Mikel Arteta famously made his
Arsenal players prepare for
Liverpool by training while loudspeakers blasted out You'll Never Walk Alone. The former Everton player and
Manchester City assistant had already endured enough misery at Anfield to last a lifetime, and the thinking was that the more comfortable his players were with the atmosphere they expected to get the more chance they had of winning. They lost 4-0, although they are now unbeaten in their last three trips. There's an obvious joke for how Arteta will prepare Arsenal for the Etihad, but amid the ongoing tedious swipes at City's atmosphere anyone who watched the fixture last season saw the visitors blown away by the noise that swept all over them. Arriving as title leaders, within minutes of kick-off the Gunners were run ragged and a furious Arteta had to admit after the game that they never recovered. ALSO READ: sunday embargo ALSO READ:
Pep Guardiola breaks Man City silence over season ticket rises There's an argument that the atmosphere for
Real Madrid at home last season was the best, and the La Liga giants certainly felt it. Federico Valverde described the Etihad as the toughest stadium he had played in on the back of it, while Madrid newspaper Marca described it as 'the harshest Madrid had encountered in many years, a complete trap'. It certainly was noisy, although the matches shortly before it against Bayern and Arsenal felt more partisan, more visceral. They felt like as well as the players were ready to turn predators into prey, so were 55,000 around the pitch. A quirk of the Manchester weather gave the Arsenal match the edge over Bayern as well, with a massive banner prepared by the 1894 group for the
Champions League game abandoned due to bad weather and debuted against Arteta's team instead. It felt like the actions of a big club on a big night, and Arsenal grew smaller and smaller as Kevin De Bruyne and the Blues crushed them into the turf. This was the Etihad at its best, giving home advantage like it had never done before to lift City towards the Treble. Comparisons to other ground are pretty irrelevant if it is having a positive influence on City and a negative impact on their opponents. Of course, it has not always been like that. Like many teams moving from an old historic stadium to a newbuild - Arsenal have experienced the same going from Highbury to the Emirates - it took time for the atmosphere to build and attendances dipped below 40,000 before the takeover in 2008. Even with the success that Pep Guardiola has brought and an extension to 55,000 seats, it is only in the last few years that Champions League group stage matches have begun to sell out every time. Guardiola has been vocal about demanding more from the supporters during his time in
England, and had particular issues with Blues fans over the Champions League where their anger and apathy towards UEFA made him feel like they weren't as bothered about European success as they should have been. However, while it tends to generate headlines whenever he talks about the atmosphere his attitude towards supporters is only the same as him asking for more from Erling Haaland after a hat-trick. The set-up of supporters inside the ground had the intention of mirroring the raucous Maine Road as best as possible but the similarities are not strong and having away supporters bisecting the two most vocal blocks of the stadium in the South Stand does not help the noise, while hospitality areas have increased since Guardiola's arrival. However, the rail seating has helped and the extension of the North Stand should hypothetically add to the noise even if there are concerns amid supporter groups over the club's balance between atmosphere and generating revenue. City have not lost any of their last 38 games at the Etihad with 33 wins and five draws in that time, a run dating back to November 2022. This season they can surpass the club record of 42 unbeaten set at Hyde Road over a century ago These runs seems implausibly difficult to achieve if the fans had not helped the team. As Jack Grealish said this week ahead of their meeting with Arsenal: "I just feel that when teams come to the Etihad, I feel like we always make it difficult for them." As with any club, the atmosphere tends to be better for the biggest games and there are plenty of matches early in the season where there is less noise. However, Guardiola got more than he wanted in the recent derby when there was impatience over the time City were taking to build play up. The manager would always rather more noise than not - even boos - and he has asked fans to repeat their levels from the United match for the big games in the run-in against Arsenal, Villa, Real Madrid and the rest. A coach who wants every advantage possible will leave no stone unturned. He will probably get it, yet the decision by the club in the international break to sneak out season ticket rises for next season has left significant bad blood. All four of the organised supporter groups have come out strongly against it, with 1894 declaring it a 'battle for the heart and soul of the club'. As the fans see it, serial price rises against the backdrop of record revenues and profits are designed not to retain the value of tickets by driving it up but to drive out loyal season ticket holders in return for more money at the expense of atmosphere. And if the club have that strategy when they extend the North Stand, it will only get more difficult to improve or even retain the noise at the Etihad. The club may be able to hold off the growing dissent for the time being, and the anger of supporters may even work in the team's favour in the short-term; the
Premier League charges certainly added an extra bite to the Etihad last season. However, if Arsenal and Real Madrid can still expect a cauldron similar to last year in the coming weeks, beyond that more change at the stadium could well sweep in more uncertainty.