Arsenal are in danger of having their record lowest attendance at the Emirates tonight as Unai Emery continues to fight for his job.
The Europa League clash against Eintracht Frankfurt is set to be played in front of swathes of empty seats, with the Spaniard looking to turn the tide after six games without a win.
Supporters of the German club are banned from attending after crowd disturbances during their match against Vitoria Guimaraes last month and Arsenal have placed strict restrictions on the sale of tickets.
Season ticket holders, of which there are around 45,000, can attend the game but despite having already paid for their seats, it is feared nearly half of them will not turn up tonight.
A spokesperson for the Arsenal Supporters’ Trust said: “Hands are tied with the ban on away fans and Arsenal unable to open the ticket exchange. We expect a significantly lower attendance and this shows the unhappiness amongst the fanbase.”
Arsenal’s official lowest attendance at the Emirates stands at 44,064 for the Carabao Cup tie against Doncaster Rovers in September 2017.
That figure, however, represents tickets sold by the club and the unofficial lowest attendance is believed to be against BATE Borisov in December 2017, when around 30,000 turned up - despite tickets sold being at 54,648.
Tonight’s attendance could be lower than that, though, with no away fans. Frankfurt had planned to bring 5,000 for the tie and with fears that some of their supporters may still travel over, Arsenal have made tickets hard to purchase.
“Following discussions with the police and local authorities, we have placed restrictions on ticket sales,” Arsenal said in a statement.
Arsenal have enjoyed relatively strong crowds in the Europa League so far, with 60,195 tickets sold for their match against Vitoria Guimaraes and 58,725 for Standard Liege.
There were still pockets of empty seats for those games, however, and they should be plenty more tonight given fans cannot use the Ticket Exchange Service. As of this morning, tickets were available in all but eight blocks of the stadium.
Arsenal need a point to reach the last 32 but the toxic atmosphere at the club is not helping their bid to qualify. Emery knows he is running out of time to stop the rot and reports last night were linking Wolves boss Nuno Espirito Santo with the club.
“I know some doubt is coming about the results but my objective is to change that and connect with the supporters,” said the Spaniard.
“The teams are coming here and playing fearless against us. This is the first thing we need to change. We need to change it and we need to be strong and we need to be together.”
