Arsenal are the latest Premier League side rocked by Covid as Sambi Lokonga tests positive

Arsenal are the latest side to suffer from the Covid outbreak that has rocked many Premier League teams after midfielder Albert Sambi Lokonga tested positive for the virus.

The Gunners confirmed after announcing their side to take on Leeds United at Elland Road this evening that the midfielder would not feature in their squad due to the positive result. 

Manager Mikel Arteta revealed pre-match that Arsenal have already had to close their Colney training ground after reporting a ‘few cases’ among players and staff following their mid-week 2-0 victory over West Ham United at the Emirates Stadium. 

‘We could not train the day after the match because we had to close Colney’, he said. ‘We had a few cases. We had quite a lot of the staff members (with Covid) and a few players as well.’

Arteta insisted that in regards to becoming the latest team to be hit by Covid, that ‘the Premier League have to make a decision’ on whether the league should consider briefly suspending the top flight fixtures. 

Despite the outbreak at Arsenal though, their evening encounter with Leeds at 5.30pm still went ahead as planned. 

Sambi was an unused substitute for the London derby and news of the 22-year-old’s positive test comes on a day when Arsenal’s clash with Leeds is the only Premier League game taking place in the top flight. 

Aston Villa were due to host Burnley at 3pm but the game was called off just over two hours before kick-off after Villa were unable to field 14 players as required. 

Including Leeds vs Arsenal, it left only four Premier League matches to be contested this weekend with Sunday’s games seeing Newcastle United take on Manchester City, Wolves host Chelsea and Tottenham playing their first match since December 5 when they entertain Liverpool.  

Spurs have seen three games, including a Europa Conference League game against Rennes, postponed due to Covid cases since their 3-0 win over Norwich City. 

Brighton’s lunchtime trip to Manchester United was the first match to be postponed this weekend, before Southampton v Brentford, Watford v Crystal Palace, West Ham United v Norwich City and Everton v Leicester City were later called off by the Premier League in one swoop. 

After a surge in cases due to the omicron variant significantly impacted the top-flight, the Premier League have strongly urged clubs to encourage their players to get vaccinated.

Premier League chief executive Richard Masters has stressed the importance of vaccination for footballers in a letter to all 20 clubs.

As reported by the Athletic, he wrote to clubs: ‘We have collectively highlighted the importance of vaccination and it has never been more important.

‘This is not only for the obvious benefit of protecting against COVID, but government guidance now dictates that unvaccinated close contacts of positive COVID cases must isolate for 10 days, and there is no exemption or exception to this.

‘Please strongly encourage those who are not fully vaccinated to become so, and the many who are, to get their booster, which appears to be the only significant layer of protection against the Omicron variant.’

Masters also insisted that everyone should be ‘aware of the importance of completing the season, while maintaining the safety of players, staff and fans’.

Following the tumultuous week of coronavirus outbreaks, Premier League shareholders are set to meet on Monday amid calls from some clubs to shutdown the season

Brentford boss Thomas Frank led calls to temporarily stop the busy winter schedule so the affected teams can recover earlier this week.

While Newcastle boss Eddie Howe, whose side are due to play on Sunday, said he fears for the integrity of the Premier League, claiming: ‘I don’t think we want half the games played and half not.’

But that is not the view shared by Liverpool boss Jurgen Klopp and Crystal Palace chairman Steve Parish, with the latter claiming there is not a high enough ‘level of postponements’ to justify a temporary pause. 

And an expert in public health has told Sportsmail that there will be no benefit from a shutdown, while Covid-19 infection rates are rising so rapidly, and the Premier League must prepare for six weeks of chaos. 

Premier League chiefs will meet at the start of next week to discuss the coronavirus situation, but the top-flight still want to carry on the season as planned, with the majority of clubs wanting to continue playing.