The Premier League season will resume on 17 June, with Manchester City’s meeting with Arsenal one of the first matches to be played.
As the Telegraph first reported and Goal has been able to confirm, Aston Villa’s home clash with Sheffield United is another that will mark the return of the English top flight, with both those matches the two games in hand that were not played prior to the coronavirus pandemic halting football.
A full fixture list will then be played on the weekend of 19-21 June, with the agreement coming after Premier League clubs met on Thursday to continue discussions over Project Restart.
The Premier League are hoping to have the 2019-20 campaign wrapped up by 2 August, with the FA Cup final then scheduled to take place a week later on the weekend of 8-9 August.
The decision was made to temporarily suspend the season on 13 March after both Arsenal head coach Mikel Arteta and Chelsea winger Callum Hudson-Odoi had tested positive for Covid-19.
There was initial hope that the Premier League would be able to get back under way in April, although the devastation of the coronavirus pandemic and uncertainties over the safety and welfare of players, staff and fans led to an indefinite delay.
England’s top-flight league has since been formulating a plan to resume the 2019-20 season – where all but four teams have nine matches left to play – with Project Restart seeing various meetings and discussions taking place over how best to safely reintroduce the Premier League.
In the most recent developments three rounds of coronavirus testing have been completed, with the latest results, for tests conducted between 25 May and 26 May, reporting four positive Covid-19 cases.
Players have also been given the green light to resume contact training as the Premier League gets ready to welcome back football in England, with there still no formal announcement having been made.
Liverpool remain just two wins away from sealing the Premier League title, while should Villa beat Sheffield United in their game in hand, they will move out of the bottom three.
There is also an intriguing battle to finish in the top four, with Leicester City and Chelsea currently occupying third and fourth, respectively, ahead of Ole Gunnar Solskjaer’s Manchester United who are in fifth.
The return of the Bundesliga in Germany has helped pave the way for other top-flight European leagues to follow suit, with LaLiga due to resume on 8 June.
There has been no announcement of the resumption of the Champions League or Europa League at this stage, although Lyon president Jean-Michel Aulas has previously suggested his side’s tie with Juventus had been pencilled in for 7 August.
While the majority are seemingly in favour of the Premier League returning, there are those that remain uncomfortable with the situation, with the likes of Danny Rose, Sergio Aguero, Antonio Rudiger and Troy Deeney having voiced their concerns over the restart.
