Coronavirus, Everton-Manchester City postponed due to City outbreak

by our correspondent Stefano Boldrini

December 28th
– London

The Premier League match between Everton and Manchester City, scheduled for tonight at 9pm (Matchday 16), has been postponed. The decision was made due to the Covid-19 positivity of various members of Pep Guardiola’s Citizens team group. On December 25, forward Gabriel Jesus, defender Kyle Walker and two members of the squad were positively positive, but three other members were infected in the last series of tests.

“Bubble compromised”

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The training ground of the Citizens has been closed indefinitely, for now the team will not train: the next game with Chelsea, scheduled for January 3, is at this point in doubt. The club speaks of a “compromised bubble, there was a danger that the virus would spread further and the decision was made to protect the health of the players and staff.” And again according to City, the origin of the problems would be in the trip to Arsenal a week ago for the Carabao Cup: the night in London at the hotel would have exposed the team to a high risk of contagion. Tomorrow there will be other tests, in a very difficult context: today there were 41,385 new cases in England, with 357 deaths.

Classification

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Everton thus lost the opportunity to climb to the top of the table for at least two nights (in the company of Liverpool, which in that case would have had a game less than the Toffees). Ancelotti’s team is -3 from the top of the standings, with a 3-point lead – and one more run – over Guardiola’s.