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The UK’s Tightest Derby Clashes – 2017

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Ever wondered which local derby in the United Kingdom is the most closely contested?

Earlier this week Sky Sports stuck a panel together to delve into derbies in both England and Scotland and they came out with a list of the 20 most competitive clashes amongst local sides, based on a win, lose, draw head to head from the history books.



From their research, maybe surprisingly for many, the Black Country derby between West Bromwich Albion and Wolverhampton Wanderers actually comes top of that ‘tightly contested’ pile as West Brom edge their near rivals by a tiny two game margin.

West Brom have picked up 54 victories in their history, whilst Wolves boast 52.

The remaining 19 derbies wouldn’t take many guesses to work out to be fair for fans, but when it comes to long standing bragging rights there are some clear winners and losers.

It must be said though Sky have based this on main traditional and accepted ‘true’ rivalry’s in the game and there will be fans out there who disagree with the pick of the side as ‘rival’ or a ‘secondary rival’ for these purposes – whether that’s based on generation or simply who they consider the truer rival to be based on derby games they’ve experienced growing up.

The table is only accurate until this weekend as we have an Old Firm, a Steel City and a London derby to consider which will change things subtly.

Derby
Wins
Opposition
Wins
Draws
Disparity
West Brom
54
Wolves
52
40
3.8%
Blackburn Rovers
38
Burnley
36
16
5.6%
Newcastle United
51
Sunderland
47
44
8.5%
Swansea City
21
Cardiff City
19
16
10.5%
Nottingham Forest
36
Derby County
32
22
12.5%
Rangers
119
Celtic
103
86
15.5%
Sheffield United
42
Sheffield Wednesday
36
36
16.7%
Ipswich Town
38
Norwich City
32
16
18.8%
Tottenham Hotspur
53
West Ham United
44
31
20.5%
Nottingham Forest
35
Notts County
28
23
25%
Arsenal
64
Tottenham Hotspur
51
45
25.5%
Aston Villa
46
Birmingham City
36
30
27.8%
Liverpool
76
Everton
57
63
33.3%
Manchester United
61
Manchester City
44
51
38.6%
Bristol City
34
Bristol Rovers
24
30
41.7%
Dundee United
63
Dundee
41
30
53.7%
West Ham United
8
Millwall
5
11
60%
Hearts
119
Hibernian
69
84
72.5%
Southampton
14
Portsmouth
8
10
75%
Chelsea
41
Fulham
7
22
485.7%



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