Man City’s Carabao Cup semi-final with Manchester United will be postponed rather than cancelled if required

Manchester City will retest their players on Tuesday following the Covid-19 outbreak that resulted in their Premier League match with Everton being postponed, but they are not yet at risk of having Sunday’s trip to Chelsea and the Carabao Cup semi-final with Manchester United cancelled.

City issued a request to the Premier League on Monday morning to postpone their evening trip to Goodison Park after receiving further positive test results, having already seen Gabriel Jesus, Kyle Walker and two staff members test positive on Christmas Day.

It’s understood that City have received several more positive test results and the club has closed its training ground for the foreseeable future until the outbreak is brought under control, although Everton have requested “full disclosure” from the Premier League about City’s request after raising questions about the events that led to the game being called off just hours before kick-off.

With City unable to field a full team safely, the Premier League approved the request to postpone the match, but attentions have quickly turned to their upcoming fixtures against Chelsea and United and whether they will go ahead or not.

READ MORE: Furious Everton demand ‘full disclosure’ over postponed City game

The Premier League is awaiting the results of Tuesday’s latest round of testing at City before making any decision on Sunday’s game at Stamford Bridge, although a statement expressed their “full confidence” in the Covid protocols and rules and “the way in which all clubs are implementing them”. Officials are understood to be confident of that game going ahead as planned as there is enough time to carry out extensive testing before the match takes place, which wasn’t the case with the Everton clash.

However, should the worse happen and City’s results come back with substantially more positives, the Premier League may have to consider postponing the match - and that would throw next week’s Carabao Cup semi-final against United into doubt.

With the semi-finals this season reduced to a one-leg affair due to the shortened season length, the prospect of the game coming under threat from Covid-related issues would prove problematic not just for City, but for the EFL. Earlier rounds of the Carabao Cup saw teams who were unable to fulfil a fixture forfeit the match as the regulations stated the compressed schedule meant postponements were not an option for the 2020/21 campaign.

But that was only the case until the quarter-finals, with the EFL’s regulations clarifying that any game from the fifth round onwards that is unable to be completed can be postponed with provision for “reasonable endeavours to rearrange the fixture for the earliest reasonable opportunity”.

Rule 5.3 states:

If, a Club is unable to fulfil its obligation to complete a Competition match in Round Five and/or the Semi-Final round due to either:

- the Club’s Player(s) having returned a positive CAT result and self-isolating in accordance with the action plan set out in the Return to Play/Return to Training Protocols resulting in both Clubs not having a sufficient number of Players to fulfil the fixture; or

- any requirements or directions of the UK Government and/or by any public authority,

then the Management Committee shall use its reasonable endeavours to rearrange the fixture for the earliest reasonable opportunity (including but not limited to arranging for the match to be played at a neutral venue).

Where the Management Committee determine that the fixture cannot be rearranged the Management Committee shall have the power to declare that the fixture shall be abandoned. Where the Management Committee declare that the fixture shall be abandoned, the Club shall forfeit the fixture, pay the opposing Club’s expenses in accordance with Rule 5.8 and the opposing Club shall receive a bye into the next round of the Competition.

With the Carabao Cup final pushed back to April in the hope that fans will be allowed into Wembley Stadium for the occasion, there should be enough time to try and slot in the rearranged fixture with United if required.

The issue is muddied slightly by the need to rearrange other fixtures. At present, City’s first gap in the calendar comes in the week commencing Monday 18 January. With the FA Cup fourth round scheduled for the end of the week, City could face Everton in midweek before turning to any cup commitments. But should the game against Chelsea also need rearranging, the next available slot - should City progress to the FA Cup fifth round - is not until the middle of February, which would create a slot between the back-to-back games against Tottenham and Arsenal, just a week on from facing Liverpool at Anfield and a week before their Champions League last-16 clash with Borussia Monchengladbach.

If that were to be the case, and the Carabao Cup semi-final also needed rearranging, City’s next opening in the calendar is not until the start of March, just days before United are due to visit the Etihad Stadium in the Premier League.