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By Tony Attwood
Arsenal’s policy of playing more and more women’s matches at Arsenal stadium rather than at Boreham Wood’s ground (capacity 4500) seems to be paying off, as the club have signed Spain’s World Cup-winning Spain forward Mariona Caldentey from Barcelona.
Overall the attendance for women’s games at Arsenal Stadium has averaged 31,428, but this is somewhat misleading as the numbers have been rising particularly in the last season – although are held back by the games at Boreham Wood.
In fact Arsenal sold out for two consecutive matches last season, (over 60,000 in each game) as for the first time they held the majority of their home matches at the Arsenal Stadium. Better still the 60,160 attendance for the game against Manchester United was an all-time Women’s Super League record, and in fact each of the last four games all had crowds of over the 60,000 mark.
Those games beat the previous record of 59.042 for a women’s match in the stadium which was clocked up last December against Chelsea (a 4-1 win), which in turn beat the record set the previous October for the match against Liverpool where 54,115 attended.
Arsenal have now overtaken Barcelona as the best-attended club for women’s games, with clubs like Barcelona only selling out on occasion for matches against Real Madrid and local rivals.
The average attendance for clubs in the Women’s Premier League last season was incredibly varied – and Arsenal’s average attendance is only as low as it is because of some games being played at Boreham Wood. (Figures do vary from one source to another but the general picture is always the same. These come from Football Web Pages)
| 2023/4 | 2022/.23 | ||
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Arsenal | 29,999 | 17,501 |
| 2 | Manchester United | 10,957 | 10,174 |
| 3 | Chelsea | 9,266 | 5,804 |
| 4 | Manchester City | 7,108 | 7,195 |
| 5 | Bristol City | 6,974 | |
| 6 | Aston Villa | 5,100 | 4,199 |
| 7 | Liverpool | 4,668 | 4,758 |
| 8 | Tottenham Hotspur | 4,317 | 4,113 |
| 9 | Brighton & Hove Albion | 3,553 | 3,427 |
| 10 | Leicester City | 2,656 | 2,901 |
| 11 | Everton | 2,071 | 3,187 |
| 12 | West Ham United | 1,892 | 1,524 |
Thus this season Arsenal have attracted crowds that are nearly three times the average crowds of their rivals. And the Arsenal average will shoot up even higher this coming season with more games being played at Arsenal, and fewer at Boreham Wood.
In fact looking at the clubs in the table above, only two clubs managed to get an average of 25% of the numbers attending Arsenal’s games.
It is also interesting that these figures are not a simple reflection of how well the club is doing, for Arsenal ended the season in third place, five points behind the top two, far less well-supported clubs. Hopefully, the continuing use of the main Arsenal ground will help the team bridge that gap.
| Team | P | W | D | L | F | A | GD | Pts | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Chelsea Women | 22 | 18 | 1 | 3 | 71 | 18 | 53 | 55 |
| 2 | Manchester City Women | 22 | 18 | 1 | 3 | 61 | 15 | 46 | 55 |
| 3 | Arsenal Women | 22 | 16 | 2 | 4 | 53 | 20 | 33 | 50 |
| 4 | Liverpool Women | 22 | 12 | 5 | 5 | 36 | 28 | 8 | 41 |
| 5 | Manchester United Women | 22 | 10 | 5 | 7 | 42 | 32 | 10 | 35 |
| 6 | Tottenham Hotspur Women | 22 | 8 | 7 | 7 | 31 | 36 | -5 | 31 |
| 7 | Aston Villa Women | 22 | 7 | 3 | 12 | 27 | 43 | -16 | 24 |
| 8 | Everton Women | 22 | 6 | 5 | 11 | 24 | 37 | -13 | 23 |
| 9 | Brighton and Hove Albion Women | 22 | 5 | 4 | 13 | 26 | 48 | -22 | 19 |
| 10 | Leicester City Women | 22 | 4 | 6 | 12 | 26 | 45 | -19 | 18 |
| 11 | West Ham United Women | 22 | 3 | 6 | 13 | 20 | 45 | -25 | 15 |
| 12 | Bristol City Women. | 22 | 1 | 3 | 18 | 20 | 70 | -50 | 6 |
Certainly, it is the thought of bridging the gap to the top two that has led to the transfer of Mariona Caldentey from Barcelona.
In Spain, the top three teams in the women’s league are similar to those in the men’s table – Barcelona, Real Madrid and Atletico Madrid, but it is a sign of Barcelona’s financial troubles that they have let a star player go on a free transfer at the end of her contract rather than offer her a new contract.
We might also care to note that last season Barcelona Women scored 137 goals and conceded 10 goals in a total of 30 games winning 29 and drawing one. Mariona made 302 appearances for Barcelona in total, scoring 114 goals.
But… here’s the strange thing. She only scored ten goals last season although her club were scoring around 4.5 goals a game on average. No one seems to be mentioning this statistic so maybe I’ve got that wrong (here’s my source) If you understand why do let me know… I’m guessing she’s intended as the second striker, not the main striker. (Forgive my ignorance – and help me out!)
