The Premier League’s curtain-raiser at Brentford last Friday was hours from being postponed after Arsenal’s entire travelling party had to take Covid tests before kick-off.
Top flight clubs are testing twice a week, but there was enough concern over Arsenal’s visit to the Brentford Community Stadium that their players, coaching team and other associated staff were told to take additional tests on the day of the game, which Brentford won 2-0, to ensure it could go ahead safely.
It would have been a major blow to the Premier League had the opening game of the season been called off, but thankfully the match went ahead in front of a full stadium and was shown live on Sky Sports.