The staggering cost of tickets to Manchester United’s first home game against Arsenal

Tickets for Manchester United vs Arsenal are available now

Manchester United's Premier League season will kick off with a game against last year's runners up Arsenal in the biggest match of the opening weekend.

Fans who are looking forward to two of the biggest teams in the league starting their seasons going up against each other will have to pay to secure their seat amid fan anger over prices.

The club has announced new prices for the new Premier League season despite a 15th place finish last year and the price of 20,000 Old Trafford tickets are set to rise.

The club has introduced four categories of tickets with just two Premier League games – against Wolves and Sunderland – priced at £37.

Tickets for the visit of Liverpool, Spurs, Chelsea, Newcastle and the opening game against Arsenal will be priced at a staggering £97, which is £30 more than the most expensive tickets last year.

Tickets for the Arsenal game are not on general sale but hospitality seller Seat Unique has listed official tickets for £299 for VIP areas of Old Trafford.

Manchester United Supporters Trust said: "After how last season went, we might have hoped the club would reconsider their plans for this new ticketing model which will see eye-watering price increases for supporters who buy tickets on a match-by-match basis."

"This really is a fresh kick in the teeth for Manchester United fans.

"When the club said they were introducing this new model, we urged them to keep the majority of matches at current levels and only apply the highest price category for a small number of the biggest games and reduce prices for lower demand games.

"Once again, they have failed to consult any of the fans' representative bodies on the details of the decision and once again they're making choices against the interests of fans and, we believe, the club as a whole," they added.

While United's standard tickets will be the most expensive in the Premier League, Seat Unique's hospitality tickets are actually half the price of those of Arsenal's first home game, where VIP tickets are selling for as much as £600 for the Emirates due to high demand.

Only Everton's Hill Dickinson Stadium, which will host Brighton on the second match week, costs as much as an Arsenal hospitality ticket at £595.