England's champions: Who has the most wins in the country's biggest local derbies?

#5 Tyne-Wear Derby

The Tyne-Wear derby has been spoken of as being bigger than the Milan equivalent!

Another of the most heated rivalries in England, the Tyne-Wear derby is contested between Newcastle United and Sunderland. The cities of Sunderland and Newcastle lie just twelve miles apart, and French midfielder Yann M’Vila – who featured for Sunderland in two games in 2015/16 – has described the game as being bigger than even the Milan derby!

Surprisingly enough, as of writing in July 2017, the honours are even between the two sides in derby games. Both Newcastle and Sunderland have 53 wins, with the sides drawing on 49 occasions. Perhaps it could be argued that the advantage lies with Sunderland though, as one of those draws led to a penalty shootout won by the Black Cats.

Certainly, it cannot be argued that recent results have favoured Sunderland. Despite Newcastle having more success than their rivals in the Premier League era – they challenged for the title and made the Champions League on multiple occasions in the 1990’s – Sunderland are unbeaten in the past nine Tyne-Wear derbies. The most recent game – in April 2016 – finished in a 1-1 draw, but the Black Cats had the last laugh that season too as they escaped relegation while the Magpies were condemned to the Championship.

2017/18 won’t see any Tyne-Wear derby games as Newcastle have been promoted back to the Premier League again while Sunderland were relegated to the Championship in 2016/17, but the odds on 2018/19 seeing the derby again seem pretty good – Sunderland have been promoted to the Premier League four times since its beginning, while Newcastle have been relegated twice, so surely a meeting seems likely. Whether the Magpies can break their barren streak there though remains to be seen.