Whether they are based on local bragging rights or a history of title fights, derbies always stand out as some of the most exciting fixtures on the English football calendar. However, some of these rivalries go beyond bad blood, resulting in arrests and banning orders for some ferocious fans.
The 2026/27 season has already seen bitter rivals Millwall and West Ham clash for the first time in 14 years. The notorious derby has inspired Hollywood movies, and reports indicated that the Met Police responded by deploying over 400 police officers across a five-mile dispersal zone in London.
Meanwhile, heated clashes between Manchester United and Manchester City, Arsenal and Chelsea, plus AFC Wimbledon and MK Dons have also produced their fair share of feisty fanfare.
But are these fiery fixtures notorious for a reason?
With another season filled with several raucous rivalries ahead of us, the team at AskGamblers used official crime statistics data provided by the UK Home Office to calculate the combined number of criminal offences committed between two sets of rivals since 2019.
The analysis covered 35 derbies taking place across the Premier League and EFL in 2026/27.
Here are the top 10 most dangerous derbies in English football ranked:
Which Derby Is the Most Dangerous?
Millwall vs. West Ham United was named the most dangerous derby, with a combined 1231 criminal offences between the two bitter rivals since 2019. This included 1000 banning orders and 231 home arrests.
West Ham fans contributed more to that total figure, with a staggering 556 banning orders and 116 arrests since 2019. Irons fans have been issued more banning orders since 2019 than any other English fanbase, while ranking 9th in the country for arrests.
That’s compared to the 444 banning orders and 115 arrests of Millwall fans in that time. Lions’ fans ranked 11th in the country for all offences.
The combination of offences between the two bitter rivals saw this notorious London derby comfortably named the most dangerous.
Red Devils Appeared the Most in Top 10
Manchester United showed up in three out of the top five slots in the study, with their rivalries with Manchester City, Liverpool and Leeds United taking the 2nd, 3rd and 5th slots respectively.
Red Devils fans have faced more arrests than any other fanbase in English football since 2019, with 150. The MUFC fans have also been dealt more banning orders than any other English fanbase since 2019, with 449.
Combined, both sets of Manchester supporters have been deemed responsible for 1098 offences since 2019, with City fans contributing 147 arrests and 352 banning orders.
Liverpool also features in three different derbies in the top 10, with the infamous Merseyside derby with Everton ranked in 7th place, behind the Reds’ rivalries with Manchester United (3rd) and Manchester City (4th). Between them, Liverpool and Everton fans have been found to have committed 745 offences since 2019.
Chelsea and Arsenal also made multiple appearances, featuring twice in the top 10, with their clash against each other ranked at 6th, and their respective North London derby (Arsenal vs Tottenham Hotspur) ranked at 9th and the West London derby (Chelsea vs Fulham) rounding off the list in 10th.
Which Rivalries Missed Out on the Top 10?
Some infamous derbies that did not appear in the top 10 included the Tyne-Wear derby (Newcastle vs. Sunderland), the East Lancashire derby (Blackburn vs. Burnley), and the South Coast derby (Portsmouth vs. Southampton).
Eight out of ten dangerous derbies in the list are Premier League clashes. However, the Championship clash between Midlands rivals Birmingham City and West Bromwich Albion makes 8th place with a combined 735 offences since 2019.
Fanbases of ‘big six’ sides such as Manchester United, Liverpool, and Chelsea all dominated the top 10, indicating not just tempers fraying between fans for these high-profile fixtures, but a stronger likelihood of the law being enforced.
Our Methodology
This study aimed to determine the ‘most dangerous’ football derbies in English football in the 2026/27 season. To do so, it used official crime statistics published by the UK Home Office via the gov.uk website.
The data included the total number of fan arrests and the total number of banning orders issued to fans of all 92 clubs currently in England’s top four leagues. These figures were combined to give each club’s fanbase a total ‘all offences’ figure.
The study identified 35 ‘derbies’ that will take place across the Premier League and the EFL in 2026/27 and added together the number of ‘all offences’ from the two club fanbases involved in each rivalry, ranking them from largest to smallest to determine the ‘most dangerous’ derby.
