By Alright folks, yesterday I really wanted to dig deep into the whole Everton versus Man City thing. Always been curious about how those matches actually played out over the years, you know? Just the raw numbers. So I rolled up my sleeves.
Starting the Data Hunt
First up, I needed the stats. Obvious place was Premier League history tables, right? But dang, finding a clean list showing every single match, who scored, who won? That was trickier than I thought. Spent like, maybe an hour and a half just clicking through different football stat websites. Seriously, it felt endless. Some sites had the wins/losses but not the scores, others had scores missing years. Annoying as anything.
Eventually, I found a couple of decent ones. Had to copy-paste stuff manually into my own sheet. Typed it all out carefully. Date, competition, venue, final score, who scored the goals. Basic stuff but essential.
The Spreadsheet Shuffle
Got all that messy raw data into a Google Sheet. Started simple: I wanted to know the overall wins. Filtered by Everton home, Man City home… total wins for each. Then just added a simple tally. Man City leading big overall wasn’t a shocker, especially lately. But seeing Everton actually winning more at Goodison? That caught my eye a bit.
Next step: the goals. How many per match? When were they scored? Created separate columns for home goals and away goals. Then I just summed them up. Needed a breakdown by halves too, so I made more columns – First Half Everton Goals, Second Half Man City Goals… you get the idea. Had to sort and filter constantly. Got a bit tedious, gotta admit.
- Total goals: Added up everything. Easy.
- Goals by half: Splitting each team’s goals per half to see patterns.
- Big wins? Filtered for matches where the margin was, say, 3 goals or more.
Had to triple-check I hadn’t messed up the data entry. Saw one year where I’d swapped the home and away teams by accident. Rookie error. Fixed it.
Spotting the Stories
Once I had the numbers settled, patterns popped out.
That Everton home advantage thing felt real. Even against giants like City recently, they’ve managed wins at Goodison. Much more than at the Etihad, obviously. Looking deeper, I tried filtering the big wins. Man City smashing Everton at home recently? Yeah, totally shows in the numbers. Remembered that match Pep’s team just ran riot.
The timing of goals was fascinating too. Dug into goals per 15-minute intervals. Created a simple bar chart right in the sheet. Noticed Everton often score in specific chunks at home against City.
Big question: who’s the top scorer? Needed the goal scorer data, which some sites thankfully listed. Not every single goal, but the main scorers. Had to manually note down names and tally. Yakubu? Lukaku? Dzeko? Aguero? Took ages clicking through match reports! Sergio Aguero kept coming up. Painstaking, but worth it to get those names.
Wrapping My Head Around It
Honestly, building this myself step-by-step made the rivalry’s history click more. You see it in articles, but plotting each match, counting the goals, seeing Everton snatch wins at home despite City’s power? That tells a clearer story than just hearing ‘City dominates’.
Will I dive deeper? Maybe. Want to check cup matches too, see if those trends hold. Plus, gotta verify those scorers, maybe another site has fuller records.