December 6 – Manchester City recorded the most empty seats of any Premier League team this season as revealed by Inside World Football’s Capacity Tracker for matchweek 14, despite Pep Guardiola’s side turning around their losing form with a much-needed victory on Wednesday night.
The data shows that attendance at the Etihad continues to drop- now at 3,326 empty seats. That figure was about 2,500 on MD12 and 2,000 on MD10.
Back to winning ways now thanks to a 3-0 display versus Nottingham Forest, it will be interesting to see whether this heals the holder’s slowly dwindling attendance in weeks to come.
With an average attendance of 96.9% across the matchday, this week falls well short of the league average (97.69%), perhaps due to being midweek fixtures and therefore less appealing to travelling fans.
Fulham, Leicester City, Southampton and Everton all join City as teams far off the average score, marking a disappointing turnout that ranks amongst the top three lowest of the season.
Newcastle and Arsenal have become regulars of the 99% club now, having reached that figure at every opportunity this season. The magpies faced Liverpool in what has been described one of the most entertaining matches so far this season- a 3-3 thriller which kept fans guessing until the final whistle.
Arsenal, meanwhile, hosted Ruben Amorim’s new-look Manchester United in front of a week-topping 60,256 fans. Set pieces made the difference for Arteta’s side, whose 2-0 victory meant they closed the gap to leaders Liverpool to seven points.
Other strong performers this week were Aston Villa, who narrowly missed out on the 99% mark for their 3-1 victory over Brentford, and Bournemouth, who themselves achieved an important win over Spurs in front of a 98.73%-full Vitality Stadium.
Contact the writer of this story, Harry Ewing, at moc.l1734948330labto1734948330ofdlr1734948330owedi1734948330sni@g1734948330niwe.1734948330yrrah1734948330