This Tuesday, the Premier League changed the schedule of the final rounds. This is the tournament's practice after domestic cups such as the League Cup or FA Cup end or teams are selected for the final.
The biggest disadvantage is Man City, but this is not something unfair. Pep Guardiola's team has won the League Cup and is preparing to play in the FA Cup final. They had a lot of rest before that in the Premier League weekend rounds to serve these two arenas. Now is the time for The Citizens to make up for a lot, but perhaps they themselves did not think the schedule would be so close.
Specifically, there are two matches of Man City against Crystal Palace and Bournemouth that must be rearranged. The Premier League determines that the Etihad Stadium team will have to play these two matches on May 14 and May 20 (Vietnam time). Interspersed between these two matches is the FA Cup final with Chelsea on May 16. Thus, within 6 days, Man City must play 3 matches and each match is extremely important.
Crystal Palace has their own schedule in the Conference League, with the first and second leg semi-finals against Shakhtar Donetsk in May. This means they cannot play against Man City in the week starting from May 4. Meanwhile, UEFA does not want Nottingham's match against Bournemouth to coincide with the Europa League final on May 21, especially since Nottingham Forest may be present because they have reached the semi-finals. This match has been postponed to May 24, the last day of the Premier League season.
Man City understands that their entry into the FA Cup and League Cup finals will certainly disrupt the Premier League schedule. However, The Citizens anticipated this and announced it early to the Premier League organizers. However, in the end, they still had to play 3 matches in 6 days.
On February 5th, when Man City defeated Newcastle in the League Cup semi-finals, they understood that the match against Crystal Palace would be postponed. They believed that the principle of postponing the match to the earliest possible time was not followed in this case. The reason for such arguments is because Man City looked at the example of the match against Burnley, which coincided with the FA Cup semi-final and was postponed earlier.
Man City has offered to play the away match against Bournemouth on May 12 and host Crystal Palace at home a week later, which would give them two home games to end the season.
There have been many negotiations about the order and exact dates of matches lasting weeks but there has been no good result for the Etihad home team. The Premier League has cited a principle that all FA Cup semi-final teams should play matches that have been postponed in the week before the semi-final, but Man City pointed out that there is no such principle in the rules.
Things became even more complicated when UEFA wanted to keep May 21 open to avoid coinciding with the Europa League final. Man City also proposed playing the match against Bournemouth the next night to have more time to recover after the cup final. This option once seemed feasible but was eventually rejected by the Premier League.
Regarding the match against Crystal Palace, Man City has proposed last week, this week and next week as possible options. This week and next week are not suitable for Crystal Palace's European schedule, while last week caused difficulties because of Crystal Palace's match with West Ham on Monday evening.
The Premier League is ready to postpone that match to Sunday so that Man City can play against Crystal Palace last week if they are eliminated from the FA Cup by Liverpool. This makes Man City have a tight schedule at the end of the season, including a trip to London to play in the FA Cup final against Chelsea on May 16. After that, they return to Manchester on the same evening and another south trip to Bournemouth immediately afterwards.
Man City is used to playing important matches in quick succession under Pep Guardiola. They have a squad with enough depth to make changes in different leagues. But with this schedule, this is not an ideal scenario at all for Guardiola and his players. It makes the chance of winning the Premier League and FA Cup more difficult.
