Crowd trouble: Premier League to speak with FA, EFL and police amid rise in fan disorder

Aston Villa's Lucas Digne and Matty Cash were struck by a plastic bottle while celebrating a goal

The Premier League will speak to the Football Association, the English Football League and the police amid a rise in incidents of crowd trouble.

Arrests at football matches across the top five English leagues are at their highest levels in years.

The UK's football policing lead has said fan disorder is "getting worse".

One fan was charged with assault and two fans were arrested after players were hit by objects in Premier League matches at the weekend.

Lucas Digne and Matty Cash were hit by a plastic bottle as they celebrated Aston Villa's winning goal at Everton.

Chelsea's Antonio Rudiger was hit by missiles thrown from the crowd in their 2-0 win over Spurs on Sunday.

There were reports of West Ham fans clashing with police at Old Trafford - and a drone stopped play at Brentford.

The conclusion of Manchester City's draw at Southampton also appeared to be marred as fans ran on to the pitch and appeared to be grappling with stewards and police in the stands.

There have been more than 800 football-related arrests in the first six months of the season, alongside more than 750 reported incidents of disorder.

It follows Baroness Casey's recent report into the Euro 2020 final violence, which found "ticketless, drunken and drugged-up thugs" could have caused death as they stormed Wembley.

There is also concern at the amount of drug taking in stadiums, a point made by Millwall chief executive Steve Kavanagh in a hard-hitting statement about the trouble at his side's FA Cup tie against Crystal Palace.

It is understood Premier League representatives will meet their FA and EFL counterparts this week, with further discussions planned with the bodies' individual clubs.

A meeting will be arranged separately with the UK Football Policing Unit, led by Roberts.