Merseyside, North London, Manchester & Co – Which Premier League local derby is the feistiest?

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Yellow & red cards stats analysed 

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The last ever Merseyside derby at Goodison Park couldn’t have had a much more entertaining finale. After James Tarkowski’s superb 98th minute volley earned Everton a point, tempers flared over as Curtis Jones and Abdoulaye Doucouré came to blows following the latter celebrating in front of the travelling Liverpool support. Both players were sent off, with Reds boss Arne Slot also seeing red in a chaotic ending. The intensity, passion and drama felt like a local derby of yesteryear. A proper old-school rivalry with players fighting for the shirt. 

The Merseyside derby has long been renowned as one of the fiercest derbies in not only the Premier League, but in world football, but Wednesday’s match had a different edge to other more recent encounters. However, when it comes to local derbies in the English top-flight, which rivalry is truly the feistiest? At Transfermarkt, we have selected 10 of the biggest local rivalries in the Premier League era from up and down the country, and compared the yellow and red card statistics per-game from those matches to determine which derby is usually the fiercest.

Of course, it’s difficult to determine exactly which 10 encounters to choose, but we have only included each team once and taken into account these sides meeting in the modern Premier League era and their being animosity between the clubs, whilst also only including local derbies rather than rivalries that stretch across the country such as Arsenal v Man United or Liverpool vs the Red Devils. The 10 derbies selected are as follows: Liverpool v Everton, Arsenal v Tottenham, Newcastle v Sunderland, Aston Villa v Birmingham, Manchester City v Manchester United, Bolton v Blackburn, Chelsea v Fulham, Southampton v Portsmouth, and Wolves v West Brom. 

Let’s begin by looking at red cards. Incidents that really typify when a local derby spills over. When it comes to red cards per game in the Premier League era no derby has seen more than the Merseyside derby between Liverpool and Everton. In 63 Premier League encounters there have been 25 sending offs, equating to a remarkably high figure of 0.40 red cards per game between the Merseyside rivals. Next up is the East Midlands derby between Nottingham Forest and Leicester. The sides have only met nine times in the Premier League, but there have been three red cards in those fixtures, equating to 0.33 red cards per game. In third is the Lancashire derby between Bolton and Blackburn with 0.27 red cards per game from the 26 Premier League matches.

In fourth is the North London derby between Arsenal and Tottenham, with 16 red cards in 66 matches, equating to 0.24 red cards pr game. Next up in fifth is the Tyne-Wear derby, with Newcastle v Sunderland producing 0.21 red cards per game. In sixth is the often-mild West London derby between Chelsea and Fulham, which has had 0.18 red cards per game. In seventh is the Manchester derby, with 0.15 red cards per game between Man United and Man City. Eighth place goes to the Second City derby between Aston Villa and Birmingham – 0.14 red cards per game in that fixture. In ninth and tenth are the Black-country derby between Wolves and West Brom and the South-coast derby between Southampton and Portsmouth – neither have had a red card but those fixtures have only been played five and four times in the Premier League era respectively.

When it comes to yellow cards, it’s the Tyne-Wear derby that jumps to first place. There have been as many as 131 yellow cards in the 28 Premier League games between Newcastle and Sunderland, equating to a whopping 4.68 yellows per game. Next up is the North London derby, with tempers spilling over to produce 291 yellow cards at a rate of 4.41 per game between Arsenal and Spurs. In third is the Merseyside derby – 4.22 yellows per game between Liverpool and Everton. Fourth place goes to Villa v Birmingham with 4.14 yellows per game. In fifth is Bolton v Blackburn with 4.04 yellows per game.

In sixth position is Forest v Leicester, with 4.00 yellows cards per game in the East Midlands derby. Seventh goes to the Manchester derby, once again finding itself fairly low down on the list with 3.84 yellows per game. In eighth is Southampton v Pompey, with 3.25 yellow cards per game from their four Premier League matches. Chelsea v Fulham is ninth with 3.21 yellows per game, whilst Wolves v West Brom is in last place with 2.20 yellows per game from their five Premier League encounters. 

Whilst many other factors also come into play when determining the severity of a rivalry, such as the hostility between the fans and the deep history of the rivalry, these card statistics can go some way to highlighting which local derbies tend to get really fiery on the pitch itself. Derby day is a moment on the calendar that every fan looks forward to. However, sometimes with feelings of fear and nerves present as much as excitement and anticipation. Players know just how much it means to their supporters, and these encounters can often be the most entertaining, and naturally come with their fair share of fierce battles and tempers spilling over.