Arsenal have announced pre-tax profits totalling £20m for the six-month period to the end of November 2007.

The figure, a huge improvement on the results posted for the same period in the previous year of £12.6m, has a great deal to do with the success of the club’s move from their old ground, Highbury, to the plush new surroundings of the Emirates Stadium.

The club’s match-day income has risen by over £3m to £41.4m. Significant factors have contributed to this rise, most notably the capacity gate of the new stadium is now over 50,000, dwarfing the old stadium, where attendances peaked at around 38,500.

The club also hosted a hugely successful pre-season Invitational tournament, which included Serie A champions Inter Milan, Spanish giants Valencia and French outfit Paris Saint-Germain, and other areas of the business also contributed to the rise in profits. The new television rights deal, the most lucrative in the history of English football, came into effect at the beginning of the season.

This huge cash bonanza brought a massive injection into the Premier League and saw the club’s TV revenue rise by a significant £6.5m to £24.3m for the six-month period. The £16.1m sale of Thierry Henry to Catalan giants Barcelona in June also brought about a profitable period in terms of player transfers.

Despite Arsenal's overall turnover dropping to £97m from £100.8m in the previous year, non-executive chairman Peter Hill-Wood was bullish about what the figures represented, “We have had a very satisfactory start to the financial year driven by the new Premier League TV deals and the inaugural Emirates Cup tournament which have increased revenues in our core football business,” he has told shareholders.