Arsenal manager Mikel Arteta will sit out Saturday’s Premier League game at home to Manchester City after testing positive for Covid, the club said on Wednesday. “Mikel is isolating in line with Government guidelines and we wish him well,” Arsenal said in a statement.

Arteta had tested positive in March 2020, shortly before the pandemic forced the Premier League to shut down for more than three months. The 39-year-old is also the latest Premier League manager to test positive after Crystal Palace boss Patrick Vieira and Aston Villa’s Steven Gerrard.

Everton’s home game against Newcastle United on Thursday has been postponed after the visiting team said they were left with insufficient players to fulfil the fixture due to virus cases and injuries, the Premier League said.

Newcastle said a number of players and staff returned positive results during routine PCR tests. In Spain, Barcelona’s Ousmane Dembele, Samuel Umtiti and Gavi are set to miss Sunday’s trip to Real Mallorca after testing positive for Covid, the club said on Wednesday.

The Catalans have been hit by a number of cases in their squad, with Clement Lenglet, Dani Alves, Jordi Alba and Alejandro Balde also returning positive tests this week. Real Madrid’s Thibaut Courtois, Federico Valverde, Eduardo Camavinga and Vinicius Jr have tested positive too, the club said.

The La Liga has been on a short winter break since Real’s last match on December 22 and the pacesetters are back in action on January 2 when they travel to Getafe.

Several Real players tested positive for coronavirus earlier this month.