The Built Different Index: Most Built Different Derbies in English Football

This is not about head-to-head wins or who has the fuller trophy cabinet. It is about which side travels further, fills its ground, looms larger locally, handles the weather and generally makes supporting them feel like a more demanding life choice.

Manchester derby: Manchester City 24th, Manchester United 30th

For much of its history, the Manchester derby was a city argument that didn’t always carry much weight beyond Manchester. Then City became very good, very quickly, and the fixture turned into a collision between two global clubs sharing one increasingly tense postcode.

The rivalry still works because the clubs represent different sides of the city’s football identity. Old Trafford brings the history, scale and weekly theatre. The Etihad brings an era of relentless success and the deeply irritating habit of making extremely difficult football look routine. The Premier League continues to classify it among the key local derbies in the English calendar.

In the Built Different Index, Manchester City take the city by six places, finishing 24th to United’s 30th. United dominate the support-led measures, with Old Trafford nearly full and its crowd enormous relative to Trafford’s population. City make up ground by winning an unreasonable amount of football in Manchester rainfall.

A narrow victory. Enough to mention. Not enough to end the argument.

Merseyside derby: Liverpool 19th, Everton 46th

Liverpool and Everton spent generations separated by Stanley Park, family loyalties and ninety minutes of unusually personal football. It has long been known as a fixture that can split households rather than just cities, though the “friendly derby” label has occasionally looked optimistic once the tackles begin.

The final league meeting at Goodison delivered a stoppage-time Everton equaliser and the sort of scenes that explain why this fixture matters far beyond the result itself.

The Index is less neighbourly. Liverpool finish 19th, Everton 46th, producing a 27-place gap.

Liverpool gain from a strong rainfall-versus-winning score and a more competitive overall spread across the nine factors. Everton perform respectably in places, but not consistently enough to stay close.

North London derby: Arsenal 10th, Tottenham Hotspur 40th

The North London derby is built on proximity, migration and more than a century of mutual irritation. Arsenal’s move north from Woolwich placed the clubs into direct competition for territory, support and the right to act as though the other side is not worth thinking about.

Nobody believes that last bit.

In the Built Different Index, Arsenal win comfortably, finishing tenth while Tottenham sit 40th. The 30-place gap is especially sharp because both clubs share many of the same geographical advantages. Neither is being sent on Plymouth-style journeys, and the weather is broadly the same on both sides of North London.

Arsenal pull away through their combination of packed-home support, local attendance density and five-season managerial stability.

Spurs have the stadium with the retractable pitch. Arsenal have the number ten next to their name.

Tyne–Wear derby: Newcastle United 4th, Sunderland 18th

Newcastle against Sunderland is not a rivalry that requires manufactured hostility or a dramatic television trailer. The cities are close, the identities are fiercely held and the fixture has spent generations carrying North East pride on its back.

Even when the clubs have occupied different divisions, the rivalry has stayed active. Mostly because neither side would ever allow the other one a peaceful afternoon.

Newcastle are the highest-ranked club featured in any of these ten derbies, finishing fourth overall. Sunderland sit 18th, giving Newcastle a 14-place victory.

Both score well for the realities of North East football: substantial away travel, long maximum journeys and support that occupies a serious place in the region. Newcastle simply combine those strengths more effectively across the rest of the Index.

Sunderland can dispute the culture, history and atmosphere. The Index remains unmoved.

Second City derby: Aston Villa 59th, Birmingham City 92nd

Villa and Birmingham contest a rivalry with very little interest in politeness. The grounds sit only a few miles apart, but the clubs carry distinct local identities and a long-running argument over who properly owns England’s second city.

It is close geographically. The Index is less kind.

Aston Villa finish 59th, while Birmingham City are 92nd, giving Villa the largest winning margin on this derby list at 33 places.

Before anybody at Villa Park books an open-top bus, 59th is not exactly domination. This is more a case of Villa avoiding the trapdoor while Birmingham are standing directly on it.

Blues suffer because central geography is terrible for a ranking that rewards inconvenient travel. They record the lowest total seasonal mileage and one of the shortest maximum away journeys.

Lovely for getting home, but awful for being Built Different.

Steel City derby: Sheffield United 55th, Sheffield Wednesday 78th

The Steel City derby divides Sheffield into red and blue, often street by street and family by family. Bramall Lane and Hillsborough represent two historic clubs whose supporters have had plenty of promotions, relegations and ownership dramas to weaponise against each other.

The fixture returned to the Championship schedule for 2025/26, alongside several other major EFL derbies.

In the Index, Sheffield United take the city, ranking 55th to Wednesday’s 78th. The 23-place gap is revealing because both clubs begin from almost identical geography. Their away-trip map and local climate offer little explanation for the difference.

The Blades simply perform better across the factors surrounding that shared location, including support, squad profile and the wider chaos measures.

That means twenty-three places of fresh material for the group chat.

South Coast derby: Portsmouth 5th, Southampton 9th

Portsmouth and Southampton are separated by the M27 and joined by a rivalry that tends to arrive with more noise than recent frequency. Years in different divisions have made meetings relatively rare, which has only given everyone more time to become normal and relaxed about the next one.

They have not.

The rivalry returned in 2025/26 after six years without a meeting, with Sky Sports describing it as a fixture whose animosity runs deep.

It is also the strongest pairing in this entire comparison. Portsmouth rank fifth and Southampton ninth, leaving only four places between them.

Pompey edge it through a profile shaped by south-coast geography, demanding travel and strong performance across the wider mix. Southampton remain close enough to prevent this becoming a comfortable victory.

East Anglian derby: Ipswich Town 8th, Norwich City 13th

Ipswich and Norwich compete for regional control of a part of England where league clubs are not packed together every few miles. That isolation gives the derby much of its force. There are no same-city alternatives and nowhere for the rivalry to dissipate.

When the fixture returned in December 2023, it was the first league meeting between the two sides since 2019.

Both clubs thrive in the Built Different Index. Ipswich finish eighth, Norwich 13th, making this the second-highest derby pairing and leaving only five places between them.

Their relative isolation helps, as do fixture calendars that offer fewer genuine local trips than clubs in London or the Midlands enjoy.

Ipswich take the numerical bragging rights, but Norwich will presumably question whether the methodology was developed in Suffolk (it wasn’t).

East Midlands derby: Derby County 67th, Nottingham Forest 80th

Derby County and Nottingham Forest contest a rivalry tied together by geography, Brian Clough and the Brian Clough Trophy, because sometimes football history is subtle and sometimes it names the prize directly after the man who managed both clubs.

The fixture represents two neighbouring counties with enough shared history to ensure that neither enjoys being described as similar to the other.

In the Index, Derby finish 67th and Forest 80th, giving the Rams a 13-place win.

Forest are excellent when the focus is purely on support. The City Ground is heavily utilised and the crowd carries serious weight against Rushcliffe’s population, sending them into the top ten of The Twelfth Man. Their problems arrive elsewhere, particularly in weather-based performance and managerial turnover.

However, Derby do not exactly storm the main table… they just finish high enough to make sure Forest hear about it.

Black Country derby: Wolverhampton Wanderers 76th, West Bromwich Albion 87th

Wolves against West Brom is one of the Midlands’ oldest and fiercest football rivalries, built around neighbouring Black Country communities and the deeply local pleasure of making somebody’s Monday unbearable.

It has never needed both clubs to be challenging for major trophies, local football rarely does, as being better than that lot down the road is often plenty.

The Index gives the honours to Wolves in 76th, with West Brom 87th. That is an 11-place gap, although neither club has made a convincing run at the top half.

Both perform much better in support-focused comparisons. Wolves climb sharply in The Twelfth Man, while West Brom also benefit from solid home-capacity utilisation. Their broader totals are held back by the travel and weather factors, where a central location provides comfort rather than points.

Wolves win the derby, but The Midlands continue their suspiciously sensible relationship with motorway mileage.

Which derby is the most Built Different?

Looking at both clubs together, the South Coast derby comes out on top. Portsmouth and Southampton have an average Index position of seventh, narrowly beating Ipswich and Norwich on 10.5. Newcastle and Sunderland complete the leading three pairings with an average of 11th.

At the other end, Wolves and West Brom average 81.5, while Villa and Birmingham average 75.5.

So the Built Different derby podium is:

1. Portsmouth vs Southampton
2. Ipswich Town vs Norwich City
3. Newcastle United vs Sunderland

No head-to-head records. No trophy counts. No one claiming their great-grandad once chased an opposition player down the high street.

Just travel, weather, support, squad age and managerial chaos.

Finally, a calm and objective way to discuss local rivalry. Probably.