Marcelo Bielsa says Leeds United's game against Arsenal had to go ahead despite 10 players missing

Every other scheduled game featured at least one game with a club unable to raise a sufficiently strong team to play. In European competition that is defined as 13 players including a goalkeeper, in the Football League 14. The Premier League looks at incidents on a case-by-case basis.

Their depleted side was beaten 4-1.

"The rules don't contemplate the amount of injuries for a game to be suspended," he pointed out, even if we had 10 players less. One was through suspension (to Junior Firpo) and one through illness (Diego Llorente has Covid-19) and the rest were through injury."

Liam Cooper, Pascal Struijk, Kalvin Phillips, Jamie Shackleton, Patrick Bamford, Rodrigo, Dan James and Charlie Cresswell were all injured, the latter picking up a problem in training having been earmarked to play.

Jack Harrison picked up a knock - though one he is expected to recover from.

Leeds are having a horrendous run of luck.

"On Thursday in the last minute of a practice that was informal a team-mate fell on Cresswell, who was going to play, it provoked an injury that is complex," said Bielsa. "Today the player who looks after his health the most in the whole squad (Llorente), a squad where all of the players are double- or triple-vaccinated, gets ill. Though a run of form that is so negative that we are going through.

"It is constructed through these types of episodes, like a goal in the minute 93 against Chelsea (and) a result that is difficult to imagine like at City. In games like today in the second half it was more probable to be 3-2 rather than 4-1, the 4-1 is produced. There were problems that usually are resolved but in this case they are not."

At least Harrison's injury is not serious.

"It's just a big, painful knock below his hip," explained his coach. "It's a knock that prevents you from continuing to play but they're not injuries that take long to recover from. He was on the pitch for 30 minutes when he really couldn't play."

Unlike most his injured players' recovery periods, Bielsa said: "Bamford and James are not that long but I can't tell you if they're going to be available against Liverpool (in Leeds's next game, at Anfield on Boxing Day)."

The Premier League clubs are due to meet on Monday to discuss their response to the growing number of Covid-19 infections and its knock-on effect on the fixture list. The next round of fixtures is not until Boxing Day, although there are League Cup quarter-finals in midweek. Arsenal knocked the Whites out of the competition.

Meanwhile, opposite number Mikel Arteta confirmed an allegation of racist abuse was reported to the officials. A Gunners substitute warming up in front of the West Stand heard it and complained to his manager. Leeds are already under investigation for the behaviour of their fans in the recent draw with Brentford.