I don't know why this decision has taken so long to be reached, but finally this evening it was announced that Saints trip to Villa Park will go ahead on Friday evening.

Seven of the 10 Premier League fixtures this weekend will be played, with three matches postponed due to events surrounding The Queen’s funeral.

On Friday evening Saints clash with Aston Villa up in the West Midlands will go ahead as planned with an 8pm kick off and the game shown live on Sky Sports.

Also played on Friday evening will be the Nottingham Forest V Fulham fixture.

Brighton V Crystal Palace was already postponed before the events of last Thursday due to issues with the parking etc around the Amex, but the following games will be played.
12:30 Wolves v Man City (BT Sport)
15:00 Newcastle v AFC Bournemouth
17:30 Spurs v Leicester City (Sky Sports)

Also postponed on Sunday will be Chelsea V Liverpool and Manchester United V Leeds United. The game at Stamford Bridge due to policing and security surrounding the funeral the following day and the game at Old Trafford due to Manchester police being stretched due to members of the force being seconded down to London for the lead up and day of the funeral.

But although the Met police can't let Chelsea go ahead they can allow Brentford only a few miles away to proceed with their game against Arsenal, although obviously there will only be less than half of the attendance there would have been at Stamford Bridge.

Likewise Everton V West Ham up on Merseyside will also take place.

It is right that football returns this weekend, but why did the Premier League take so long to sort things out, the EFL announced their fixtures would be taking place as early as Sunday morning, yet nothing from the Premier League until Monday evening at 5.30pm.

Yes there were issues with some of the fixtures, but they could have confirmed those that would be ok to play a lot earlier.

Photo: Action Images via Reuters