Tickets for Arsenal’s final EPL match goes for £10,000 instead of £73

Arsenal supporters hoping to be part of a possible first title celebration in nearly two decades face paying thousands of pounds for a ticket on resale websites.

Standard tickets for Arsenal’s last game of the season at home to Wolverhampton Wanderers on May 28 are on sale for more than £10,000 each, 137 times the original price of £73, and corporate seats are being offered at about £20,000 on StubHub.

The Premier League title could go down to the wire after Arsenal’s lead at the top of the table was cut to six points with their 2-2 draw away to Liverpool.

Manchester City could move to within three points of the north London club if they win their game in hand, and they also play host to Arsenal this month.

Arsenal have clamped down on ticket touting recently, cancelling nearly 2,000 memberships, and have warned supporters about the risk of scams and buying tickets that may turn out to be fake from third-party websites.

The club have received strong backing from the Arsenal Supporters’ Trust, which will discuss the problem during a meeting with club officials next week.

Arsenal have said they have blocked nearly 500,000 IP addresses because of suspected “bot activity” during the sale of tickets for the match against Wolves.

“Anyone buying tickets from unofficial outlets runs a very high risk of paying heavily inflated prices, receiving counterfeit or duplicated tickets and ultimately being denied access to the match. We deal with hundreds of supporters every match day who have been sold a fake ticket or a ticket that’s been sold multiple times,” the club said.

Arsenal’s home match with Chelsea has been moved back to 8pm on Tuesday, May 2, after the Metropolitan Police changed its mind and refused to allow it to be played on Saturday, April 29, at 5.30pm.

Arsenal and Chelsea fans issued a joint statement in which they criticised the late change and said they would raise the issue with Sadiq Khan, the mayor of London, who oversees the Met.

The 5.30pm kick-off time was approved by the police at a safety advisory group meeting (SAG) in February but it is understood that they have revised their position on permitting high-risk matches to begin after 4.30pm on a weekend amid concerns about issues such as drinking.

Arsenal and the Premier League, in a statement, expressed their disappointment. “The Metropolitan Police has now revised its position regarding the kick-off time and requested a further SAG meeting, which determined the match had to be rescheduled,” the Premier League said. “We regret the need to move this fixture at late notice and the impact this will have on supporters.”

William Saliba, the Arsenal defender, has not returned to training since sustaining a back injury and is unlikely to play against West Ham United on Sunday. The France centre back has missed three matches since he went off when Arsenal were eliminated from the Europa League by Sporting Lisbon four weeks ago. Arsenal are worried about rushing him back and aggravating the issue. Eddie Nketiah, the forward, has returned to training after a month out with an ankle injury.