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Alright folks, grabbed my morning coffee, fired up the laptop, and just had this itch to dig into those Everton vs. Manchester United matches everyone’s talking about lately. Felt like there had to be some numbers telling a story beyond just the final score, you know? Just wanted to get a clearer picture.
Figuring Out Where the Heck to Start
First thing first, I needed the raw data. Knew I wanted past results, right? Googled something like “Everton Man Utd past results”. Wow, too many sites! Found a couple of the big football stats places – the ones everyone uses. Started clicking.
- Opening like ten tabs. Seriously, my browser was groaning. Each site laid things out slightly different. Pain in the neck.
- Decided on a timeframe. Went back maybe… five years? Figured that’s recent enough to mean something, but not too ancient.
- Started copying, pasting. My spreadsheet opened, looking all blank and judgmental. Column A: Date. Column B: Competition. Column C: Where played. Column D: Everton Goals. Column E: Man Utd Goals. Simple start.
The Grind of Getting All The Scores In
Man, this part took ages. Just scrolled down each result page on those sites.
- Match by match, season by season. Clicked “Show More” buttons like a robot. “1-0”, “0-2”, “1-3″… fingers flying over the keys entering those numbers.
- Kept double-checking. Found myself typing “Goodison Park” and “Old Trafford” so many times my fingers memorized the spelling! Made a few typos (“Gooidson”? Really?), spotted them, fixed them.
- Separated league and cup games. Figured that mattered. Needed different tabs in the spreadsheet for Premier League, FA Cup maybe? Yeah, created those tabs. More copying and pasting. More coffee refills.
Alright, What Do These Numbers Actually Say?
Spreadsheet full of numbers. Felt like staring at static. Time to make sense of it.
- Started with the basics. At the bottom of the goals columns, punched in =SUM. Simple, right? Added up all the Everton goals scored against United in my timeframe, all the United goals scored against Everton. Wow.
- Then counted the matches. How many times did they play? Simple =COUNT function. Felt like cheating after all that manual entry.
- Wins, losses, draws. Needed a new column, “Result”. Wrote quick formulas. If Everton Goals > Man Utd Goals, “Win”. If less, “Loss”. Equal, “Draw”. Copied that down the whole column. Bam! Instant results overview.
- Counted those outcomes. How many Everton wins? United wins? Draws? Again, =COUNTIF did the heavy lifting. “How many times does this cell say ‘Win’?”
- Looked at goals per game average. Divided those total goals by the total matches played. Easy math, but seeing it… interesting!
- Thought about home vs. away. Went back, filtered my “Where Played” column. Sorted just Goodison games. Ran those numbers again. Then just Old Trafford. The vibe was different for each place.
Putting It Together & Making It Useful
All these numbers were just sitting there. Needed to see them clearly.
- Made some simple charts. Highlighted the win/loss/draw counts for both teams. Clicked insert bar chart. Look at that! Visual impact is everything.
- Compared the home/away stats. Side-by-side bars showing goals scored/conceded at each ground. The patterns jumped out at me.
- Jotted down the key figures. Didn’t want to drown folks in data. Things like “Goals scored on average when playing at Goodison”, “How many times United came away with a win in the last five league meetings”. Stuff that actually tells a story about what happens when they clash.
Phew. Took the whole afternoon! My coffee cup’s long cold. But honestly? Seeing those patterns emerge from the raw numbers, that’s the satisfying bit. It’s not just a guess anymore, it’s right there in the spreadsheet. Makes the next game between them way more interesting for me.