Arsenal managing director Keith Edelman has hit out at suggestions there is a general decline in attendances in the English Premiership, rejecting projected crowd figures as 'spurious numbers'.
Edelman, who is in Hong Kong to promote a residential development on the site of their Highbury ground once their new Ashburton Grove stadium is completed, thinks the Premiership remains healthy and there was no need to panic.
'People give you numbers not very carefully at the beginning of the season,' said Edelman. 'What's happened is that we [Arsenal] haven't played as many games as other teams. Nor have Liverpool. Obviously, we have very big gates. So if you adjust all of that, it's a very small number of fewer fans who have visited the Premier League.
'But it's in the hundreds and not half a million as people are mentioning. I think it's far too early in the season to be analytical without looking at it very carefully, which people haven't done.
'I think there isn't a generic problem in the attendance in the Premiership and Arsenal and Liverpool were full for every match. We have 35,000 people on our season ticket waiting list.
'We have 20,000 people on the match day waiting list who are trying to get on the membership scheme to buy tickets. We are very confident we will fill our new stadium [Emirates Stadium] to capacity.