Mikel Arteta and Arsenal have showed their class when one of the club’s biggest supporters was struck down with the deadly coronavirus.

True Gooner Keith Martin follows the north Londoner giants everywhere and is well known among the club’s support.

However, Keith, became infected by the killer Covid-19 coronavirus and required breathing equipment in hospital as he faced his biggest challenge – simply to stay alive.

To compound matters, the well-respected Arsenal man also has asthma, which raised serious fears about his health as his body battled for oxygen.

However, during his darkest hour, big-hearted Arsenal boss Arteta took the time to send him a heartfelt message “to stay strong, we are all behind you and fighting this with you.”

Yet it wasn’t just the Gunners boss who urged Keith to win his struggle, past and present players also took the time to back Keith during his fight with the killer virus.

Gunners royalty Charlie George, Eddie Kelly and Tony Adams all recorded personal messages of support which Keith received on his phone by his hospital bed while Arsenal’s highly-rated Bukayo Saka also took the time to send him a video message on WhatsApp urging him to win his battle.

Thanks to the care and dedication of the NHS staff, Keith’s fighting spirit and no little encouragement from Arsenal, Keith rallied and was allowed to leave hospital earlier this week to continue his convalescence back at his home in Essex.

Speaking to the Gooner Fanzine Keith shares his story

“I didn’t want to take up a hospital bed when there are so many others who need it more but I’d never felt so rough. For the fortnight before I’d not felt brilliant but when the paramedics saw me on the Tuesday I had no energy, I was coughing, and very weak so they took me by ambulance to Chelmsford hospital.

“Although I wasn’t in intensive care they put me in a special ward dedicated to helping those fight coronavirus,with all the staff wearing visors and PPE equipment.

“I suppose looking back it was a bit strange to see all that, but at the time I felt so rough they could have been wearing clown’s outfits and I wouldn’t have really noticed.

Keith pays tribute to the ‘magnificent’ NHS

“I have to pay tribute to the NHS and everyone associated with it. They were absolutely magnificent. I can’t praise them highly enough for the superb care I received.

"Their dedication and commitment defied belief and I would just like to say thank you to everyone at the NHS.”

“I was in isolation for six long days and during the ‘bad bit’ , as I call, it your mind does race with negative thoughts.”

Arsenal boost Keith during his darkest hours

However, during his darkest moments his club’s support – along with many hundreds of messages from well-wishers throughout the Gooner family across the globe buoyed his spirits during those low times.

With hospital staff closely monitoring Keith’s oxygen levels while continually checking vital statistics such as his blood pressure he could barely move through being wired up while requiring breathing equipment.

The hospital allowed mobile phones for patients as a vital link to the outside world and despite being seriously ill Keith was no different.

However, as he himself admits, he is a ‘bit of a dinosaur’ when it comes to technology adding he can ‘barely send a text message’, so when his wife Joanne, sitting loyally by his side, received a message on her phone she suggested he read it.

My mobile phone was my lifeline

“My phone was my lifeline when I was in the ‘bearpit’ as I call it,” Keith, 66, explained.

“Jo got a message and said to me: ‘I’ve got something you. I think you should read this’ and handed me her phone.

“Well, it was a message from the boss Mikel Arteta.

“Footballers and football clubs get a bad rap for things but when they do something as magnificent as contacting an ill supporter, it gives you such a boost. “

Despite being tasked with football concerns Arteta had taken time out from his busy schedule to write a message of support to Keith.

It read: “Dear Keith, I’ve been informed you haven’t been very well. I am very sorry to hear this. On behalf of everyone at Arsenal I send you our vest wishes.

"I know this is a very challlenging time for our supporters who are unfortunately going through difficult times in their lives, either physically or mentally as they could be separated from family and friends.

"I just want you to know everyone at Arsenal's thoughts are with you. I have also been informed that you are an avid supporter travelling to all our matches and we are extremely grateful for this.

"On behalf of the players, staff and management at Arsenal Football Club, once again I send you our best wishes, please stay strong Keith, we are all behind you and fighting this with you."

Upon reading Arteta's moving message Keith freely admits he ‘burst into tears’

“It was a magnificent gesture and a class act from a class club I’ll never forget,” he said.

“Not only did it lift my spirits it made me burst with pride. It was sensational and something that will live with me forever.”

Yet, Arteta’s message wasn’t the only one loyal Gooner Keith received during his illness.

Through his long association with the club and many of the hard-working staff behind the scenes – including the wonderful Sue Campbell who is the north London giants ’head of travel, events and supporter liaison, former players, Arsenal icons Adams, George and Kelly also sent their backing.

The legendary Adams, typically, was forthright in urging Keith to beat the deadly virus wreaking havoc across the globe – while Arteta’s teenage starlet Saka also sent a WhatsApp video in support.

Keith's missed only four Arsenal matches in 42 years

Keith, who went to his first Arsenal match in 1963, has missed only four games in 42 years.

Two were for the ‘bucket list’, flying to New York’s Madison Square Garden to watch Lennox Lewis take on Evander Holyfield, while a trip to Barbados to cheer on the England cricket team in a Test against the West Indies was the second.

Keith also ran the 2000 London Marathon to raise money for research into Parkinson’s, a disease which his late father suffered from. With Sky moving Arsenal’s match with Leeds at Elland Road to the Sunday, the 26.2 mile fundraiser for a great cause understandably took precedence.

As Keith recalled dryly, ‘We worked it out that if I could complete the marathon in a time of 2:10 I could still make Leeds away…’

The final match he missed was, sadly, for his father’s funeral as he was preparing to fly to Romania for Arsenal’s Champions League match against Steaua Bucharest in early October 2007.

As Keith concludes: “Arsenal means the world to me, always has done, always will – but when you receive a message in your hospital bed from the club saying: ‘You mean the world to us’, well, it just makes you burst with pride.“

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