Toffees want answers: Everton demand ‘full disclosure’ from Premier League after pivotal Manchester City match was postponed

Premier League high-fliers Everton have called on the Premier League to provide "full disclosure" of Manchester City's reasons for being unable to fulfill their league clash on December 28, calling the game off at short notice.

The match between the Toffees, who started the day in second place in the Premier League table, and City, who sit three points behind them in eighth, was all set to go ahead at Goodison Park despite City losing a number of their squad to positive COVID tests in the lead-up to the match.

City had reported four positive tests on Christmas Day, including striker Gabriel Jesus and defender Kyle Walker. Then, just hours away from kick-off at Goodison Park, City stated that they had returned a number of additional positive tests. The match was subsequently postponed at the 11th hour by the Premier League, leaving Everton demanding full answers about the legitimacy of the postponement.

Premier League rules state that a match cannot be postponed unless a team has fewer than 14 players available. That would require a huge outbreak within City's ranks in order to make such a postponement justifiable under Premier League rules and, in a statement, Everton have demanded to know exactly why the game was called off.

"Everton Football Club regret the postponement of tonight’s match against Manchester City - not only for the 2,000 fans who would have been attending, but for supporters on Merseyside and across the world," the statement began.

"Our players were prepared for the game, as were both the team staff and everyone at Goodison. Matchday is the most important date in our calendar. And this was a big one.

"While Everton will always have public safety uppermost, we will be requesting full disclosure of all the information that Manchester City provided to the Premier League so the club can be clear on why this decision was taken."

City are scheduled to face Chelsea at Stamford Bridge on January 3 before taking on Manchester United in a league cup semi-final clash three days later.