Manchester City vs Arsenal Postponed Due to Coronavirus Exposure

Tonight’s Premier League fixture between Manchester City and Arsenal has become the first English match to be postponed due to the coronavirus outbreak.

The reason for the decision relates to the exposure Arsenal players came into when they played Olympiakos in their Europa League clash just under two weeks ago. It has since transpired that the Greek club’s owner, Evangelos Marinakis, has contracted the virus and had been in “close contact” with some of the team.

The Emirates Stadium side released a statement on Tuesday night confirming that their players had an ‘extremely low’ chance of contracting the virus but the match has been postponed as a precautionary measure.

On the subject of the effect the virus is having on sporting events, Manchester City boss Pep Guardiola has publicly stated that he’d rather matches were outright postponed instead of having any games played out in front of empty stadiums.

It appears very likely that the English football system, as a whole, will be hit by the outbreak sometime in the near future given what has transpired in both Italy and Spain.

Matches in Italy have now been postponed entirely until April 3rd while matches in the top two tiers of Spanish football will be played behind closed doors. 

Both measures are in response to high-levels of the virus in the respective countries and such a move is seemingly inevitable in the United Kingdom.

It’s unclear when the Man City vs Arsenal match will now be played and given the tight fixture list one wonders if the Premier League as a whole may be likely to move past it’s expected completion date.