But the City match not being played is a huge blow given it would have pitted first against second, with Mikel Arteta’s Gunners four points ahead of City in the Premier League table. Below, we explain why the game won’t be played this week.

Why is Arsenal vs Man City not being played?

The match was postponed in order for Arsenal to rearrange their Europa League clash with PSV Eindhoven, a match which will now be played on Thursday. That game was originally scheduled to be played on 15 September, but was postponed due to concerns over policing in the days prior to the Queen’s funeral.

Uefa have crammed all of their group-stage matches in the Europa League into the period prior to the World Cup, meaning this game has to be played before the club season breaks in mid-November.

Therefore, the Premier League came to an agreement with Uefa that Arsenal’s encounter with City would be postponed, allowing the fixture against PSV to be arranged.

When could the game be rescheduled for?

City’s trip to the Emirates won’t be played before the World Cup as there are no free midweek slots available. However, the game could be played in the new year over 17/18 January, or 7/8 February.

Alternatively, one of 14/15 or 21/22 February should be free for the fixture to be played if Arsenal top their Europa League or are eliminated from the competition, although the latter is looking increasingly unlikely given the London club have won all three group-stage games so far.

Should Arsenal finish second in the group, neither 14/15 or 21/22 February will be free as they’ll play in the Europa League across both midweeks. City, who have already secured their place in the knockout stages of the Champions League, will play in the last-16 of the competition in one of those weeks, leaving the other free for the Arsenal clash to potentially take place.