Manchester City have been given a favourable fixture list surrounding their Champions League last-16 clash with RB Leipzig.
City were paired with the Germans after topping their Champions League group, and will travel to the Red Bull Arena on Wednesday February 22 for the first leg, before welcoming Leipzig to the Etihad on Tuesday March 14. With those fixtures confirmed, City can start to plan out their new year fixture list.
The away fixture follows a trip to Nottingham Forest and City then travel to Bournemouth after returning from Germany. The home game comes after a trip to Crystal Palace, and is followed by a home clash to West Ham. Had the two ties been scheduled a week before, the games before would have been slightly more difficult clashes with Aston Villa and Newcastle.
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However, the confirmed Champions League fixtures have seen Tottenham's tie with AC Milan scheduled for opposite weeks, there is now no clear opportunity to fit in two outstanding Premier League fixtures that still need to be rearranged. City's clash with Spurs in September was postponed after Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth passed away, while the knock-on effects from postponements around the royal funeral caused City's trip to Premier League leaders Arsenal to be postponed, too.
Now, if City get to the FA Cup and Carabao Cup finals, and continue to progress in the Champions League, there appears to be no further free midweek slots to play the two outstanding games - as first highlighted by ESPN.
City's Christmas fixture list sees City face Leeds, Everton and Chelsea in the space of eight days, before an FA Cup third round tie and a potential Carabao Cup quarter-final if they progress through two ties in the competition between this week and January 10. The following midweek is reserved for FA Cup replays, and is unlikely to see either Premier League fixture rearranged there at such short notice.
Then, if either side reaches the Carabao Cup semi-finals, the following two weeks will be taken up by those two-legged games, with FA Cup fourth round and potential replays also factored in around the end of January and beginning of February.
Then, Spurs take on AC Milan in their Champions League last-16 first leg while City have a week off, before the Blues have their first leg the week after.
The situation is reversed a fortnight later, after a possible FA Cup fifth-round tie, taking away two possible weeks to play the Premier League fixture with Spurs as both sides play on opposite weeks.
After that follows an international break, possible Champions League quarter-finals should City or Spurs get there, and a Premier League round of games towards the end of April. In May, two weeks are reserved for Champions League semi-finals.
The only three vacant midweek slots to play the Arsenal or Tottenham games could therefore be on the weeks commencing April 3, May 1 or May 22. However, all three are pencilled in to host Premier League games postponed if a side reaches the Carabao Cup final, FA Cup quarter-finals and FA Cup semi-finals. If City, or Arsenal or Tottenham, get to those games, plus their respective European semi-finals, there could be no remaining options to play the outstanding games that currently need rescheduling.
Similarly, Liverpool need their fixture with Chelsea rearranging, but their Champions League last-16 games have been scheduled on opposite weeks. Other complications could arise if the games can be rearranged on a week where another competition takes priority with broadcasters, with scheduling issues preventing the fixtures from being played on ideal games.
The Arsenal fixture could theoretically be played on the week of February 13 when Spurs are in Champions League action and Arsenal wait for their Europa League last-16 tie - but again UEFA rules don't usually allow domestic games to be played on Champions League weeks, further complicating the equation.
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