On Monday morning Arsenal executives had already begun to put together their plans to ensure the club's exposure to COVID-19 was mitigated in every way possible.
Discussions were to be held that day on the cessation of executive travel; scouting missions, business meetings and conference visits would all have to wait until the coronavirus crisis had died down. Just over three days later Arsenal found themselves at the heart of the United Kingdom's battle against the pandemic.
It would not be an overexaggeration to say that Mikel Arteta's diagnosis with COVID-19 radically altered football's approach to the virus. Postponing the English game immediately went from an option that required serious consideration to an absolute necessity.
For their part Arsenal had at least had some degree of preparation for dealing with Arteta's revelation when Evangelos Marinakis announced on Tuesday that he had been "visited" by the virus. The Gunners immediately began the process of understanding who the Olympiacos owner had been in contact with, identifying fewer than five first-team players and a small number of employees who had been in his presence 12 days earlier after the Greeks had won 2-1 in the Europa League.
Postponing the trip to Manchester City was agreed by all parties to be the right course of action but, as Arsenal noted in their early hours statement, the risk that any of their staff might have contracted coronavirus from Marinakis was "extremely low". Nearly a fortnight after the game no-one had shown any symptoms.
Those players that were self-isolating would return on Friday whilst for most the postponement of their trip to the Etihad gave them 24 hours' rest and a further day on the training pitch to prepare for Saturday's trip to Brighton. The show, as the government had been insisting, must go on.
Then came the announcement from Arteta, just half an hour after the Premier League and EFL had confirmed the weekend's games were to go ahead.
Coronavirus has radically changed Arsenal as its staff know it, at least temporarily. Over 100 members of staff are in self-isolation, not just the first-team squad but senior executives, coaches, academy staff and so many more. Arteta was no Unai Emery, locked in his office watching hours of video, he wanted to be out and about among his colleagues.
Even when news came to him of his diagnosis the Arsenal head coach's overriding feeling was one of frustration, best articulated by his wife on Saturday.
"It's true that he had symptoms of the virus but the symptoms would have never stopped him from going to work in a normal situation," Lorena Bernal said in a video on Instagram. "He would have just taken a ibuprofen or paracetamol and he would have gone to work so really, it's nothing major."
Though the government's guidelines continue to shift - currently those with coronavirus symptoms are told to stay at home for seven days - Arsenal are following what was in place when Arteta was diagnosed. That means anyone who came into contact with the head coach must self-isolate for a fortnight.
It remains far from clear when football will resume but until Wednesday March 25 it will be up to the players to keep themselves in the best condition possible, though Arsenal acknowledge that all the individual work players can conduct will not prevent an inevitable tapering off of their match sharpness.
Many of the squad have personal gyms, Arsenal have provided equipment for those that don't. Each member of Arteta's squad has been provided with tailored fitness plans.
It is not just their playing staff that Arsenal have to worry about. Indeed whilst many will doubtless empathise with the cabin fever that lies ahead for the squad there are those with more immediate concerns if football is indeed at the start of a lengthy hiatus.
Currently football's return date of April 3 means that no home games at the Emirates Stadium will be missed but there is a strong possibility that the postponement will last longer, threatening the income of those who work around the ground on matchdays. Brighton have already committed to supporting their match-day staff during the crisis and Arsenal intend to do the same for around a thousand of their staff.
A club spokesperson told football.london: "Throughout the current situation the health and wellbeing of our people is a priority.
"We're working through the detail on this but we will be providing appropriate support to our casual workers."
Football may be on hold but across the club there remains work to be done and the obstacles for completing it are not as great as they once were. Head of football Raul Sanllehi and managing director Vinai Venkatesham were able to take part in Friday's Premier League meeting remotely and there is more than sufficient technology for business to be done. It is still not ideal though.
These are challenging times for Arsenal, the sort of moment where Sanllehi, Venkatesham, Edu and Arteta want to be on the ground at Highbury House, providing visible leadership at a time when staff across the club face unprecedented challenges. It is known to be a source of great frustration among these senior figures that they cannot do so.
Meanwhile much remains in flux. Arsenal continue to assess their options over the reopening of their London Colney training ground, which could be made available to those who did not have contact with Arteta nor display symptoms before the 14 day isolation of the first team comes to an end.
This has proven to be a week with difficulties unlike any faced in living memory across the country. Arsenal have found themselves at the heart of it, already Arteta's diagnosis is being viewed as a pivot point in English sport's response to the coronavirus crisis.
Seven days ago Arsenal's priority, and that of the rest of the country, was risk mitigation. Everything has changed since then. Now all they can do is batten down the hatches and hope to weather the storm.
