Arsenal at the Emirates.

Arsenal Women have proven that they are just as good at selling tickets for WSL and UWCL games to get a large support behind them as the men’s team are in their respective competitions, so should the club be trying to sort more match days at the Emirates?

The team have proven to be popular with crowds they bring to N5 on an Emirates matchday and benefit from the large support with big wins when in need.

As things currently stand Arsenal have three remaining WSL matches left in the 2023/24 season to be played at the Emirates, being Manchester United, North London rivals Tottenham Hotspur and Leicester City, with the Leicester game in April only recently being added due to the demand of the Gooners through ticket sales.

In the last year or so, Arsenal have brought a lot of attraction from players with the likes of Alessia Russo and Emily Fox signing for the club and the likes of Katie McCabe signing a contract extension just to name a few and attraction from supporters with Arsenal breaking WSL attendance records in 2023, most recently in December, with an attendance of 59,042 when they beat Chelsea 4-1 so who’s to say they can’t break it again in 2024 or even before the end of this season, especially with a North London Derby approaching in early March.

In the 2023 summer transfer window Arsenal made it very clear that they were in it to win it this season in all competitions with making the signing of Russo on a free from Manchester United as a proven goal scorer in the WSL and popping up with goals in big games at the Emirates so far to live up to the hype. In the 2024 winter window, they’ve only strengthened from here with the likes of previously mentioned Emily Fox coming in to provide the service down the right flank who's already been a nominee for WSL player of the month, as well as keeping Vivianne Miedema and Lia Wälti, as there was a lot of speculation that both players could have been leaving the club, not only that but the returns of the Miedema, Beth Mead and Leah Williamson from their ACL injuries between October and January felt like fresh new signings in a way according to Head Coach, Jonas Eidevall so from new signing to important returns, Arsenal have became real threats to Chelsea’s WSL crown, as well as still being more than alive in the other two domestic competitions, the Continental League Cup and the FA Cup, where they face fellow WSL title rivals Manchester City in the fifth round, which could have had scope being at the Emirates with Arsenal getting the home tie, although notoriously in any version of any level of cup ties don’t do as well in attendance as a league game, they could still have had a really strong support and belief behind them to help push them into the quarter-finals of the competition.

Arsenal’s last league game is against Brighton & Hove Albion at Meadow Park in May, meaning the club have had the luck for that all important last game, if it comes down to fine margins at that point, to be playing at ‘home’ so Arsenal do have the opportunity to announce one last game for the women at the Emirates. Currently, the club would have enough time to announce that game to be at the Emirates and have the belief that the team will still be in the race in the last matchday or even already been crowned as league winners to help encourage the Gunners to get the job done and be able to lift the trophy for the first time since the 2018/19 season and as we’ve seen with the Leicester fixture being moved to the Emirates, why can’t the Brighton fixture follow suit in the belief of those circumstances?

From here, the support can only grow bigger, which would help from next season and onwards, more games than ever before being played at the Emirates in the WSL and the hope of returning to the UWCL group stages and beyond.

Teams face a disadvantage when being a woman down in a game and Arsenal can use that as an advantage if they get their 12th women from the stands of a 60,000 capacity stadium in big games that are important not only for the women’s team but for the Arsenal as a whole.