Mark Catlin urges calm as 'business as usual' for Portsmouth amid coronavirus fears and Wembley concerns

Arsenal’s game with Manchester City has tonight been called off as a ‘precautionary measure’ after Olympiakos owner Evangelos Marinakis contracted the virus.

Marinakis came into contact with several Gunners players in their Europa League match with his club a fortnight ago – in turn, Arsenal faced Pompey in the FA Cup fifth round on March 2.

However, Pompey’s League One fixture with Accrington at Fratton Park on Saturday is expected to go ahead.

In addition, the Leasing.com Trophy final against Salford at Wembley remains scheduled for April 5.

The Blues have sold in excess of 50,000 tickets for that event, while have now been allocated an additional 5-10,000 seats.

And chief executive Catlin has appealed for calm from supporters in the current climate.

He told The News: ‘The situation with Leasing.com Trophy final is the game is scheduled to take place. Until we hear anything differently, that is what we are working towards.

‘Genuinely, no-one has contacted us about the prospect of postponing games, it is literally business as usual until we are told otherwise and we will listen to the experts.

‘We are following the government guidelines and urge everyone else to do the same in regards of personal hygiene and if you have visited infected areas.

‘That’s the message we have related to our staff as well.

‘It’s just business as usual, getting the messages out like we did yesterday on the website about personal hygiene and obviously being sensible.

‘We are 100 per cent following the government’s guidelines in regards of games being on, off or postponed.’