Arsenal's Premier League clash with Bolton Wanderers has been postponed due to heavy snow around the Emirates Stadium in London.
While the club insisted the pitch was playable, torrid conditions around England would have prevented fans from safely accessing the stadium.
"Despite making every effort to stage tonight's match against Bolton Wanderers, the sudden and unpredicted adverse change in weather conditions in the Highbury area has left us no choice but to postpone the fixture," the club said on their website.
This sucks for so many reasons... I'm going to have to blog about it.
- No points. I had Klasnic, Eduardo, Lee, Arshavin and Vermaelan playing in this match. And I'm one of the less invested fantasy managers! "Points is points", as Neal and I always say, and today there are no points to be had.
- This match was going to be the indicator of whether or not Ramsey is Cesc's understudy. If he made the starting eleven today I would feel a whole lot better about having him in my fantasy team going into the weekend's match against Everton. Now I just don't know.
- Speaking of this weekend, do we have to start looking at the weather reports to see which matches actually get played? That's a level of uncertainty that I can surely live without.
- Now I've lost two Bolton matches. This is why we never bet on or against them. Unless we do... now they have two matches in hand. Just when I was ready to gut Matty Taylor and spread the cash around he's looking at double weeks in the future. Do I want to hang on to him for that eventuality? So now I'm looking at team news, weather reports, and the FA's scheduling offices. At some point this stops being fun and starts being a real chore.
Update via MirrorFootball:
Arsenal will hope to replay their fixture with Bolton the week after next, depending on their opponents’ commitments. They could end up playing Bolton twice in three days as they already go to the Reebok on January 17.Two games against Bolton in a week. Maybe it's too early to get shot of Arsenal players? Maybe it's even too soon to dump MTay or your other Trotters?
Later Update, and contrary view, via The Independent:
Arsenal's fixture programme has become so congested after the
snow-enforced postponement of last night's Premier League game against
Bolton Wanderers that even league officials cannot pinpoint a date when
the game will be played – and admit that scheduling it will be
dependent on the club's Champions League progress...
Arsène Wenger's team are not likely to be able to fit in the game against Bolton until the end of March or possibly early April, by which time they may yet be in the latter stages of the Champions League.
It's true, folks: Jeremy actually said "This sucks for so many reasons I'm going to have to blog about it." I was there; I heard him say it (we were slacking off work for a coffee break).
ReplyDeleteMe? I love the developments. The fiasco that was the Denilson experiment has now ended; the debacle that is Arshavin's run of late can now be put behind me. Let it snow, let it snow, let it snow!
(Kidding about the snow, folks...I'd love to get back into a routine too, but this holiday stretch has been a real drag for me.)
"At some point tis stops being fun and starts being a real chore"
ReplyDeletefor the win.
Every year, Sky Sports News does a piece on the Arsenal groundsman... He's supposed to be the best in the business...
true Shayan, but the pitch wasn't the problem, it was the area surrounding the ground and the safety of the fans coming to and from the game that was the problem.
ReplyDeleteAlso: Zamora confirmed dislocated collarbone.
ReplyDeletehttp://soccernet.espn.go.com/news/story?id=721492&sec=england&cc=5901
Whats frustrating is that the players I considered to be real gambles have all paid off better than the "sure things" I got (except Klasnic, who was my gamble over etherington...that went well). eduardo, nasri and whats-his-face at LB all play both games and do well extremely, arshavin..nothing. Given with his dodgy defence gets 30, almunia 'loses' a game and gets 21.5... moan moan moan etc.
ReplyDeletefor the record, THIS SUCKS
ReplyDeleteI've got a few knobs in my league who weren't even aware of 3 gamers, etc, and out of sheer luck now have outscored me, with 8 man points missing due to this cancellation. This is a disaster.It has ruined my day. It is snow England. Walk on it, drive on it....its not poison for f sake.
ReplyDeleteJeremy is right, it almost isn't fun anymore
Shakanorbs
this does suck, but in fairness, it might have worked out in my league because maybe the opponents' 3-gamers might have done better than my 3-gamers.
ReplyDeletehad a terrible week(s) anyway, so was already depressed at my meager score, this just hammers the nail in the coffin.
ReplyDeletewell, it's a new year, new decade.. i think i'm going to pick the warmest match with the least chance for postponement and pick all my players from there..
bean, it's too bad Pompey are on the road.
ReplyDeleteits a bad news, but hey, this season on , it will be cranky. i did said a while ago that weather watch was a must. now i lost quite some potential ground to move away, and let some monkeys climb up my back. oh, how i hate the feeling.
ReplyDeleteanyway, i thought the worst weather will be over last weekend, never did it seemed its extending till now, and most probably, into next week.
Jeremy - if you are really "one of the less invested managers" then how do you explain the cancellation as being a bad thing. Think about it...
ReplyDeletethe weather will cease soon enough....and we will all be back to picking anyone North or South
ReplyDeleteThis actually saved me in my private league because I gambled a little and my competition made the right picks. Wasn't looking forward to this game as I went Bolton heavy (dumb) and only picked Fab of the Arsenal players (not counting Verm because I never look at his spot anymore).
ReplyDeleteOn a lighter note, anyone looking to pick up Vieira when he gets into the system?
boo hoo -- didn't really see similar hand-wringing when wigan got postponed last week and many lost 2-3 players from that game
ReplyDeleteI remember some hand-wringing...
ReplyDeletehttp://fantasyepl.blogspot.com/2009/12/wigan-bolton-clash-postponed.html
yeah, I guess after portsmouth and sunderland on the extreme ends, most all teams are bundled together. as a yank, i keep having to refresh my UK geography. but if it's even a problem in london, doesn't look like any city will be spared. sunderland at home the biggest risk? and the london matches maybe have a better chance?
ReplyDeletewhen is landy cakes going to be added now that he's with the Toffees? maybe he'll be a buck? : )
hopefully if/when any of these matches are postponed, it's announced the day before, rather than the day before.
ReplyDelete"BBC weather forecaster Dan Corbett said there would be some snow showers in south-east and north-east England on Wednesday night, and eastern parts of the UK and south-west England could see up to 15cm (6in) of snow on Thursday.
He said it would be a "treacherous" start on Thursday, especially on untreated roads, as the snow begins to freeze.
There would be some snow showers on Friday, and the "deep freeze" would continue for the next few days, he added."
rather than the day of (sorry)
ReplyDeleteBy looking at the weather forecast it shouldnt be too difficult to see the high risk games. obviously this week was an exception due to huge gap between deadline and game.
ReplyDeleteguys, can anyone enlighten me, what happens when the game's been replayed? will the points add back to this week? or the points will go into that particular week when the game
ReplyDeletes replayed?
The latter - the points will go into that particular week when the game is replayed
ReplyDeletethanks Jeremy
ReplyDeletei took this is a positive note. There will be another DG for us.
ReplyDeleteMBasil
sigh. this ruined my life. sometimes the only way to get ahead is by taking risks, like making diaby your captain. this probably would have been not too bad of a risk if the weather hadn't turned out the way it did. so all in all, this sucks balls.
ReplyDeleteYup, it ruined my life, too. I should've pulled away from my private league arch-enemy but instead he's almost caught up on me seeing as I had 6 more players than him last night. This is the second time this has happened and sometimes I've started thinking whether it's all really worth it.
ReplyDeletehaha ya same thing with me. my rival didnt even know there was another gameweek so soon after the weekend, and left his team as it was. i planned for the the fulham and arsenal double gamers and got 15 less than him. bastard
ReplyDeleteLife is all about risks.
ReplyDeleteJeremy Cushing