The consequences of Arsenal’s FA Cup final victory against Chelsea last month have quickly become apparent over the last 48 hours after Tottenham were handed away two nightmare away draws in the Europa League qualifiers.
Had Mikel Arteta’s side lost to the Blues, Spurs would have gone straight into the group stages, but their 2-1 victory at Wembley means that Jose Mourinho’s men now face three inconvenient one-legged qualifiers.
With the Carabao Cup starting for European sides less than two weeks after the resumption of the Premier League, it means that if Tottenham progress in both Europe and the Carabao Cup, they’ll have to play nine competitive matches across a 22-day period.
Spurs restart their domestic campaign against Everton on Sunday 13th September before travelling to Southampton seven days later. However, a trip to Bulgaria against Lokomotiv Plodiv in the Europa League 2nd qualifying round is sandwiched between those two games.
But it’s the following week when Mourinho’s schedule becomes slightly ridiculous.
If Tottenham beat Plodiv, they’ll travel to St Mary’s on Sunday 20th, be in Carabao Cup action on that Tuesday before facing a Europa League 3rd qualifying round tie in either Romania or Macedonia less than 48 hours later.
Take a look at the potential gruelling schedule below.
Sunday 13th September – Everton (H)
Thursday 17th September – Lokomotiv Plodiv (A)
Sunday 20th September – Southampton (A)
Tuesday 22nd September – Carabao Cup R3
Thursday 24th September – Europa League 3QR (A)
Saturday 25th September – Newcastle (H)
Tuesday 29th September – Carabao Cup R4
Thursday 1st October – Europa League Play-Off
Saturday 3rd October – Manchester United (H)
Absolutely ridiculous.
I’m gonna be shattered…hope we get a back up striker.
Scrub the carrier bag cup who’s cares anyway. Serge lamela and winks can play that one
Firstly, the professional game is overseen by amateurs making amateurish decisions, so we shouldn’t be too surprised that they’ve done absolutely nothing to mitigate the disruption of Covid-19 other than to start the season late and try and cram in as many games as possible without adapting, one iota, how each of the competitions works. Quelle suprise !
Secondly, that amateurish decision-making and rule-making has, in our case, resulted in the winners of one competition (for which they had to win just 6 games) having a seriously detrimental effect on a club whose performance and final standing over 38 games in arguably the toughest league in the World, was better than theirs. That’s just a very poor rule whoever’s on the recieving end of it!
Just thinking off the top of my head….The CarrierBag Cup should have been scrapped this season or at least completely overhauled; the FA Cup result shouldn’t take precedence over Premier League results – it is no longer a prestigious competition compared to the Premier League and the European Cup; Premier League (and other elite league) teams should never be involved in the early rounds of cups; seeded teams in a European competition should (during Covid-19 at least) have automatically got home draws; the Europa League should (this season) have been restructured to eliminate the majority of lesser (Eufa-ranked) clubs well before elite teams were expected to go gallavanting around Europe during a pandemic.
The professional game needs a complete overhaul to get rid of the imaginationless dinosaurs who run it.
Wh6 bother playing anything at all? Let’s just dish out all the honours based on seedings who needs the inconvenience of having to be on the same pitch as an inferior team. These “amateurs ” could really learn a few things from you.
I agree to a point , but actually winning the cup involves pressure which we succumb to in recent seasons. Champions league should be champions & holders only , Uefa cup for 2nd,3rd & 4th & cup winners. Or cup winners cup. That way no precedence. Too many matches in Europe. Straight knock out over 2 legs as it used to be. No promotion play offs, teams coming 3rd playing team in 6th who may be 20 pts behind. All because of money, greed. Also cup final only at Wembley as was , the joy of getting there. Now its top 4 teams year every year because of champs league money. Galling that we are better than Arsenal but won nothing & they are straight in though
Yes of course it’s ridiculous…. but if they want to be in All competitions that’s the price you pay … or … bow out of a competition and don’t get the money for tv coverage etc. Just get on with it … they had many months off they ought to be hungry for games. So play or don’t play. Stop complaining !!!!!