The Athletic

Hello, I'm Mark Chapman, welcome to the Athletic Football Podcast, Adam Crafton, with us as usual.

We'll be joined by David Ornstein to discuss the off-field dispute

that led to Pierre Emmerich-O-Bamiang

being dropped from Arsul's Match Day squad at the weekend.

And we'll also talk to the Athletics Crystal Palace writer Matt Wuznam

after an important win for Patrick Villariside

against Everton at Selhurst Park

with Connor Gallagher, the Star Man.

So before we start with the football itself, across the country here in the UK, COVID cases arising.

It is affecting English football and the Premier League, Adam Crafton and David Ornstein, both with us.

In the last 24 hours, David has reported outbreaks at Aston Villa and Manchester United.

Adam has written an explainer answering the questions.

A lot of fans and people involved in the game will have right now.

What's the most pressing question?

Whether games will be called off, presumably. I mean, the issue at the moment is it's the busiest part of the season.

And you've got midweek games this week, then you've got weekend, and obviously go into the

run of games over Christmas. And that's the problem really that the Premier League has. And, you know,

on Sunday alone, Manchester United were forced to reduce the intensity of

their training sessions to outdoor individual non-contact session after a small number of positives

following the game against Norwich on Saturday. And then Aston Villa also had a recovery

session scheduled for a few players, which couldn't go ahead and their training ground was closed

...