Arsenal will face Man City on Saturday without Mikel Arteta in the dug-out after the Arsenal boss tested positive for Covid-19.
In a statement on the official website, the club say:
Mikel Arteta will miss our match against Manchester City on New Year’s Day after testing positive for COVID-19.
Mikel is isolating in line with Government guidelines and we wish him well.
It’s the second time this has happened to Arteta, back in March 2020 his diagnosis sparked the shutdown of football as the pandemic began in earnest.
It will obviously have an impact on match day, but also when it comes to preparation for the game as he is isolating.
There must also be a concern around the squad and staff in general as Arteta would have been in close contact with many of them over the last number of days.
As ever in these times we live in, the situation could change and develop rapidly in the coming hours.
For now, let’s hope he – and everyone else – remains healthy and not too badly affected.
Fuck, this aint it chief
I can’t believe City is already afraid and resulting to questionable tactics like the Spuds. They probably invented a mask with the looks of one of our players to pull this off.
Get well soon MA.
Wishing MA a quick recovery.
I’ve lost track, but who’s his #2 on the coaching staff?
Steve Round / Albert Stuivenberg
Hey Arseblog, since the Everton game, all of my comments say “awaiting for approval”, and it usually lasts for hours. The most I’ve seen is 17 hours.
Why is this?
Not sure – will have a look into it.
Much appreciated
Mine is the same, I’m usually waiting hours to get my comment approved.
If you see a laptop in Mikel’s seat then they’ve decided to let Stat DNA run the show.
Apparently it’s trying hard to recall Torreira for the match, or as it calls him “Kante Mark 2”.
I lol’d
Save us Stewart Houston
I predict a Rioch, I predict a Rioch.
Damn this covid
What I am about to say has nothing to do with the arsenal but as a man of the cloth, I feel it is my job to speak out. The world has obviously not learned the lessons of this pandemic. We need to come together as a species whose very existence is at risk and fight this thing. The world will never be safe until we are all vaccinated. The ‘rich’ nations should make vaccine available for the poor nations to vaccinate their populations because if not, there will be more mutations from the countries with low vaccination rates and… Read more »
No.
I’m from a country from so called men of coth have persecuted people simply because they are are different or belive otherwise so no.
Religion is the problem. I don’t think u will understand seeing that u r a motc. Since Kenya like all other African countries switched 2 digital tv, I think over 70% of free-to-air channels r on religion. Many as u guessed r snake oil salesmen. Many others r sponsored by evangelical Christian churches outta USA (n we all know what they r about: trump, qanon, misinformation etc). While I admit the developed world has hoarded vaccines, I have also seen countless batches being discarded due to hesitancy. My 2 cents is that it’s time we regulate religion
I happen to have spent a chunk of 2021 in Kenya and understand what you are talking about with the snake oil sales men evangelist on TV but I am.not on arseblog to evangelize or make new converts.
I am simply saying there should be more investment in Educating people to help change their minds about the vaccine, and the developed world should make more vaccine doses available to the poorer nations.
until the world makes a concerted push like what was done between the 50’s to the 90’s to combat polio, we are in for a rude awakening.
Yeah, this ain’t polio, it’s a bad flu
Agree with the sentiment of course, but rather it came from a credible organisation that was not historically evil and steeped in hypocrisy, assuming that this is a genuine post of course.
Bishop, I understand your sentiment but it’s not that simple. Pharmaceutical multinationals are heavily involved in the innoculation process and that is where much of the distrust stems from. We hear a lot about the successes of immunization efforts in developing countries but little is said about of (genuine) cases of medical negligence that occur. Not much is said about the Nigerian children who died from a botched meningitis vaccine trial (by Pfizer) that was ruled to have occurred without they or their parents consent. Not much is said about the Indian girls who died after a sketchy HPV vaccine… Read more »
Save it for Sunday, this is an arsenal website.
Amen 🙏
MA is fully vaccinated how come he got the virus if the vaccine is working? There is tablet for the virus why are you people clamoring for vaccines?
Geez, this is either the worse attempt at sarcasm, or just plain denseness. Seriously, go take some maths lessons and learn how probability and statistics work. They do it at primary school, so you might be able to work it out if you have a couple of brain cells to rub together.
Vaccines give RESISTANCE not immunity and oh I don’t know, possibly so we are less likely to infect and kill other people…just a guess
It’s a bit complicated but essentially when you’ve had a viral infection such as COVID-19, your body develops antibodies that will give you some level of immunity to catching it again. The degree to which you’re immune, and the length of time you’re immune for, varies between people. So, it’s possible to become infected again some time after a previous infection. Similarly, when you’re immunised against COVID-19, you develop antibodies against the virus, and that protects you (depending on the specific vaccine) to a great extent against severe illness and death, for a certain period of time. The point of… Read more »
Thanks for the info. Shows are mature than some other people who can not express themselves without using abusive language.
To be honest, i can’t blame peoples who has vaccine hesitancy and not trusting big pharma companies.
I know sounds crazy but what IF that’s the plan. Let the poor country unvaccinated and they can roll this pandemic for longest they want. Making trillion of $. As you said nothing has done, and a question is why.? The world is a cruel place my friend. Better to go back to football.
You’re right, it does sound crazy. That is the genuine stuff of conspiracy theorists.
Sure pharmas want to make money. But that is an entirely separate issue from the fact that vaccines are indeed proven to be effective. The studies prove it, the actual implementation proves it, the difference in hospitalization and death rates between vaccinated or not proves it.
The mathematics and statistics all say exactly the same thing. They work.
Pontificate somewhere else will ya.
He’s only a bishop not the big cheese so is unable to pontificate
In the Roman Catholic Church the word pontificate specifically includes the office of Bishop. So he can.
Common sense has everything to do with your message. Not being a man of the cloth. I respect your religion and sense of duty but it has nothing to do with your responsibility to just be a decent human being. There’s so much misinformation that people are directed towards completely the wrong opinions by those looking to preserve the things they care about (civil liberties etc) but they don’t seem to realise that by getting vaccinated they will get those back much quicker. There are so many ethical arguments about freedom of choice what we put in our bodies etc… Read more »
Missing for Man City game? Doesn’t fancy running the line with Pep again?
Reminiscent of Ozil back injury anytime we played up north midweek!
Only joking Mikel, stay healthy and isolated.
Stay safe!
What does that even mean? He already infected. Are you wishing him not to get hit by a runaway bus while he is isolating at home??
That joke was worse than the shit ones in my Christmas crackers and that’s saying something.
So how much does not-having-a-manager weigh into the Premiere League’s Covid Cancelation Calculus?
If you have the team name arsenal then rules don’t apply
It’s only taken into account if the manager was wearing red socks on the day he tested positive
Don’t forget that rule only applies IF the manager is also left handed and between the ages of 34.5 and 45.4, and only for matches that fall on weekdays involving teams traveling more than 5 miles, and if the home team are playing in yellow or red and have the letter a in their name.
I for one expect any Arsrnal manager to be wearing red socks as requisit to them having the job
Red socks you say. I heard Mr. Claus recently got done with his assignment and is available for the day. Too late for a Christmas wish?
This all belongs to the masterplan from arteta…
Get well soon and all the best
Is he also not vaccinated like Xhaka?
Get well soon boss
Absolutely nothing to suggest that. Vaccinated people can still catch Covid – I thought this was widely known and accepted now?
I don’t understand what the vaccine is for. Honestly. Vaccinated people still catch COVID. It makes no sense
Well there are a few very good reasons, but you have to 1) care enough to look for the REAL facts and think about it just a bit further to figure it out and 2) have enough mental capacity to understand the data. Just because you CAN get sick even if vaccinated does not mean there are not important benefits. 1) a vaccinated person is less likely to get sick than an unvaccinated person 2) a vaccinated person is thus less likely to make other people sick than an unvaccinated person 3) most importantly… a vaccinated person is less likely… Read more »
That’s a simple one to explain. The vaccine is not like a suit of armor that stops the virus getting into your system, it’s more analogous to a bouncer that helps your body throw Covid out once it’s detected by your immune system.
It makes perfect sense if you just read about basic immunology. There’s plenty of entry level stuff to explain these complicated things in terms that lay people like us can understand.
What kind of moron down votes a sensible and reasonable comment like that???
The vaccine reduces the severity of symptoms and the likelihood of hospitalization and death. Two years into the pandemic and approaching one year of vaccines, it’s time we stop seeing it as all or nothing—you may catch Covid if you’re vaccinated, but it’s proven at this point that you’re far, far less likely to be hospitalized or die if you’re vaccinated. Just because you can still catch it doesn’t mean the vaccine is pointless. You can still get hurt if you wear a seatbelt but that doesn’t mean seatbelts are pointless. It’s also time to retire the “personal decision” bull… Read more »
It prevents horrible illness and death, does that make sense ?
It’s like this Giddyon… We wear seat belts in cars to protect us from crashes but in certain circumstances we still die… Nevertheless if we don’t wear a seat belt and we have a crash our chance of death or serious injury are hugely increased… Capiche?
With that logic why should the next person care if I’m vaccinated or not especially if they themselves are vaccinated
Because as a vaccinated person I may need medical care completely unrelated to COVID and yet find my hospital overwhelmed with the unvaccinated who were happy and proud to assert their independence and liberty until they found themselves sick and suddenly willing to avail themselves of care provided by the very same doctors whose advice to get vaccinated they ignored in the first place. Also, why are we suddenly regarding ourselves as medical experts—are you really going to do the “research” on every aspect of medical care rather than rely on the professionals who are overwhelmingly supportive of vaccines and,… Read more »
Like many players/people.
He is vaccinated, but even vaccinated people get sick. Especially with the latest variant.
One can be vaxxed and still test positive.
You still can catch covid if you’re vaccinated, just have a lot milder symptoms then in general.
Yeah, most studies seem to show a reduced chance of catching it by varying degrees depending on the vaccine received, covid variant and time passed since vaccination etc. But it’s definitely still happens a lot, especially with the omicron variant which seems to spread pretty freely
I think wording is important here. You have the same chance of the virus being introduced to your system whether you’re vaccinated or not. The vaccine strictly works on your bodies ability to identify and remove the virus from your system. For some vaccinated people that may mean that they get exposed to Covid but never build up the viral load to test positive for it in a PCR or lateral flow test and the only indication of their exposure would be a before/after antibody levels comparison.
That’s a far better way to put it Initial viral load is still considered an important factor in the potential severity of the infection I believe? So I guess it follows that if a vaccinated person is carrying a load below what would trigger a +ve test, but still passes it on to an unvaxxed/vulnerable person. That person would likely receive a lower initial viral load than if they caught it from someone (more likely to be unvaxxed) carrying a high viral load. Chances are that they’ll develop lesser symptoms and infect any others with a lower initial viral load… Read more »
Seems like he catches it every year! Will this be an annual thing similar to Neymar & his sister etc…?
Last time Arteta tested positive, PL also got suspended. Lets see what happens this time.
“Not that” would be my first guess
A shame to lose the gaffer.
I don’t mind Arsenal playing “negatively” to get something from the game against City. I’m a pragmatist. A 4-4-2 with Tavares and Niles on the wings and Saka and Laca in attack.
In the race for top4, a point against City is like 3 points, because all the other teams will still have to play them. This way, we can stay compact and still be devastating on the break.
Let Tavares run wild.
Given how he personally cost us against Man U and Liverpool with his inability to stay in position, I don’t want Tavares anywhere NEAR this match. Like the kid, exciting potential, but I want a defence that stays together as a unit for this one!
He won’t be in defense, just there to offer better protection on the wings, with the ability to dribble forward and a cylinder that never runs out. That should keep Mahrez worried.
And the take on Tavares is unfair. He made one mistake in a big match and suddenly, he can’t be trusted? Yet Partey and Xhaka are our CM pairing? Why are the kids more scrutinized?
What about all the air shots… Keep him on the bench
Nonsense. Liverpool were (are) too good for us at the moment and we were always going to lose that game.
Sorry to say but Arteta lost us the match against Man U.
I do agree Tavares has lots of potential but isn’t the finished product yet.
How was Odegaard (thinks he’s class btw) giving away a stupid pen and other players missing easy chances Arteta’s fault?
Just as Liverpool were too good for Leicester.
You don’t break up a winning team to bring in maitland niles and taveres. Play the same team and have a go. We are at home.
Exactly, especially when you would have to take two better players out to make room for them.
On the bright side Arteta won’t be in a position to try one of his ‘cunning plans’ against ManC – plans which have worked so well before. He’ll just have to trust the process, like the rest of us 😉
Get well soon!
He will still decide the pre-game and in game tactics and will be in constant communication. So there is still the possibility that Pat Rice to be deployed as a false 9 just to confuse Pep
I think the point is he’ll probably try and keep his instructions as simple as possible if he’s got to isolate all week. On another note, I wouldn’t mind if we had another Rice within the Arsenal ranks sometime soon…
I think suffice to say that it would probably confuse Pep…..and everyone else including, and perhaps especially, Pat Rice
Did you just call Mikel a Baldrick?
Can someone explain to me why he tested positive for covid again? Tot he tested positive for it before and was vaccinated?
Plenty of people are getting it a second or third time, even if vaccinated. Not particularly unusual.
Because vaccinations and previous infections do not stop you getting it. They reduce the likelihood and the probable severity. There is also a new, more transmissible variant around. Have you been living in a cave somewhere, Jon?
I Tested positive after double vaccinated. Whole thing is confusing AF
Vaccination doesn’t stop you from contracting a virus.
It potentially stops you from dying or having major complications with your lungs.
Getting vaccinated is the way to go because this virus isn’t going anywhere. We just have to train our body to learn to live with it and fight successfully.
I don’t understand why people are so confused in general!
Yeah, everyone’s a doctor nowadays and shouldn’t be confused.
*rolls eyes
It’s really not that hard. Get vaccinated and it will help you defend yourself. You can still catch covid, especially with the occurence of variants, but at least less people will burden the NHS, so less will die.
If anything Aaron explained so succinctly above is complicated or confusing to you, you’ve got much bigger problems to worry about than COVID.
the same way you can catch a cold every year even if you have a regular flu jab.
I agree with you. It’s not as complicated (and shouldn’t be as contentious) as everybody’s making it out to be.
Sure, for some people this might be their 5000th time hearing/reading an explanation about how vaccines work, and especially if the explanation originally came from someone they trusted, it might seem strange that other people don’t understand it at this point in time. But depending on where you get your news from, who you talk to day-to-day, what circles you run in, where you live, and other circumstances out of people’s control, some may not have had the opportunity to have what is quite a complicated scientific concept explained to them accurately, and in a way that doesn’t tie it… Read more »
No. Its simple.
Vaccines are not cures. They are not preventatives. A vacc primes your immune system so that if/when you are exposed to a pathogen, your body can effectively fight it. All those running around unvaxxed are making it difficult for thr virus to be limited. And they also allow for more spread and more mutation, ergo, more variants.
blaming new variants on the unvaccinated is unscientific nonsense. It is in fact a topsy-turvy inversion of how viral evolution works. I am double vaccinated and will get a booster asap. I am not anti-anything except Covid. It has nevertheless been obvious for months that scapegoating the unvaccinated for the continuation of the pandemic has been a tactic of the political class to shift the blame from myriad public health failures, at the government level in the west on to individuals. Many virologists and immunologists with understanding of coronaviruses have been saying for a year now both that 1) these… Read more »
You seem like an intelligent person with excellent vocabulary and articulate expression, but honestly, it only takes a very basic grasp of numbers to realise the ridiculousness of your argument. Imagine 10 people had Covid. The infection rate, without a vaccine or lock down measures, is estimate at around a 5 for the Omicron variant: This means, on average, the number of people in the next phase of the contagion if everyone was unvaccinated, would be approximately 50 people. If everyone was vaccinated, however, the next phase would result in around 9 people. Now, tell me, where is there more… Read more »
The virus will ALWAYS mutate irrelevant if everyone was vaccinated or not. A virus is literally a constant mutation.
The omicron variant seems much more able than any previous to “break through” and infect people who have been previously infected and who have been vaccinated. Having been vaccinated (and especially having been “boosted”) greatly reduces the likelihood that the breakthrough infection will cause serious illness.
City could be called off yet I’m thinking 🤔
It bloody well should be! They talk about fairness in fixtures… Well they get a manager and we don’t. Sounds fair to me! :/
Well we both have very large squads, and now the PL won’t call it off unless one of the teams has less than 14 players available from the registered first team squad. I don’t think manager/staff covid status is considered. So it would require quite a few more cases I think, which isn’t something to wish for various reasons
If it does happen though, would be nice to catch them sandwiched by a couple of CL knockout games
I think they’re playing tonight which has no bearing on Saturday other than they are playing tonight 😉
i hope they win easily. any other result may make them buck their ideas up for the weekend. that said, hoping that manchester city will be complacent is little more than a pipedream
How about a lot of our fans stop being afraid of them. Same goes for liverpool and Chelsea. If Leicester Brighton and brentford can compete why can’t we. I hope our players don’t have the same attitude as a lot of the people posting on here.
Arteta was already to positive to Pep and. MAN City. Get well soon and be ready for the Klop game
This Omicron is so transmissible it is hard to imagine this game going ahead.
Seems like everyone around me has it at the minute but thankfully no serious symptoms 🙏
Hope you stay well!
Now more than before, we’re gonna need leaders on the pitch. Hate him or love him, Xhaka’s presence will be immense in this game. Let’s hope we see more of the Norwich game and less of the First Mancity game from him.
Nobody to tell Xhaka not to commit a stupid foul then. All’s well.
Maybe we should get him on here Sunday, he could stop you making stupid comments.
Levy would have this game cancelled and replaced with Nuneaton borough in april , come on kroenkes, do your job
Happy for the city game to be postponed until 2025
I did chuckle 😂
Big game on Saturday, now that Liverpool lost and Chelsea drew. I expect us to lose, but we’ve gotta look up instead of down. We’re now in a race to finish 2nd.
We need 14 players to play like Santi and get us a result
Bring back Wenger for the City game!
Get well soon, Arteta.🙏
Firstly, here’s hoping for a speedy recovery and a mild case. Secondly, I can’t decide if Arteta is giving us Magnum or Blue Steel in the photo for this article.
He’s not banned or anything right, so could quite easily bark out orders to his assistant over the phone while watching the game no?
Well the impossible task has just got even harder. Get well soon Mikel.
I don’t see us getting anything from City but you never know. I’d be happy with a competitive game whatever the result on this one.