LIVERPOOL, England – Arsenal manager Mikel Arteta has said there is a “possibility” that Sunday’s north London derby against Tottenham in the Premier League could be postponed after the Gunners were left with just 12 players in form following further COVID-19 and injury concerns following Thursday’s 0-0 draw with Liverpool in the first leg of the Carabao Cup semi-final at Anfield.

Arsenal lost midfielder Martin Odegaard to a positive COVID test shortly before kick-off, while Cedric Soares and Bukayo Saka both limped off with injuries during the game. Meanwhile, a red card for midfielder Granit Xhaka means the Swiss player is automatically out of the game at the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium.

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Premier League rules say teams must complete matches if they have 14 players – 13 outfielders and a goalkeeper – available to play, although some clubs have failed to postpone matches in recent weeks because their absences were largely due to injuries rather than COVID.

But while Arteta hopes the Spurs clash will continue, the Arsenal manager has raised doubts as he admitted his concerns about his squad’s lack of available players.

“[Postponement] is a possibility in every game, on our side and on the opponents’ side with the problems that everyone is having and it happens every week,” Arteta said. “But we are trying to prepare for the game thinking that we are going to play.

“We came here and we were missing nine or 10 players. We don’t know what to expect the next day, so we can’t watch that.

“We can’t use it as an excuse. We have to play games, it’s our job and it can change to be in a more difficult position. But we have players that I have decided to play and we will try to do the same on Sunday.”

England striker Saka came off in the 81st minute at Anfield but Arteta hoped the 20-year-old could recover quickly.

“He felt something at the last minute,” Arteta said. “He was really tired, I don’t know. He recovers quite quickly, but he played a lot of minutes last month.”

A total of 18 Premier League games have not been played on their originally scheduled date due to COVID, with the vast majority yet to be rescheduled. Arsenal saw one game cancelled, while Tottenham saw two postponed, and another – at Burnley – was not played due to poor weather conditions.

And Thursday’s game at Anfield was originally supposed to be the second leg of the semi-final, but the venues changed when last week’s meeting was postponed due to a coronavirus outbreak in Liverpool.