With much uproar regarding the prices that Manchester City fans were asked to pay for their trip to Arsenal exploding all over the place [£62 in case you have been on Mars], Arsenal were branded by many in the media as the great evil-doers who are fleecing fans.

Arsenal fans, rightly, reacted, not to defend their club; you will be hard pushed to find Arsenal fans who believe the prices they are asked to pay are ‘reasonable’ but to point out that Arsenal are far from the only club to overcharge away clubs and that it wasn’t fair that Arsenal should be singled out.

No-one listened.

Certain journalists reacted by slagging off Arsenal fans further for turning it in to a tribal issue which wasn’t what they were actually doing. Many tried to highlight the fact that it was a football-wide issue but the blinkers were on and the media would not be moved.

So, it is rather refreshing to see that FourFourTwo have undertaken a comprehensive survey regarding the away prices which are charged by clubs and their results make for startling reading.

Firstly, they found that the cost of following Arsenal, Manchester City, Manchester United, Tottenham, Chelsea or Liverpool automatically meant that you paid significantly more than supporters of other Premier League teams but it was the average prices of away tickets which were the most revealing.

FourFourTwo found

… on average, the Gunners are not charging as much for away tickets as London rivals Chelsea. The average cost of the cheapest available adult ticket in the away end at Stamford Bridge is £50.68, far more than the £39.32 of Emirates Stadium.

The reason for the disparity is the Category pricing with Arsenal offering tickets priced at £25.50 for Category C.

Much was made of Arsenal charging £62 but little has been said of the similar price Arsenal fans have been asked to pay at Chelsea. The problem spans across the league, that is the only thing Arsenal fans tried to point out while their club was held up as the money-sucking demon draining fans of their income.

Again, because I know sometimes points get missed the first time, in case anyone reads this and thinks this is an Arsenal fan defending the club, it’s not.

It’s an Arsenal fan simply asking why Arsenal are being singled out?