Arsenal progress with plans for Emirates Stadium expansion after Manchester United announcement

General view of Arsenal's Emirates Stadium from the outside in February 2025.
Arsenal are looking at their options for expanding the Emirates Stadium (Image credit: Getty Images)

Arsenal's Emirates Stadium could get its first major redevelopment since opening its doors in 2006.

Arsenal have called the stadium home since making the move from Highbury to what was then the second-largest stadium in the Premier League, behind only Manchester United's Old Trafford.

But the Emirates' capacity of 60,704 has since been surpassed by the new stadia that Tottenham Hotspur and West Ham United have moved into, as well as the huge expansion Liverpool have undertaken at Anfield.

Transport and infrastructure pose questions for Arsenal on Emirates expansion

An exterior view of Arsenal's Emirates Stadium.

The Emirates Stadium opened in 2006 (Image credit: Getty Images)

That has prompted Arsenal to consider how they might be able to get more bums in seats in their own ground - which, naturally, means adding more seats for those posteriors to fill.

And just a few days after Manchester United released the first concept first images came out of their proposed Jetsonsesque 100,000 capacity stadium, a report in the Daily Mail suggests that Arsenal have been handed a potential route forward to do some construction work of their own.

Manchester United's new state-of-the-art stadium is set to house an incredible 100,000 supporters

The concept images for Manchester United's proposed new stadium have proven divisive (Image credit: Foster + Partners/PA)

The Mail write that an architectural firm has recently given the club a few ideas as to how they could set about expanding the Emirates.

There would still be a way to go before that can happen. It's believed that any expansion would require the extension of at least one nearby Tube station - Holloway Road - to go ahead, which would need funding.

The impact on any redevelopment on the area around the stadium would also need to be considered.

Islington Council and Transport for London are thus likely to have to give approval for any such project.

Concept image of the redeveloped Anfield Road End prior to work being completed in 2024

Liverpool were able to get two stands expanded in less than three years each (Image credit: Liverpool FC)

However, the Mail present the optimistic suggestion that if things move quickly, the work could be targeted to be completed by summer 2028, with the stadium not set to be used at Euro 2028.

That would require Arsenal to be speedy about getting things moving, however: Manchester City's own north stand expansion is forecast to take three and a half years to complete.

However, Liverpool's work at Anfield suggests it can be done. Their expansion of the main stand took just less than two years to complete (2014-2016).

Their expansion of the Anfield Road End meanwhile went from planning permission to completion in just over three years, despite the original construction company going into administration towards the end of the project.

Steven Chicken

Steven Chicken has been working as a football writer since 2009, taking in stints with Football365 and the Huddersfield Examiner. Steven still covers Huddersfield Town home and away for his own publication, WeAreTerriers.com. Steven is a two-time nominee for Regional Journalist of the Year at the prestigious British Sports Journalism Awards, making the shortlist in 2020 and 2023.