THE AREA around Southampton’s St Marys Stadium has one of the highest crime rates of Premier League grounds, new data has revealed.

The study found there were 937 crimes recorded within a one-mile radius of the ground during November, leaving the side fifth in a table comparing areas around the 20 top flight stadia.

Football ticket company Ticketgum.com, who compiled the study, said: “Fans become heavily invested in their team’s progress, poor results can trigger bad behaviour.”

However, Hampshire police says they have only recorded 20 incidents connected to Southampton matches since the start of the season. A force spokesman added that there was no link between crime in the area and football.

Southampton FC did not respond when approached by the Daily Echo.

Nevertheless, November was a bad month for the Saints, with three losses from four games.

A spokesperson for Ticketgum.com said: “With five months of the football season already contested, the race to be titled pitch champions and the battle against relegation becomes even more important to the players and the fans.

“As a result, we sought to investigate the major Premier League stadiums with the most crimes within a one-mile radius during the month of November, 2018.

“The total number of crimes for each stadium was taken from the UK Crime Stats.”

The area around Newcastle’s St James Park came out on top, with 1,913 crimes in November, which is the equivalent to 64 crimes per day. Next on the list were Arsenal, Chelsea and West Ham, all with more than 1,000 incidents.

Brighton’s Amex stadium, had the lowest crime rate with just 64 incidents.