15 January 2022: “Tottenham have been left furious after the Premier League accepted Arsenal’s request to call off Sunday’s north London derby, believing rules regarding coronavirus-related postponements have been manipulated to create “unintended consequences”. Arsenal would have been without at least 15 first-teamers for their visit to Tottenham Hotspur Stadium and requested the postponement because they felt they would be unable to meet the league’s criteria for fulfilling a fixture… Spurs criticised the rules’ inconsistency.” (The Guardian)
The league table at that moment showed Arsenal 21 points behind Manchester City
| P | W | D | L | F | A | GD | Pts | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Manchester City | 22 | 18 | 2 | 2 | 54 | 13 | 41 | 56 |
| 2 | Chelsea | 22 | 12 | 7 | 3 | 45 | 17 | 28 | 43 |
| 3 | Liverpool | 20 | 12 | 6 | 2 | 52 | 18 | 34 | 42 |
| 4 | West Ham United | 21 | 11 | 4 | 6 | 39 | 27 | 12 | 37 |
| 5 | Arsenal | 20 | 11 | 2 | 7 | 33 | 25 | 8 | 35 |
| 6 | Tottenham Hotspur | 18 | 10 | 3 | 5 | 23 | 20 | 3 | 33 |
One year later, to the day (and before the day’s games) Arsenal were five points clear of Manchester City at the top of the league and with a game in hand ahead of… the north London derby.