Which Prem. League Team/Stadium

Here are some specific dates and fixtures that occur while we're in London: Sat. the 21st works if we fly into London and start our trip here (according to our initial plans): Dec 21st: Arsenal hosts Chelsea @ Emirates Crystal Palace hosts Newcastle @ Selhurst Fulham hosts Man City @ Craven Cottage
(Both West Ham and Tottenham away) There are also full days of matches scheduled for the 26th, 28th, and 1st, but being in London on these days would force us to rethink our tentative itinerary some. My guess is that the Fulham and Crystal Palace home games will be doable, tickets readily available, etc., and the Arsenal v. Chelsea clash much more expensive and difficult to obtain tickets for. Is this accurate? If I got tickets for the Arsenal match, would I be so high as to even see the action? -- it's a huge, 60k seat stadium. And last questions: is it especially hard to get tickets for matches right in the midst of the holidays -- 26th, 28th, and 1st?

England is a very frustrating place to get soccer tickets. Most teams only sell them to their registered members:( Even resale site like Viagogo have agreements with the teams to only sell to members.
It's got it's risks (and I'm not always successful) but I purchase tickets from scalpers outside the stadium before the match. Arsenal/Chelsea forget about it, unless you're a 1%er with lots of expendable income. I'd would aim for Fulham and Crystal Palace. All the stadiums are easily accessible with public transport.

Thanks for the quick reply. Okay, so let's say I buy a scalped ticket outside of the game, is there anything else to consider here as far as getting into the game? I mean, if they're only selling tickets to "members" as you've noted would I need to show my "membership card" or number or otherwise? What's been your experience buying from scalpers, if you'll detail this a little. After looking at the Fulham, Arsenal, Crystal Palace, and West Ham websites - all of which seem very and needlessly convoluted to the American sports fan - the Fulham site does offer General Admission tickets on sale after their Season Ticketholder and Members have their priority. So this might be another option.

Here's the deal with scalpers...they typically congregate near the tube station at the stadium. They all work together, part of the neighborhood mafia. For high-profile matches where tickets are scarce they may only being "buying". If you find that is the case, you're mostly out of luck as you'll probably never be able to outbid the wealthy Russian, and Asian tourists. Never happened to me, there is always the risk that the tickets you purchase may be counterfeit. Even though the practice appears to be mostly tolerated by the police (I have purchased openly in front of them) there is always the possibility of a crackdown and you could get into trouble.
You don't need any sort of membership card to enter the stadium after you have secured tickets. Once you have tickets in hand you're good to go.

Becoming a member is rarely difficult, not expensive and you have ample time to do it. The exception is when the club closes membership.

Becoming a member isn't difficult but the problem is that there are different membership levels, and those on the top tier have priority when purchasing tickets. For folks overseas that may only go to one game every few years, being on the bottom of pecking order (at least for the tip tier clubs), membership is almost useless.

Good luck getting tickets. The Fulham v Man City match would be a very good choice for two reasons. Firstly Craven Cottage is a quirky old fashioned ground in a very attractive part of London. Secondly Man City are one of the best teams who will be somewhere near the top of the table. Fixtures between Christmas and the New Year are very popular with fans but do have the advantage of excellent holiday atmosphere. Incidentally I am a Southampton fan, not too far from London, and we are playing Tottenham on 21st and you could do a lot worse than visiting the South Coast. Saints have developed some of the country's best players such as Gareth Bale and Theo Walcott and our current crop of youngsters are very talented.

COYS!

Hello: Thanks for the continued replies to the thread. My plan is to buy the Fulham v Man City game tickets online, once they are available about 4-6 weeks ahead of the match day, if this process is as easy as it appears. If there is some snafu, then I'll probably try and scalp tickets to any of the London area games. I'll be crossing my fingers hard in this event. Anything else worthwhile to know about Craven Cottage? I've read that it is one of the smallest (or THE smallest?) first league stadiums, so that should make for good viewing. Needless to say, I'm pumped for this. How far would it be from London area to Southampton for the Tottenham away game? I will say that if Bale hadn't been sold, I would be dragging my wife to this match no matter how many museums we would miss out on as a result. I've been following his career right about the time he signed with Tottenham (or, more accurately, about two or so years later when he really started getting some playing time). Will be fun to see this next saga in Spain. On a related note, how likely is it that I'd be able to find a Bale Welsh national Team jersey to buy while in London? And one last thing: for years now I thought that "Saints" was one of the nicknames of the Hotspurs because of the white kit, so even though I knew that Walcott and Bale were Southampton products, your comment really confused me for a moment. I guess American fandom really only goes so far. . .

Southampton is about 90 minutes by train from London Waterloo and then 20 minutes walk to the ground. The reason we are called Saints is because the club was originally formed in Saint Mary's an inner city area which is where the new stadium is now located. Two notable things about the Fulham ground. The first is the Cottage itself which is the old Edwardian pavilion still in the corner of the ground. Second is the notorious statue of Michael Jackson erected outside the stadium by the previous owner of the club. Here is a link to a useful site http://www.footballgroundguide.com/fulham/ As far as a Bale shirt is concerned one thing is for sure you'll certainly find lots of Real Madrid shirts to buy.