October 4 – The seventh round of fixtures saw the largest attendance yet across the Premier League this season, partly due to kick-off times, stadium sizes and having an extra fixture due to a rescheduling of the Luton/Burnley match from earlier in the season.
A whopping 436,458 fans piled into Premier League grounds to witness the match week’s footballing action – from heroic upsets to a VAR disasterclass, it was a weekend that hugged the headlines.
West Ham champion the percentage capacity chart this week, alongside Luton who find themselves as late editions to the 99% club after their 1-2 loss to relegation rivals Burnley at Kenilworth road last night.
The majority of teams recorded an impressive turnout, averaging 97.77% maximum capacity despite poor showings from Aston Villa, Nottingham Forest and Fulham, who all scored around the 95% mark. The average is 0.6% down on last week.
In fact, Fulham have yet to break above 95% – the only Premier League team not to do so.
Manchester United yet again had the highest turnout of the week, with 73,428 fans present for the Red Devils’ 0-1 loss to Crystal Palace, who they beat comfortably in the EFL Cup just days before. The loss won’t help their Champions League place ambitions as they sit 10th in the table, already nine points shy of their City rivals after seven games. Despite the team’s early struggles and questions surrounding Erik Ten Hag’s future, Old Trafford reached 98.5% capacity for the fourth time as many matches this season.
Despite remaining at the peak of the table, Manchester City were subject to the upset of the week, losing 2-1 to Wolves at the Molineux in front of a crowd that left only 635 seats unfilled. South Korean striker Hwang Hee-chan netted the late winner for the underdogs, which rang particularly sweet with the player himself after being referred to as ‘the Korean guy’ by Pep Guardiola in the build up to the game.
Contact the writer of this story, Harry Ewing, at moc.l1734906853labto1734906853ofdlr1734906853owedi1734906853sni@g1734906853niwe.1734906853yrrah1734906853