It has been confirmed that Arsenal’s clash with Brighton, due to take place on Saturday, has been postponed after Gunners boss Mikel Arteta tested positive for coronavirus on Thursday.
Arsenal have confirmed that both the London Colney and Hale End training facilities have been closed and the Guardian reports that the entire first-team squad and coaching staff will now self-isolate for 14 days from the moment they last had close contact with the boss. It is said as many as 100 staff could be forced to do the same.
The Premier League have convened an emergency meeting for tomorrow in which they will discuss next steps. Given that football has been suspended or is being played behind closed doors in a number of leagues across the continent it wouldn’t be surprising if the same happened here.
Regarding the late postponement of Saturday’s match at the AMEX, Brighton’s chief executive Paul Barber said: “First and foremost our thoughts are with Mikel Arteta and we wish him a speedy recovery.
“It’s absolutely essential the health and wellbeing of individuals takes priority and with that in mind Saturday’s match has been postponed.
“We apologise to all fans for any inconvenience but trust everyone will understand that we are all facing an unprecedented situation.
“The Premier League has announced this evening that they will convene an emergency meeting of all clubs tomorrow morning, and we will update supporters on future fixtures as and when we are in a position to do so.”
Five members of Arsenal’s first team squad had spent the last 48 hours self-isolating having come into contact with Olympiacos owner Evangelos Marinakis. The Greek, who was in attendance at the Emirates on the night his side knocked us out of the Europa League, confirmed this week that he’d tested positive for the virus.
It is understood that Mikel Arteta did not have contact with Marinakis.
Unsurprisingly, Academy fixtures are also affected. The under-23s’ showdown with Sp*rs, scheduled for Friday, is off as are games involving the under-18s and under-16s.
Surely all games need to be postponed? I feel for the clubs in the lower leagues who can’t take the financial hit a long break might cost them.
But more so for anyone, including our brilliant young manager, who has the virus.
Speedy recovery, Mikel. Will say a prayer for you tonight.
Mikel is young and healthy he should recover fast. Wonder what would have happened is old Mr. Wenger was in his place.
Wenger is as fit as the players and I’ve rarely seen him sick over the 22 years.
What about big Sam, Roy Hodgson and other senior managers
Hudson Odoi from Chelsea just tested positively. I am fairly sure they will have to cancel.
70000 out of the 120000 confirmed cases have recovered. He’ll be alright.
And if he’s in the 40,000…. those percentages are not very good.
That doesn’t mean (5)0000 have died, just that they are still infected. Of the 120000 total infected (yesterday’s stats) 4000 have died mostly the old and immunosuppresed. They should be the ones protected the most, the rest of us should be able to fight it off. Children 0-10 don’t even show symptoms (they can still carry it)
The vast majority of the 40k will also recover.
Convene for what?
The announcement should be first and foremost that “Football has been suspended with immediate effect”.
Then they can announce another stupid statement of how they can please their sponsors….I mean “emergency meeting of all clubs”
Should be a video conference unless they never heard of these Proximity reducing tactics
Bad news. Sport seems to be f*cked atm. Man City and Arsenal each with two games cancelled, more to come I’m sure.
Good luck Mikel and the rest of the PL managers and players (except Sp*rs).
Lack of depth perception/ Poor perspective. The entire world is at war
Local rivalry is suspended during this also. Hoping the boss makes a full recovery and wish everyone good health, Sp*rs personnel included
The UK government IMO has tried to keep the economy going rather than slowing the spread by not bringing in measures to delay the spread. Hence, the impact is haphazard.
Need not be a total lock down but there should be reduced contact.
The NHS is still overwhelmed by winter peak and can’t deal with the coronavirus peak now. It’s inevitable but needs to be delayed as much as possible into spring.
There is going to be a bigger economic impact by the current government approach.
It’s global problems like this pandemic that throw into focus how flawed the world’s socioeconomic system is.
F*ck Capitalist Globalism!
You do realise how a professional football club operates?
Each government have selfishly prioritised their economy when it came to their turn to properly report Covid, obviously starting with China.
I’d give china a break. It was a brand new virus. There was absolutely no data on it. They went on full scale lockdown within a month 50 million people ordered to stay indoors and you’ll be fined if caught outside.
The rest of the world had 2-3 montths to prepare because of China’s extreme measures and data from China yet you can see how no big country is handling it properly yet.
Define “properly”. As far as I can see, if you’re going to get it, you’re going to get it. There’s no vaccine or wonder cure, so every countermeasure being trotted out is some form of pointless delaying tactic.
The public likes the idea of their government “doing something”, so governments are doing something rather than sitting on their hands, which would probably be as effective long term.
Like Boris Johnson said : Take it on the chin? China is always going to be the scapegoat in this pandemi, but as db10
pointed out the rest of the world has reacted atrociously
slowly and indefinitely to the crisis- as in (eerr,what crisis?) In
Denmark where I live,there has been literally minimal control with people’s movement- Italians arriving from Milan just
being allowed to move freely in public places and transport,
and Dane being asked politly to ‘go into self isolation’…And
now the hoarding has started..
Pointless delay tactic? This shows you truly don’t understand what health officials are trying to do. The best option now is to delay it. Because there isn’t a nation in the world that can cope with the rate of infection. Instead of having 5,000-10,000 people infected in a month they are trying to spread it out into maybe 2-3 months because hospitals won’t have enough beds/resources to cope otherwise. It’s like Italy now having to choose who lives and dies because there isn’t enough beds,staff, ventilators etc etc. The difference it makes could be you getting treatment in a hospital… Read more »
I guess it may seem like an easy thing to point fingers but I can’t help feeling that the UK gov has missed the opportunity to get ahead of this outbreak. If Arteta tests positive and is not linked to the owner of Olympiakos, that says a lot about how widespread this covid 19 disease really is. Some trying times ahead friends.
Trying times ahead. The best the individual can do (in my opinion) now is eat more ‘godly’ (I don’t go to church, so not pushing some endtimes crack here).
I would imagine I was balancing my fluids/electrolytes with strong natural elements gotten from real food, fruits, drinks etc Give your body a chance to fight (compare to your cells swimming in Coca cola, fighting)
You are what you eat. Less is more
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2020/mar/13/how-taiwan-is-containing-coronavirus-despite-diplomatic-isolation-by-china
Report on how the country right next to china has reacted.
I think we should have learn’t a thing or two from them
I read that,too,Dave- a good read indeed
“It is understood that Mikel Arteta did not have contact with Marinakis”
Which possibly means Mikel caught it off one of the ‘5’. Really worrying this, but at least they’re fit, young and healthy.
I don’t think we should speculate how he caught it. We don’t know. We may never know. At this point, it doesn’t matter.
I think it might matter if others have it, to be fair.
Could have easily been a relative or friend from Spain or anywhere else at this point.
It does matter to trace his contacts prior to the infection and try to figure out how he may have gotten infected so as to protect others who may also have been in contact with the source and could be at risk of also being infected and transmitting the virus further. However, we shouldn’t be speculating that he got infected from one of the 5 people who were in contact with Marinakis. They may or may not be positive and it remains plausible that Mikel may have contracted it from somewhere else. If so, knowing where that somewhere else is… Read more »
Yeah man, I only said ‘possibly’.
Maybe he was next to a Sh*t supporter in a queue!
Either in shock or yet incapable to realise the danger. That would be a function of age or iono. You could lose loved older ones at least and you’re making football jokes ?
Nonsense, the virus simply can’t handle the intensity and pace of the premier league, we shouldn’t stop games for it. Yeah it’s closed down Italy but could it do that on a wet windy night at Stoke? Coronavirus has never been to Anfield, it’s never seen anything like it before…
In all seriousness, it’s crazy the league hasn’t already been postponed, serious head in sand stuff!
That Coronavirus won’t get the time and space in the Premier League that it had in other countries. If it’s not prepared to leave everything on the pitch and give 110%, 200% of the time, then it’ll never make it.
Haha. Better than last one
Now that’s more like it!
It’s a good job for this virus that it didn’t enter the bloodstreams of our players from the 80s/early 90s. It would’ve died of alcohol poisoning.
Haha. Though Seriously alcohol should be avoided completely now. Feed your body stuff that it can fight with (how insightful ??♂️)
Bollocks to that. If we’re going to be stuck in the house then I’m stocking up on all god’s finest creations.
Amen.
I prefer cannabis, can’t wait to learn how cannabis-lungs hold against the pneumonia ?
Get well soon Mikael! Seriously though, isn’t it the most Arsenal thing ever that out of 67 million odd people in the UK, Arteta is one of the 500 who has it!
Ooh if you believe the 500 statistic then I have a beautiful beachside house in North London to sell you
sorry…*diagnosed
The numbers are a lot lot higher
According to the UK’s Chief Scientific Adviser they’ve stopped giving out the numbers of infected due to the impracticality of testing everyone.
Just popped over to see what Liverpool fans are saying on one of their forums.
Seems that they’re mostly shouting that Euro 2020 should be cancelled so we can all extend the league season for them (if we break for a month or so).
And to hell with all the countries and their fans, all over Europe, looking forward to a major international football tournament.
It’s all about them, of course.
Sending my magic hearing powers to Mikel.
From that persective, binning the league season now would be truly hilarious. Even moreso for supporters of Everton, who face the possibility of Liverpool clinching the titleagainst them.
It probably is the right decision though – with the amount of money that even small position changes can make, every team would be liable to sue the Premier League if it stops now. Bournemouth would be relegated despite being level on points with Watford with 9 games left – should they accept that? We could move above Spurs if we win our game in hand, but if the league is called off what happens? There is a relatively simple precedent for postponing tournaments and matches, but not for leaving a league unfinished.
Whatever else is decided by the league, that’s AFC playing 0 matches for the next two weeks at least. Our weekends just freed up. Get a jump on your spring cleaning, is my advice. You’ll be home anyway.
Hudson Odoi at Chelsea also tested positive and Mendy + 3 Leicester players in isolation. Surely no way the league can finish?
Surely they need to check west ham, Portsmouth and anyone they’ve played as well now, maybe even time to think about suspending the whole league
Weirdest season ever.
Get well soon Boss.
As for the premier league perhaps a Fifa 20 e-sports showdown to finish the league off ? Each club picks their best Fifa 20 player and it is broadcast on Sky Sports. 🙂
Mikel, the news shocked me. Wish you quick recovery. Best wishes
This is a devastating situation. My wife and a lot of my family and friends work for the red and white. All of them on minimum wage and/or zero hours contracts. Shutting down the league affects the poorest in so many ways. Exposure to the virus yes but not being paid is also devastating. Football clubs can be one of the biggest employers in the town and Arsenal is no exception, you should see a match day from behind the scenes. Full and part time staff,catering contracts and freelance television staff. Some households may never recover from this. To shut… Read more »