The Europa League kick-off has been delayed until 9.05pm due to crowd trouble outside the ground.

Starsport understand around 20,000 Cologne fans have made their way to north London and attempted to force their way past ticket barriers.

Arsenal eventually opened the gates for supporters with tickets to enter the ground.

But Cologne fans immediately attempted to spark clashes with the home supporters.

According to Evening Standard reporter James Olley, that resulted in riot police arriving at the scene.

Writing on Twitter, he said: “Riot police now reinforcing line of stewards between home and away sections.”

A spokesman for the Metropolitan Police said: "A policing plan is in place for the game. Additional officers have been deployed."

Starsport reporter Alex Wood is at the game and provided this worrying update: "Very chaotic scenes in the Emirates, Cologne fans seemingly everywhere - including the home end.”

The game is expected to go ahead, despite the continuing problems.

Before letting fans into the stadium, Arsenal said in a brief statement: "Our game against Cologne is now scheduled to kick off at 9.05pm (UK time).

"The match has been delayed by an hour in the interests of crowd safety."

Martin Keown is concerned about the situation outside the ground, with a number of ticketless fans milling about.

“When you get large groups of people like this travelling to Europe you think the authorities would be aware,” Keown told BT Sport.

“They were going to the Emirates, they wanted to be there, it must have been under-policed.

“Its almost a ridiculous situation because there is only an allocation for 3000 tickets.

“They’ve now got to try and police 17,000 fans outside the ground!”

Jack Wilshere starts on the bench and could make his first appearance for Arsenal in 13 months.