Aston Villa vs Everton Called off Due to COVID-19 Outbreak

On Sunday 17th January 2021, Aston Villa was set to host Everton for a Premier League match but unfortunately due to Villa’s training ground staying closed due to a COVID-19 outbreak, the game had to be postponed.

This isn’t the first time Aston Villa have had their games affected by COVID-19, the most recent game effected was their FA Cup game against Liverpool. All of Aston Villa’s first team and manager were out for the game so they had to play a youth squad with the youth squad manager leading the team. They ended up losing 1-4 to Liverpool in a performance that the young players should be proud of.

Aston Villa requested for their game against Everton to be postponed and the Premier League granted their request with the reason being that “a significant number of Villa players and staff remain in isolation.”

This extra game in hand from Aston Villa will mean they will have three games in hand in total. They are set to face Manchester City next, which was originally the first game of the season for them. However, due to Man City’s progress in the Champions League last season, it was postponed to give Manchester City more preparation time for the new season. 

Since many games have been postponed in the Premier League to COVID-19, the Premier League and the teams have to ask themselves if they are doing all that they can do to be safe and secure around COVID-19. Aston Villa Vs Everton will be added to the long list of games already postponed this season, so we have to ask, is it time for the Premier League to enforce stronger rules for players and staff? 

I believe with more time monitoring the situation, depending on whether more games have to be postponed, the Premier League might have to get ready to warn the teams and remind them about rules and regulations not only for the players and staff sake but also for the Premier League’s image. Their image may suffer if people are seeing countless games being postponed. 

Only time will tell if they can get ahead of this COVID-19 outbreak, but on behalf of all football fans, I hope they can so we can still watch the sport we all love.