Premier League season could be done as Mikel tests positive

by .

Arsenal announced that Mikel Arteta tested positive for Covid-19. In the ultimate kicker, it would appear he caught it from the top dog at Olympiacos after our exit from the Europa. What a stinger.

He’ll be fine, but this doesn’t bode well for the Premier League season. I hear there are quite a few other cases that will be announced in due course. The league will certainly be suspended, but it could go further, there is a belief in the game this could be it for the season.

I don’t even want to joke about the ramifications, though it is tempting.

Seems like most of the advice from around the world is that social distancing is the best way to slow the spread of the virus (and washing your hands, you animals). That advice doesn’t leave much room for interpretation, a gathering of hundreds of thousands of fans at sporting events would be the worst thing for it at the minute.

March Madness has been cancelled, along with the opening race of F1, the NBA, La Liga, Serie A, SXSW and a whole bunch of other social gatherings. The Premier League will have to follow suit and it’s hard to argue against it.

I thought this thread summed up the risk nicely– and why the ‘but I won’t die’ argument is very shitty.

It’s a shitter for the fans, but not as terrible as the thought of infecting your grandma because you grabbed beers with an infected pal at a local before the game. I don’t think anyone wants to be responsible for hospitals adopting wartime decision-making models for older people, no football game is that important.

Just a short post today, I don’t have much to add to this conversation, I’ll leave that for the experts.

All I will say is stay safe, wash your fucking hands, and get that invincible DVD in the player… it’s going to be a long couple of months.

Good luck to all backroom people at Arsenal that have been sharing his chapstick. Get well soon, Mikel!

See the rest of you in the comments x

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Ray in LA

hello

Ray in LA

is anybody out there?

Mr Serge

Sad news

Ray in LA

third?

Ray in LA

curses, trophy without realising it

Marc

Pedro

It’s not just the PL season that’s looking finished – how can the Euro’s go ahead when the matches are spread across different countries? You’d have fans crisscrossing continental Europe all over the place.

It’s going to be a really slow spring and summer.

Ray in LA

wasn’t the Man U game strange without fans?

Marc

bit like the blog at the moment!

Ishola70

Euros will be cancelled.

Damn this Corona

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=06kXXJUddHQ

Samesong

COVID-19

2020 CL WINNER
2020 EL WINNER
2020 PL WINNER

Can’t be spotted by VAR

Nelson

Normally, you only get pay when you work. If the EPL season is cancelled, would the players receive their pay?

Guns of SF

Shit man

All you folks thinking just don’t panic
SMH

Champagne Charlie

Coronavirus is the result of some inbred Manc selling his soul to stop Liverpool to the title. Bargained disease and toilet roll famine all in the name of football, some fans ehh.

What a colossal mess this is going to be for global sports now until the summer. Strange circumstances, but absolutely correct to abandon all the lot (normal jobs included) and pull together as a society to put national health above all.

Guns of SF

All sports should be cancelled now

Marc

CC

Yeah but if Liverpool aren’t awarded the title it’ll be so funny and worth the death of some moron from Surrey!

Pierre

Nelson
“Normally, you only get pay when you work. If the EPL season is cancelled, would the players receive their pay?”

They’ll be ok they will receive the £100 ( or thereabouts )a week statutory sick pay from the government.

Valentin

The season is over. Not yet officially but it won’t recover. That may have bigger ramifications on football finance. Cancelling the season could push a few clubs over the cliff of ruin. Especially those who were relying on selling players at inflated prices. Some business insurances specifically exclude consequence of acts of war, terrorism and pandemic. Clubs with poor finance could be forced to sell their best assets. On the plus side That could benefit clubs like Arsenal that needs to recruit this summer. On the minus side that could also give an get out jail free card to Gazidis… Read more »

Leftside

Think the games will get cancelled

Henry Root

The football implications of this are utterly trivial. It is a health catastrophe that will kill huge numbers of people. Who gives a shit about Liverpool being champions or not ?

BacaryisGod

One player in the NBA tests positive and the NBA suspends the league and will likely cancel the season. Now Arteta has tested positive we are almost certain to see the same thing.

Just give the title to Liverpool. Add the top two Championship teams (or do a 4 team playoff) and for one season have a 22 team Premier league with 5 going down.

That should spice things up a little.

BacaryisGod

Agree with you Henry and I wouldn’t discuss football on a news site. But this is a football blog.

Elmo

There’s every chance that we’ll just be getting to the peak in summer. UK govt guidance today was that we are 4 weeks behind Italy on the curve, and that the UK peak could be in 10-14 weeks, which would be mid-May to mid-June, with the curve then starting to head down from the peak (12.5-25% of employees off sick), but clearly still with many cases and the need for much disruption and precaution. The official UK position is that this is going to be a long slog, and that policy is constructed to facilitate this, rather than go for… Read more »

Chidi

Sad day for Gunners family worldwide

Elmo

Joe Lewis / Levy / Spuds will be feeling super fortunate right now.

They refinanced the £650m in loans used to build the stadium to 15-30 yr bonds 6 months ago. If they had waited and were trying to do it now, there would simply not be a functioning debt issuance market in existence for their purposes.

Marc

Henry

” It is a health catastrophe that will kill huge numbers of people”

What do you define as a “huge” number of people?

goonerkitt

Game against Brighton is off and whole squad is self isolating

Biggles

If the UK takes a full on Chinese style everybody-stay-at-home-do-nothing approach then they might get a grip on the explosion in cases. It worked in South Korea and Singapore, and of course China itself. If it were me, I’d be thinking of taking a 4-6 week long break from football. You could probably squeeze in two matches a week at the end of April and through May, but you could also just delay the end of the season a bit. I know the Euros are on – cancel them outright now. International travel is awful for disease spread. Could they… Read more »

Guns of SF

I am expecting any minute now, that the EPL will be suspended.

Guns of SF

amazing… this is not good. If Arteta has it, then for sure, his family and other players and staff have it.
At least some if you play the odds.

Funny how the media never said who are players were in isolation… now if Arteta was not one of them, then the odds of more catching it have gone up.

He has been spreading it the last 5 days at least…

I hope the best for him and anyone else in the team who has it now

Marc

SF

They’ll try to postpone the league for a few weeks first – too much money involved. Once that isn’t working it’ll be suspended.

In the spirit of the Snowflake generation it’ll be declared that everyone has won the title as they all competed. The scouse rampage will kill more than Corona virus.

Our true enemy is yet to reveal himself!

Marc

SF

Corona virus is a serious condition but it’s not killing young healthy adults – let alone incredibly fit ones.

Chances of a professional footballer dying from this are remote.

Guns of SF

what is the difference betweeen postpone and suspend? to me suspend means on hold…. as does postpone

Just like the NBA suspended the season.. versus saying -season is cancelled

This outbreak will go into summer before countries really get control again…
Liverpool will whine and whine for their trophy…. lets see how this plays out!

Marc

SF

Well you can’t push the PL into the summer – the Euro’s would be on – after that next season starts. The window between one finishing, the Euro’s and the next PL starting is pretty small.

Champagne Charlie

Henry

This is an Arsenal fan blog, the coronavirus isn’t going to be covered here like it is in the guardian comments. People are aware of the issues, but you don’t get to silence idle chat because there’s mortality concerns.

The implications for Arsenal, Liverpool, football, the wider sporting world, and beyond are subjects for discussion whether you feel them trivial or not.

Marc

Maybe when I said suspended I should have said cancelled / written off.

Moray

Hopefully Tets and the team will be okay. At least they will get good treatment with the club’s resources and at this stage of the spread. It’s been obvious for a while that the Euros and Olympics won’t be happening this summer. Even if the first wave is passed, I doubt there will be much appetite for sport or for sharing a stadium with thousands of other people. Best thing to do is get supplies in, work from home if possible and wait it out. If you expose yourself you endanger others and risk overloading a fragile health system. The… Read more »

Biggles

@Marc

There’s somewhere in the region of 3.2m people over the age of 80 in the UK. Depending on which set of numbers you believe, they have a 1-in-5 to 1-in-6 chance of dying from it. Let’s then imagine (and this is completely unsubstantiated) that cases are far more widespread than thought by a factor of ten and that even over 80s only have a 1 in 50 chance of dying from coronavirus. That’s still 64k deaths if they all get it. Is tens of thousands in the UK enough for you?

Ishola70

Folks are dying from it from early 60s upwards and of course there will be those that are too weak to withstand it with age not such a bearing on it.

Ishola70

Some guy in Italy died from it earlier today linked to La Scala, Milan aged 62.

Marc

Biggles

So 99,000 (the highest tens of thousands could get or so) out of a population of 65,000,000 is less than 0.001% chance of dying.

If someone told you doing something had a 0.001% of dying you’d call them bonkers and do it anyway.

GET A FUCKING GRIP. IT’S SERIOUS IT’S NOT THE END OF THE FUCKING WORLD PEOPLE.

Emiratesstroller

On the whole I agree with the course of action that the Government has been operating so long as it follows medical and scientific advice. However, I took the personal decision after the Everton game that I would not be going to football matches or public events until after this crisis was over. Also I would no longer travel on public transport. That was a personal decision. The football season is over as far as I am concerned and I will take to simple pleasures such as “reading books” or if the weather gets better sitting in my garden. I… Read more »

Dissenter

Marc
You’re trivializing this virus, the same mistake Trump made and it’s going to leave him irreparably damaged.
Assuming the death rate is about 1%, project that number on the vulnerable population. It’s one person too many.

Bojangles

Personally I don’t give a fuck how the UK are handling things there regards the virus. Just stop the people from travelling overseas infecting others.

Dissenter

Is Cheltenham going to be cancelled now
This is a bigger crises that the food and mouth disease that got it cancelled in 2001.

Marc

Dissenter

You’re confusing taking a measured view with trivialising. I keep saying it’s serious but some on here and in the real world are having a complete meltdown.

Also the less than 1% mortality rate is projected across all age groups, the elderly are closer to 10%.

Tell me how an individual buying 240 loo rolls is a sensible response to something that gives you a cough?

China1

Was reading a story on sky news earlier about a woman who had it and tested positive in the UK. Despite being around her boyfriend and sister plenty, and her boyfriend even driving her to the hospital, so it very high risk, he wasn’t encouraged to self isolate or take a test because he didn’t have symptoms And therein is the absolute crux of why this will spread like wildfire in the UK. We can see all the sound bites about ‘abundance of caution’ and ‘following the science’ but the reality is the UK approach has involve very little of… Read more »

Marc

Pedro

Agree, my Mum’s in her 70’s but as with any crises the way to get through them is a bit of intelligence and common sense.

Read some of the reaction on here – it’s fucking bonkers.

Marc

China

But that’s where a bit of personal common sense and responsibility come in to play. If you’ve been in close contact with your girlfriend who’s just been tested positive you’ve got to self isolate.

Am I really on that different wave length to everyone else out there?

Stupid question – but it does explain why the worlds a shit hole.

Marc

Pedro

It’s going to fuck economies for the next 3 -6 months minimum.

But again a bit of common sense would help.

Dissenter

Marc “Tell me how an individual buying 240 loo rolls is a sensible response to something that gives you a cough?” Gouging That individual intends to resell it. People are selling two 16 ounces bottles of hand sanitizer for $200+, worse still there are morons who are paying money for it. Whatever happened to using good ole soap to wash your hands? Policy wise, it’s better to scare people like Angela Merkel is doing. People have to be told that it’s going to get worse before it gets better, which is scientifically sound when you see the curve of cases… Read more »

China1

The governments chief science advisor admitted that whilst the official number is about 600, the actual number is potentially 5,000-10,000. In other words our ‘abundance of caution’ following the science has led us to a ‘no fucking idea, sorry mate’ situation

Marc

Pedro

Sorry but it’s always about the numbers and someone in their 80’s is going to die of something in the near future whether you like it or not, especially if they have underlying conditions which have been connected to the majority of UK deaths so far.

Dissenter

God bless Mikel’s family.
He should just take the rest of the season off to recharge his bones.
There will still be some stigma attached to the diagnosis even when he’s cleared to return [at least till this CORVID crap goes away]

Emiratesstroller

Pedro

What you post is the concern. I am of the age which is at risk, but life goes on.

I recognise that the Government [all Governments] do not have the capacity
to handle a pandemic on this scale.

So the sensible approach for someone like me is to apply common sense and
self discipline.

Marc

Dissenter

No you’re so wrong the vast majority of cases will be a minor condition, the NHS will be under pressure which is precisely why the Government is trying to push this out of cold and flu season to take an additional pressure off.

Yes people will die I’m not denying that but we’re not facing the Black Death which wiped out a third of Europe’s population.

Every ounce of over reaction and panic will make this all a thousand times worse.

China1

I’m actually quite curious if my wife and I already caught it (and my son) Because before all the lockdowns and strong measures kicked in in China we had already all had a fever and mild cough (same for my mother in law). In my case it lasted just one evening (fever) and the cough was very mild My wife had a slight fever for a day and my son as well. But my wife and mother in law had a persistent cough for a while. None of us ‘suffered’ at all and this was before it had really blown… Read more »

Marc

I should point out that I’m asthmatic which put’s me into the “bloke dead but he had an underlying condition” bracket.

Marc

China

I had a cough and cold in early Jan – it’s winter and cold and flu season. You were of course more likely to be exposed to Corona but there’s also a chance it was something much worse that’s just waiting to come back and get you.

Dissenter

China1 The rest of the world needs to learn from China. They just showed their industrial might, donating 10,000 pulmonary ventilators, 2 million face masks, and 20,000 protective suits to Italy. In the States, we will have to take stock of our emergency management that’s more geared to natural disasters like Hurricanes etc. Trump has cut the budget of the CDC and NIH for three consecutive years…now the chicken has come home to roost. The US stockpile of masks, respirators and protective gear hasn’t been replenished since 2009, a lot of the equip[ment is so dated they had to issue… Read more »

Emiratesstroller

Marc

The economy is already fucked and so are investments.

The normal margin of risk for a share portfolio is a downturn of about 25% in
a bare market. That point has already been passed and is ongoing.

That impacts on everyone who is either a shareholder or has a pension.

Whilst I anticipate that markets will eventually turn around I think that the
recovery period will be years and some companies will collapse.

The travel and leisure industries are at particular risk at moment.

Marc

Emirates

“So the sensible approach for someone like me is to apply common sense and
self discipline.”

Wrong – the sensible approach for everyone is to apply common sense and self discipline.

Zimmie2652

Marc,
I’m sure you’ve heard by now but the Euros have already been “postponed” til 2021.

Marc

Emirates

I’m actually planning to buy some shares in BA’s parent company. Good time to do it, when this blows over everyone will want to go on hols forgetting this ever happened.

Marc

Zimmie

No really is that true?

Not surprised though.

jwl

Not having any sports to watch is going to be painful, they are majority of my tv viewing when I just want to relax. Here in North America with all different sports on offer, there is normally multiple games a night I can choose to watch, I think me and many others are going to be going through withdrawals very soon indeed.

Get well soon Arteta and whoever else is ill.

China1

Marc the prevalent approach from most countries badly affected is to greatly reduce things like school openings, going to offices and restaurants etc I’m curious why you think the UK gov has been privy to smarter information about how to manage it than all those countries already worse hit. Especially since I’ve been able to systematically break down how measures have been poorly designed and not properly following either scientific evidence or caution so far. Having faith in the UK response right now is like backing wenger when he only signed peter cech because he told you he has faith… Read more »

Dissenter

Marc It’s just simple arithmetic If the death rate o the vulnerable elderly population is about 10% as you wrote. -There are about 70 million Americans who are aged 60 years and above -Approximately 80% of older adults have at least one chronic disease, and 77% have at least two. ——–that’s about 56 million people in that vulnerable group -We have outbreaks of virulent strains of the influenza virus that stretches the system to the brink already, that’s a virus that has a vaccine that’s administered to most people in that age group. -Even id we go by your assertion… Read more »

Marc

China

We’ll see but I put even less faith in the Italian and Irish Governments than I do in Wenger.

Marc

Dissenter

You’ve got to separate the elderly and the rest of the population. The elderly are pretty fucked everyone else will for the most part not need any medical attention.

Emiratesstroller

Marc

I have been having discussions today with my stockbroker.

In normal circumstances people would hold onto their shares and if they are
flush with money and can afford it buy more shares.

However, we are not in normal circumstances, because on current trends I
can see shares halving in value or even worse. That is already the case with
a number of well known shares.

I am not going to give you advice on what to do but airlines like the travel industry are extremely vulnerable and in contrast to banks unlikely to be
bailed out by Government.

Dissenter

China1 “Having faith in the UK response right now is like backing wenger when he only signed peter cech because he told you he has faith in his current squad and there is no one out there who can improve the team etc.” I speak with people here in the states who say the same things. They forget that China had to rapidly build mega hospitals just to manage the critically ill. The did things to regain control that most elected office holders will balk at. Most Western societies have antiquated systems that haven’t been tested on the scale that’s… Read more »

Caligooner

The worst season ever just got a whole lot worse!!!

We hanks Emery!

Dissenter

Emirates
What goes down will come up
The Virus will burn itself out eventually, with or without interventions and the market will rebound
Not going to give you any advice on this forum but ….

Caligooner

On a serious note: stay safe people.

Get ready for an incredibly boring few months without sports.

Have to make do with the hijinks of Trump and his cronies.

Dissenter

Marc
You are one mean frigid hearted moder-fcuker 😊😊😊😊
Jeez, the way you keep saying the elderly gonna die anyways.

China1

The same chief science advisor to the government said its possible 80% of britons will get infected This won’t happen if we have a well designed system that’s implemented early enough. Why aren’t the Singaporeans expecting 80% to get infected? Why are the Chinese (1/4 of the entire worlds population) expecting to be almost virus free by the end of April? There’s nothing inevitable about the virus tearing through the entire country. It will happen explicitly because the government has failed its people. No amount of stiff upper lip and wanting business as usual will prevent the country from getting… Read more »

Emiratesstroller

China 1

The Government in UK is reluctant to close schools, because of the economic
and social consequences.

Britain is not a “family orientated” society in contrast to Italy and China. If schools close the children will need to stay at home and that means parents
including members of social and health services as well.

Many families would need to rely on elderly relatives the category most at
risk to look after grandchildren.

That is the reason why the Government are currently unwilling to adopt this
measure until at least the epidemic reaches its peak.

jwl

Supply chains are wildly complicated now, the world is very interconnected at least business wise. I work for consulting firm, and my department focuses on auto industry, and there are plenty of worried people. ‘Just In Time’ delivery is also widely used so companies don’t have much stock on hand and shortages are sure to happen. About thirty thousand parts go into making a car, with something like a thousand companies in different countries all contributing, it wont take much to cripple manufacturing companies who not able to get parts they need and they don’t have months of parts in… Read more »

Samesong

Hudson-Odio got it also.

China1

Dissenter but those new megahospitals were built in Wuhan, the city where the virus had been left to spiral out of control In every other part of the country they didn’t build loads of new hospitals, I’m not sure they even built any at all. Tianjin has zero new hospitals. They just managed those and the clinics they already have This perfectly sums up the difference between a reactionary approach (Wuhan, Hubei) where the virus got out of control and then the gov had to do mountains of work just to try and reign it back in and it took… Read more »

raptora

First, I’m sending my prayers to Arteta and all of our staff + players. It’s rough times and I hope everyone is taking all the necessary precautions to protect themselves and all the people around them. What leagues around Europe are asking for is that the Euro is cancelled to 2021 with the hope that the situation will be normalized by June/July. That one or couple of months is/are going to be used to play the rest of the games in their respective leagues. Even if it takes the whole August as well, it could make sense to try and… Read more »

Emiratesstroller

Dissenter

That is precisely the advice I follow, but there is going to be a lot of pain. The
stock market will take at least three or four years to recover.

jwl

If league season is cancelled, I think they give title to Liverpool and the cup competitions no trophies awarded.

Liverpool are going to win league this year, they only need to win two or three of remaining ten matches and that’s if Man City win all their remaining games, so it would not be fair after a big part of season has already been played.

jwl

wiki – “The 1994 Montreal Expos season was the 26th season of the franchise. They had the best record in Major League Baseball (74-40), when the 1994–95 Major League Baseball strike ended the season and the team’s postseason aspirations.”
————–
Are Liverpool going to be next ’94 Expos or will they be allowed to compete for league champs? Interesting to see what happens.

Tony

Marc https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-8103999/NHS-doctor-trapped-coronavirus-hit-Italy-begs-UK-Government-shut-EVERYTHING.html Common sense should prevail from people all over the world and world leaders; something Boris and his cronies lack. This virus kills with impunity as with many other known diseases; however, it’s the elderly who have less defences with their immune systems and ageing major vital organs. Obviously most of what you’re posting is your usual contentious demeanour that you try to mask as humour. Hence your often inane jibes at Pedro that are so juvenile and cringeworthy. Stick to football and your coveted season ticket. Most of us need a dose introspection at times; however, I’d say… Read more »

underrated Coq

This Mikel Arteta story is exactly why all sporting events should have been banned proactively. But no, they sit on their asses and wait for the ticking time bomb to blow. I guess Marc is not the only ignorant fool out there.

Goonah

I wouldn’t mind if mother earth did a Thanos on us. We are too many cretins here anyways.
Should just get on with our lives and strengthen the gene pool

Tony

ES Sounds like good advice you’re offering Marc, but ……………….. We just made £40K after tax since the New Year from gold investments, which was fuelled by Covid-19. Similar happened when North Korea fired missiles over Japan and when Syria came under attack a few years back. Generally, once a year good money can be made from the gold markets; it’s just knowing when to be more heavily invested and keeping the odd £100k mainly permanently invested. Thailand is swinging into its summer season where the temperatures are going to fluctuate between 28*C to 45*C, which I’m told should help… Read more »

TheBayingMob

The only silver lining is that the first time Liverpool might win the title in 30 years and the season might be cancelled.

Fucking hilarious.

Guns of SF

I am an asthmatic too.
47 years old.
Not quite in the danger age range but with a pre existing condition

Im worried…where I live the county is keeping schools open. My kids and wife are at risk… not sure the logic here when many other districts around us with less cases have shut down.

we are considering pulling our kids until the district and county shut down the schools for a period of time to slow this down.

Shit is real… very real here where I live

Guns of SF

The major tech companies in the silicon valley… google, facebook, salesforce, apple, microsoft, etc have told their employees to work from home. Some have even gone as far as providing stipends for child care as well. ( Salesforce) where my wife works. All work trips have been cancelled. Many companies are also advising and giving updates to employees on how to deal with this crisis. Bravo.

Funny how private industry seems to care more about their employees versus public schools. SMH !!!!

Tony

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-8105763/Boris-Johnson-steps-coronavirus-response-Cobra-crisis-meeting.html

Makes me wonder with the failing state of the NHS over the last 2 decades, if Boris has been forced into what is clearly government stupidity of their actions.

The NHS simply can’t cope with containment, so go with ‘Delaying’ tactics.

Then, if Boris is wrong as most think he is, then expect complete collapse of the NHS when 10s of thousands are infected and in need of hospital and medical care.

One of the few industries that will make money out of this in the end is the Hollywood film companies.

Guns of SF

If Mikel cannot coach, then its his number 2.
Who is?? or a coach not affected.
2 weeks to get better for a fit young 37 year old… so if the season is NOT cancelled, I imagine that someone else would take the reigns.
Or there will be many midweek recheduled games for us… to catch up

At this point, this Coronavirus has turned the world into a complete shit show
SMH

Sid

Marc dug himself a hole of Bamford proportions with his stand on covid19, now he is dig it deeper trying to save face.

Sid

*digging

Aussie Gooner

I am glad our game against Brighton has been posponed. No doubt there will be many to follow. How many of our players have had contact with Arteta? Claims have been made that Arteta had no contact with the Olympiacos owner! How was the Wolves match with Olympiacos allowed to go ahead when obviously all the Olympiacos team and staff had direct contact with the owner before he was diagnosed? Are we taking this seriously enough?

Guns of SF

they claim Olympiakos was all clear
Wolves were not happy to play that game. I Do not blame them at all…

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