Why Cardiff will be a sea of red for Sunday's Arsenal vs Man City Community Shield

Just 84 days on from Arsenal hoisting the Premier League trophy aloft at Selhurst Park, the Gunners new competitive campaign commences in Cardiff with the FA Community Shield. Mikel Arteta's team will be up against familiar foes Manchester City, albeit it may be something of a new-look side in sky blues, given that Enzo Maresca has replaced Pep Guardiola, after his decade in charge came to an end.

However, what has had people talking before the traditional curtain raiser is events off the pitch, just to the side in fact. First thing to note is why this fixture is being played at the Millennium Stadium rather than Wembley. Well, the game is taking place a week later than the FA anticipated due to the expanded World Cup. Thus, the national stadium in London was already booked by the Weeknd for five nights as part of his After Hours til Dawn Tour, hence why an alternative venue had to be found.

Nevertheless, it remains a fixture taking place at a neutral venue, meaning both clubs were given an equal split of tickets. Arsenal started with 25,987 tickets in the south side, with Manchester City allocated 26,703 in the north end. However, earlier this week, Arsenal announced they had received an extra allocation of 6,755, after their opponents failed to sell out all their tickets.

This has led to those who have secured tickets via the FA being moved into Man City sections, to accommodate the extra Gooners who've snapped up last minute tickets. After a few more blocks of tickets trickled in throughout the week, Arsenal will have at least 32,742 fans at the Millennium Stadium, in excess of 14,000 more than their opponents.

Given that the TV broadcast camera is from the west stand, it may not appear that Man City are outnumbered as they are to those watching from afar. However, there truly will be a sea of red in Cardiff, as if it were a Welsh rugby home game in the 6 Nations.

Also worth noting the difference in how the two clubs sold their tickets. Man City started with season ticket holders on lots of loyalties points, working their way down, as one might expect. Subsequently, the tickets have been on sale to "all fans who have purchased tickets for 1+ match at the Etihad Stadium" since 31 July, with up to four tickets available per membership. Even then, they did not come anywhere near to selling out.

On the flip side, Arsenal's tickets first went on sale to Season Ticket Holders with 10+ away credits, of which there are approximately 4,000. After that, it was open to all Season Ticket Holders, Silver Members and then Red Members, with those in the latter category buying 12,045 in only a couple of hours.

Given that demand for Arsenal tickets has never been higher, there will be thousands of supporters in attendance in Cardiff for whom it will be their first-ever expirence of watching Arsenal away from the Emirates. Even getting into home matches is nigh on impossible, unless you are lucky enough to be a season ticket holder.

This, alongside all the multiple celebrations after Mikel Arteta's team won the Premier League, all underline the power of Arsenal. Despite their dominance and success, that is something Manchester City will never have. Citizens' same old complaint is that fans don't want to go to Wembley. It's boring, they play there four times a season and it's too expensive. Would you like to guess how many times they've played at the Millennium Stadium before? That's right! Never.

Of course, one has to be sympathetic to the cost argument. Everything is expensive, no one has got any money and that obviously isn't good. That understandable, and is surely partly why only around a third of Arsenal's Season Ticket Holders are heading to Cardiff on Sunday, with many giving it a miss. However, it is the fact that almost 18,000 silver and red members are going instead is what underlines the depth of support, that only the truly biggest clubs can boast, not the most successful ones.

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