September 20 – With the international break over, fans up and down the Premier League returned in their hundreds of thousands for a weekend packed with a selection of last-minute winners and nasty upsets.
Thanks to this week’s hosts holding the majority of the Premier League’s biggest stadiums, match week 5 of England’s top flight saw the largest aggregate attendance since the start of the season at 424,756.
However the round also recorded the lowest average %capacity of the league season so far, brought down by empty seats at Bournemouth, Fulham and Nottingham Forest, the latter of which can only partly be blamed due to their fixture being held on the Monday night.
Manchester United held the largest crowd in their 1-3 loss to Brighton, who appear to be the Red Devils’ kryptonite after winning four of their last five games against the 20-time champions. The Red Devils continue to limp on in a difficult start to the new campaign, as the first five matches have them placed in 13th on six points. Despite the team’s early struggles and questions surrounding Erik Ten Hag’s future, Old Trafford reached 99% capacity for the second time in three matches this season.
West Ham United’s loss to Manchester City saw the week’s best % capacity, as only 25 seats were left cold over the course of the 3-1 affair. The London Stadium reached its highest attendance of the season at 99.96% of its 62,500 capacity.
Only 10,421 fans watched Bournemouth’s 0-0 draw with a struggling Chelsea team, the lowest % capacity of the season so far, though this lower capacity may have been the result of media seat kills. The match was the only goalless draw of the season with five rounds of the new campaign completed.
Contact the writer of this story at moc.l1734911818labto1734911818ofdlr1734911818owedi1734911818sni@g1734911818niwe.1734911818yrrah1734911818