December 29 – Boxing Day fixtures saw nine out of 10 Premier League home clubs report stadiums over 95% full with the day’s average attendance coming in at 97.1%. Swansea and Chelsea both reported being at over 99% capacity.
Once again Aston Villa were bottom of the table but even they showed some Christmas cheer at 89.23% capacity, a significant improvement on the less than 78% figure reported for their last game.
The biggest improvement was seen at Newcastle United’s St James Park which reported a season high 98.62% capacity only for the home fans to have their festive celebrations crushed by a 90th minute goal by visitors Everton.
While the rest of Europe is resting on a winter break, fixtures come thick and fast in the Premier League with round 19 matches starting December 28 (a public holiday) with eight games played. This is the mid-point of the season for the English teams.
Nearly 6.8 million tickets have been available so far this season, with clubs reporting more than 6.5 million seats filled.
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