Mikel Arteta, the Arsenal head coach, has explained the measures that were taken to postpone Arsenal's Premier League clash with Manchester City at the Etihad Stadium last month.
The two clubs were set to go head-to-head on March 11 only for the game to be cancelled in the early hours of the morning on that date over fears that Arsenal's players may have contracted with COVID-19, following the news that Olympiakos owner Evangelos Marinakis, who had been in contact with Arsenal's players less than a week before, had tested positive for the virus.
However, Arteta has now revealed that he began to show symptoms of coronavirus the day before the clash with City, which also happened to be the same day that news emerged that Marinakis had tested positive.
Now, Arteta, who has recovered from the illness, has opened up on his experience of suffering from COVID-19 and how Arsenal went about postponing their game with City over fears that Arsenal's players could have potentially spread the disease.
"Either mine wasn't a very strong virus or my immune system was pretty good," Arteta told Sky Sports. "The same day that we were told that we were at risk because we were in contact with the Olympiakos owner [Evangelos Marinakis] was the exact day when I started to show some symptoms.
"I felt a huge responsibility as I knew the next day we were playing Manchester City. I had a feeling inside of myself that something was wrong. We had to make the point and make it clear. We spoke to the Premier League about bringing the case forward as we knew we could expose ourselves to people.
"I pulled the doctor and the CEO to my house telling them that we had a situation due to my symptoms. We had players that had been in contact so we said the decision was too big for us alone to make. We had to communicate this with the Premier League and Manchester City in order to protect everybody. We made the right call."
