Arsenal quartet Nicolas Pepe, Alexandre Lacazette, David Luiz and Granit Xhaka have reportedly become the latest Premier League stars to ignore the government’s coronavirus lockdown rules.
According to the Sun, Pepe – the club’s record £72million signing – was filmed playing football with a dozen or so friends in north London, with footage later going round on WhatsApp.
Meanwhile, French striker Lacazette was pictured standing next to a man who was cleaning the Arsenal star’s Audi in his driveway on Monday.
Furthermore, Xhaka and former Chelsea centre back Luiz were snapped meeting up with each other for a kickabout in parkland near Oakwood Station in Southgate, north London.
Former Lille winger Pepe also shared another kickabout with his friends on Instagram.
After Arsenal were made aware of the antics, a club spokesman told the Sun: ‘Thank you for bringing this to our attention. We’ll be speaking to our players.
‘We were concerned so we have spoken to Nicolas who shares a house with a number of relatives who were involved in this game.
‘We have reminded him of the importance of everyone following the guidelines.’
Pepe was spotted enjoying a kickabout on an astroturf pitch in Collingdale’s Graham Park last week – before police shut the pitch after complaints were made.
The Arsenal quartet have followed a number of other Premier League players who have flouted the coronavirus lockdown rules.
On Tuesday, it emerged that Tottenham duo Serge Aurier and Moussa Sissoko trained together, with the former posting footage of them going through their paces on social media before deleting the videos.
The pair were then forced to apologise after ignoring the government’s lockdown regulations stating that exercise is only allowed with people from your own household as they do not live together.
Jose Mourinho was recently forced to speak up after he held a one-on-one session with midfielder Tanguy Ndombele on Hadley Common, Barnet.
On the same day Davinson Sanchez and Ryan Sessegnon, plus Aurier, were all spotted nearby disregarding the instructions while out for runs in their pairs.
Manchester City and England right back Kyle Walker broke the rules by holding a sex party with two escorts.
It had emerged that the pair — who it is claimed were paid £2,200 — had been invited to Walker’s rented Cheshire property.
And finally the week before, Aston Villa captain and England hopeful Jack Grealish ignored government instructions after attending a late-night party at the flat of former team-mate Ross McCormack.
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