Football rivalries in numbers

Britain’s Greatest Football Rivalries

Throughout British sporting history (and especially football history) any loyal fan will tell you the importance of the British derby. There are some huge football rivalries in British football and most of these rivalries are based from the same town or city. There are some hugely intense rivalries and this gave us the idea to look at some of the most fierce and best football rivalries in Britain.

HotelClub, after hearing from many football fans who often take the trip back home to watch their team play in their derby, created a hugely informative and interactive statistics table - giving the overall history of all major British derbies.

The table shows the teams’ entire games history, highlighting the high scorers (and the low) and the good times (and the bad). If you’re a follower of football, take a look to see how your team fares up against their rivals. Did you know for example, that over the last 20 meetings, only 1 goal separates the two Old Firm Glasgow giants? With a comparative score that close – every single goal, from every single game counts.

So who are the big winners?

Granted there are some teams out there who will probably always have the upper hand on their rivalry. Take a look at the history between the famous rivals Man Utd and Man City. These two Northern teams have battled out bitterly every year and even now one of their games is bound to fill up the pubs and down the country. City are lacking a little when it comes to winning games though, with only 6 wins to compare against Man Utd’s 11 triumphs.

However, Man City do have one thing to smile about – this season’s demolition of Man Utd at Old Trafford (6-1) is the joint largest victory across all of the top UK derbies in recent history. Which is quite an achievement! Could Man City be changing their luck around?

Man City aren’t the only team who have enjoyed a huge win though. Other teams who have come out of their derby victorious with a 5-goal margin are Brentford (1965), Ipswich town (1998) and Blackburn Rovers (2001).

It seems that the rivalry is just as strong for all teams facing a derby though. For Arsenal, their huge amount of victories over rival London team Spurs, is a big one. In fact, out for their last 20 encounters Spurs have only managed to secure 4 wins, whereas Arsenal have managed to win more than double with 10 victories.

There are some other London team rivalries too – What about Chelsea and their big rival Fulham? Well, Chelsea are the Champions here and can boast of 13 occasions when they came out the proud winners (with Fulham only managing to claim just 1 winning game).

What else factors into the winning score?

There are plenty of other things that can factor into how well a game is played – take for example the location of the match. Hotelclub’s derby table is great for highlighting things we might have otherwise missed. For example, did you know that a team is far more likely to win their derby if they play on their home turf? Of course you did.

But look at these extreme examples:

Millwall have only managed to secure a win at Upton Park once in 11 visits! That’s less than 10%, which is a huge let down to their overall stats in their big rivalry. But they’re not the only team to suffer this way, Everton haven’t managed to win at the Anfield in 9 matches and Wolverhampton Wolves are so easily tamed at West Brom that they haven’t secured a win there in 9 visits either.

So we all know now the high stakes that are at play when two rival teams go head-to-head but the great thing about the British derby is the determination and strength of the teams. The competition is lasting and ongoing – so who knows, maybe some of the losing teams will one day change their fortunes.

Written by Paddy Moogan

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