Arsenal expect to return to small group training on Wednesday, following coronavirus tests on 40 players and essential staff this week.

The Athletic report that Arsenal are one of the clubs planning to return to training on Wednesday. 75-minute group training sessions on grass are now permitted, albeit with a number of restrictions.

Most notably, players will split into groups of roughly five for training. There’s no confirmed plan for the return of contact training just yet, and players will still change at home, park cars two metres apart, avoid face-to-face tactical meetings, and so on.

The Premier League released the results of Monday’s coronavirus testing on Tuesday at 2pm. After that, a number of clubs restarted training immediately. However, Arsenal joined Liverpool and Manchester United in waiting an extra day to start up again.

The league plan to audit team training sessions, keeping an eye out for any clubs training longer than 75 minutes. For the time being, everyone is obviously exercising a lot of caution.

On another note, Premier League chief executive Richard Masters admits they hope to play any games in hand early in the revised schedule, in case they need to call off the season again.

So I hope you’re all looking forward to any away match against Manchester City as soon as football returns.