UPDATE: Arsenal-Manchester City rescheduled for next week

UPDATE (3/4, 11 AM): The match has been rescheduled for Wednesday, March 11th at 3:30 PM ET.

Mikel Arteta may have his Manchester City homecoming sooner than expected. Arsenal-Manchester City at the Etihad was scheduled for this past weekend, but with both clubs still in the FA Cup, the matchup was postponed. Premier League officials have reportedly contacted both teams about rescheduling the match for this coming Wednesday, March 11th because it is an open date on both of their schedules.

Logistically, playing the match on the first available open date makes sense. As noted, both teams are still in the FA Cup, and Manchester City is still in the Champions League. The longer the match goes unscheduled, the more likely it is to run into other conflicts. The FA Cup Quarterfinals has forced the postponement of Arsenal-Southampton originally scheduled for March 22nd, and I expect Manchester City to get past Sheffield Wednesday, which means they will have an additional Premier League match to reschedule as well.

Playing this coming Wednesday would give Arsenal, who play West Ham on Saturday, an extra day off in comparison to Manchester City, who play Manchester United on Sunday. That said, City played one fewer match in February and have a deeper team than Arsenal, who were starting to look leggy. Fortunately, Mikel Arteta was able to heavily rotate the Gunners against Portsmouth. So who knows. Arsenal are going to have to play Manchester City at the Etihad sometime, might as well get it over with.