Did the Premier League do Tottenham a favour in postponing the NLD?

Clearly, the responsibility for the postponement of the north London derby is entirely on Arsenal FC, however, did Tottenham catch a break with the day off?

There is no doubt it is Arsenal that benefits most from the postponement, as the depleted Gunners truly were going to struggle to field a senior squad. Tottenham Hotspur now has four fixtures to make up following yet another unexpectedly postponed match. Those matches will certainly cause some unwanted fixture congestion down the road but there may be a small silver lining for Spurs from the match not being played.

Tottenham vs Leicester lacking in competitive fairness?

When looking at competitive fairness, a big part of it is having teams play similar schedules so one team is not exceedingly fresher than the other team. Why exactly Spurs were rescheduled against Leicester when two other matches had previously been postponed is anyone’s guess but there is no doubt Leicester has an advantage coming in.

Since the start of the new year, just 15 days ago as of this writing, Tottenham Hotspur has already played four games and Arsenal would have made it five in 16 days.

During that same stretch where Tottenham has played four games on three different fronts – the Carabao Cup, the FA Cup, and in the Premier League – Leicester City has played exactly one match, a 4-1 win over Watford in the FA Cup. Each of the last two Premier League games for Leicester was postponed meaning the Foxes will have had 11 days off before playing Spurs midweek.

On the one hand, we have a team that has played every three days for two weeks and on the other, we have a team that has played once over that same fortnight. Yep, that is competitive fairness Premier League style.

Spurs catch a small break with a break

That said, getting a few extra days for players like Harry Kane to recover from the Carabao Cup semi-finals and for defenders Eric Dier and Cristian Romero to return from injury certainly benefits Tottenham Hotspur. Likewise, giving Sergio Reguilon and Steven Bergwijn more time to recover, benefits Tottenham.

Outside of the absence of Heung-min Son, Spurs may be close to full strength for Leicester, which seemed quite unlikely a few days ago.

Am I upset about the north London derby being delayed for squad mismanagement? You darn right I am. However, maybe unbeknownst to us at first glance, the league really did do Spurs a solid in giving the team the weekend off.

Those extra days to recover players to face a ridiculously fresh Leicester squad may be exactly what Tottenham needs and may actually help restore some competitive balance to an otherwise unbalanced season.