April 26 – A reduced fixture list for Round 35 of the Premier League saw Leicester City and Spurs topping the attendance capacity chart and Aston Villa a long way off at the bottom – a direct reflection of their league positions.
But not everything in the Premier League attendance garden was rosy. With a set of catch-up fixtures taking place during the week, real attendances dipped, and in Arsenal’s case dramatically, though the number of seats sold still gave the club a crowd reported at 98.57% of the stadium’s capacity.
The reality was far from that figure, with some estimates being as high as 10,000 fans staying away who held tickets in protest against Arsenal’s fall off in form having lead the Premier League at Christmas – Arsenal are currently in third and battling to ensure Champions League qualification with the two Manchester clubs.
What is painful for most Arsenal fans is that they sit one place behind North London rivals Spurs with little prospect of overtaking them in the three remaining fixtures.
The tale of Aston Villa gets sorrier and sorrier with the club dropping below 70% of their capacity to watch them lose to Southampton. Those fans that did turn up spent most of the time abusing or taunting their team – it was a sight as desperate as the club’s performance this season.
The low Villa crowd dragged the overall average attendance capacity for the Premier League down to 93.09%, the lowest week average this season.
More positively West Ham packed their fans into the Boleyn Ground again as they start the final fixtures to be played there before their move next season to London’s Olympic Stadium.
Four Premier League teams played at Wembley over the weekend in the FA Cup semi-finals. Manchester United and Everton pretty much filled the venue for their tie with a crowd of 86,064 travelling the 200 miles from the north west. But Watford and Crystal Palace – both of whom are considerably nearer to Wembley– could only manage a crowd of 79,110.
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