Manchester City have reviewed their safety procedures for their FA Cup fourth round tie with Arsenal and introduced a number of measures after crowd trouble in recent cup games.
The 3-2 Carabao Cup win over Liverpool was marred by a number of objects thrown from the visiting supporters down onto the home fans in the South Stand, including a pint cup 'weighted down by coins' that struck a 15-year-old girl and caused a wound in her head that needed gluing back together. In January, there was also trouble in the FA Cup win over Chelsea with another home supporter struck by something thrown down on them from the away end.
Because of allocations for cup games, unlike in the league, away fans have been positioned directly on top of home fans in the South Stand and that has aggravated problems in recent matches. The fact that more away fans can attend cup games has also increased the risk.
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With around 7,800 Arsenal fans set to travel north on Friday, the visitors will again take up the two upper tiers of the South as that has still been deemed the safest configuration by the Safety Advisory Group. Additional measures put in place to hopefully ensure there are no problems for the FA Cup tie include covers over the first four rows of seats in the second tier, extra stewards, and paper cups replacing plastic cups for those sections.
City and Arsenal will both be hoping attention stays on the pitch as the top two in the Premier League fight it out for a place in the next round of the FA Cup.
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