The immediate future of English football changed the moment Arsenal announced late on Thursday evening that head coach Mikel Arteta had tested positive for coronavirus .
Up to that point, the Premier League was attempting to carry on as normal despite the ever increasing crisis that the deadly disease was beginning to bring to the country.
In fact, just an hour before Arsenal released their statement confirming Arteta was suffering from COVID-19, the Premier League had released a statement of their own confirming that the weekend’s scheduled fixtures were going to go ahead as planned - with fans even allowed to attend.
But that all changed almost as soon as the news about Arteta broke. Within 12 hours, the Premier League and the Football League had suspended their forthcoming fixtures until April 3 at the earliest - with the general consensus being that suspension will in fact go on far longer than that.
The continued spread of coronavirus has led to an unprecedented situation across Europe, with all of the major leagues now suspended .
And at Arsenal, the fallout from Arteta’s positive test late on Thursday night continues but the club is doing all it can to try and bring some sort of normality back to proceedings.
Having taken training as normal on Tuesday, 24 hours before he first started to feel ill, the Spaniard had full contact with all of the senior squad. That has led to all of the first-team players having to go into a period of self-isolation for a period of 14 days.
They are due back to London Colney on March 24, but in the meantime they are not allowed to leave their houses.
To try and ensure they remain as fit as possible during that period of confinement, Arsenal have issued each player with their own personal fitness plan.
Most of the players have their own personal gyms in their houses, but those who don’t have had equipment such as exercise bikes and weights sent to them. Dietary recommendations have also been sent out and are expected to be followed.
Arteta and technical director Edu have been in regular contact with the squad during the past few days and will continue to keep them informed of events throughout the next 10 days.
Arteta’s diagnosis has not just had an impact on the playing squad, however. Well over 100 staff members and club personnel are currently having to isolate at home, from executives to chefs, security and communications staff.
Arsenal had already started to limit all non-essential travel before Thursday’s announcement, but that has now been completely suspended. Discussions with Stan and Josh Kroenke and now taking place via video calls, as are meetings with the club’s UK-based executive team.
Head of football Raul Sanllehi and managing director Vinai Venkatesham took part in the Premier League’s emergency meeting on Friday via a conference call, as they will when Premier League officials meet again this coming Thursday to discuss a way through the current crisis.
The training centres at London Colney and Hale End remain closed meanwhile, with both undergoing deep cleans over the weekend.
Arsenal are in a what has been described to Goal as a ‘slight holding pattern’ as they wait to see if anyone else from both centres start to come down with any symptoms which suggest they may have contracted coronavirus from Arteta before he went into isolation.
Ideally they want to get both centres back open as soon as possible so that anyone who didn’t come into contact with Arteta could return before the 14-day isolation period ends. But understandably, they don’t want to take any risks which could result in both complexes having to close their doors for even longer.
One other knock-on effect from the total suspension of English football is the threat it poses to the income of the casual and part-time staff that are employed by clubs across the country.
At Arsenal it is no different, especially on a matchday when hundreds of retail staff, stewards, programme sellers and other casual workers play a key role in ensuring supporters enjoy their day at Emirates Stadium.
With the current hiatus of the Premier League scheduled to end on the weekend of April 4, Arsenal are not due to miss any home games - with the Gunners hosting Norwich City on the Saturday that the suspension ends.
But with the suspension widely expected to be extended well beyond the start of April, those casual staff - as well as employees of the club's community team who take caching programmes into local schools, could see their income threatened.
Arsenal insist, however, that they are monitoring the situation closely and will provide ‘appropriate support’ to anyone impacted.
“Throughout the current situation the health and wellbeing of our people is a priority,” a spokesman said.
“We’re working through the detail on this but will be providing appropriate support to our casual workers.”
