Tottenham manager Antonio Conte expressed his surprise at the north London derby being called off last weekend as he labelled the Premier League's decision 'strange'.
Top-flight officials accepted the Gunners request to postpone the tantalising showdown at the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium
Sportsmail exclusively revealed a day earlier that the depleted Gunners had filed an application for the clash with bitter rivals Spurs to be cancelled.
Antonio Conte expressed his surprise at the north London derby being called off last weekend
They had at least a dozen players unavailable because of positive Covid cases, injuries, suspension and international duty at the Africa Cup of Nations.
And the Premier League accepted Arsenal's request on Saturday, with Spurs left furious as a result.
Conte, speaking ahead of Spurs' rearranged clash with Leicester on Wednesday night, said: 'I think the club made a statement and they showed our disappointment at the decision. It was a strange decision.
'I must admit that this is the first time in my life that a league postponed games due to injuries. I'm very surprised.
'My feeling is that when there is the situation to play you have to play. Normally to postpone games is due to international duty.
'We have a big problem to solve that is Covid, but only in this situation. For other situations, honestly this is my first time in my life.'
Sunday's showdown between Spurs and Arsenal was postponed after Gunners' request
The Premier League announced the postponement on Saturday afternoon, apologising to fans and stressing it aims to cause as little disruption as possible while keeping fans informed of developments.
Tottenham reacted angrily to the decision, which they described as 'extremely surprising'.
The Spurs statement read: 'We are extremely surprised that this application has been approved.
'We ourselves were disqualified from the European Conference League after a significant number of Covid cases meant we needed to reschedule a fixture and our application to move
