Funnily enough, a Europa League dead rubber against the best football club from Belarus didn’t prove to be much of a crowd-puller at The Emirates on Thursday night.
With Arsenal already securing qualification to the knockout stages of the competition weeks ago, their final group game against BATE Borisov was a decent opportunity for Arsene Wenger to field some of his squad players; maybe a few youngsters, too.
As a result, the game was played in front of fewer people than were in your class at primary school. Or at least that’s how it seemed…
Though no official figures were doing the rounds at the time of writing, it was widely reported that this was the lowest attendance ever for a game at The Emirates since the stadium was built.
Plenty of those that bothered to watch BT Sport’s coverage of the game were surprised by the sight of so many vacant seats, many of them commenting on it on social media.
Never mind the importance of the game the attendance at the Emirates is embarrassing
— KG (@_KieranGrant_) December 7, 2017
Damn I seen bigger attendances at a Sunday league game than at the crowd at the Emirates tonight #arsenal
— DW10 (@danielwilks10) December 7, 2017
This Arsenal crowd is everything wrong with modern football. It’s Arsenal in a major European cup. But you only interested when the likes of Barca are there…..#EuropaLeague
— Scott Tulloch (@TattooedAndBald) December 7, 2017
Attendance at the Emirates a disgrace. Fans?
— Ian Wheaton (@iwheaton) December 7, 2017
https://twitter.com/TheStuartWilkie/status/938862768131903488
Arsenal attendance at the Emirates, they should have just used the nearest sports centre , the grounds empty ,
— John Ferris (@johnfer73) December 7, 2017
https://twitter.com/JacobsPete/status/938861377594298368
Can't wait for the announcer at the Emirates to give the attendance as 58,794.#AFCvBATE
— Pier (@Pier_C_1) December 7, 2017
Arsenal weekend defeat to Manchester United (which attracted a considerably bigger crowd) leaves them fifth in the Premier League table, already 15 points behind leaders, Manchester City.
