Everton v Leeds Utd

From chapel social club to founding the Football League in a single decade.

St Domingo's Chapel in the Everton district of Liverpool formed a football club in 1878, initially as a way to keep young men occupied during winter. Within a year, the club had outgrown its church origins and adopted the name Everton Football Club. They became founding members of the Football League in 1888, one of twelve clubs to contest the first ever league season in English football.

One landlord's greed, one empty ground; two of England's greatest clubs born from a single unpaid argument.

After a bitter dispute with their Anfield landlord John Houlding, Everton upped sticks and moved across Stanley Park to a new ground on Mere Green Field. Goodison Park became the first major purpose-built football stadium in England. Houlding, left with an empty ground, founded Liverpool FC to fill it. One argument over rent, two of English football's most storied clubs.

One scandal, one expulsion, one phoenix club rising in a matter of weeks.

Leeds City FC were expelled from the Football League in 1919 for making illegal payments to players during the First World War. Within weeks, a new club, Leeds United, was formed and took over Elland Road. They were elected to the Second Division in 1920, and the first competitive meetings between Everton and Leeds United would follow once Leeds earned promotion to the top flight in 1924.

Lawton netted 34 times in a single season; seven years of silence followed before the title race resumed.

Everton claimed their fifth league championship in 1938-39, with Tommy Lawton scoring 34 goals in 38 appearances. It would be their last title for over two decades. Leeds, meanwhile, spent much of the 1930s and 1940s bouncing between divisions, still searching for an identity. The Second World War then suspended league football for seven years, freezing both clubs in place.

For one glorious year apiece, each side wore the title; two clubs, one crown, zero consensus.

The late 1960s and early 1970s were the golden age for both clubs. Don Revie's Leeds won the First Division title in 1969, only for Harry Catterick's Everton to take it back in 1970 with a side featuring Alan Ball, Howard Kendall, and Colin Harvey. The fixture between the two became one of the most anticipated in the English calendar, a meeting of two sides who genuinely believed they were the best in the country.

The greatest English club side of their era, and they never got to prove it in Europe.

Howard Kendall's Everton won the league title and the European Cup Winners' Cup in 1985, playing some of the finest football the club has ever produced. But the Heysel Stadium disaster that same year led to an indefinite ban on English clubs in European competition. Everton, arguably the strongest side in Europe at the time, were denied the chance to prove it. Leeds, meanwhile, had been relegated to the Second Division in 1982 and would not return to the top flight until 1990.

Leeds lifted the final First Division title in 1992; weeks later, the Premier League era began with both clubs among its founding members.

Leeds United won the last ever First Division title in 1991-92 under Howard Wilkinson, with Eric Cantona arriving mid-season to add flair to a side built on grit. Both clubs were founding members of the Premier League that August. Everton and Leeds would meet regularly throughout the 1990s, though neither could match the sustained dominance of Manchester United and Arsenal during that decade.

Sixteen years without a top-flight fixture; an entire generation inherited this match second-hand.

After reaching the Champions League semi-finals in 2001, Leeds United's reckless spending caught up with them. Relegation in 2004 began a 16-year exile from the top flight that included a spell in League One. The Everton vs Leeds fixture vanished from the calendar entirely. For a generation of fans, this was a match they only knew from their parents' stories.

Sixteen years away, and Calvert-Lewin's header said welcome back.

Marcelo Bielsa's Leeds won the Championship in 2019-20, returning to the Premier League after 16 years away. The fixture with Everton was renewed, and it did not disappoint. Their first meeting back, in November 2020, finished 1-0 to Everton courtesy of a Dominic Calvert-Lewin header. The matches that followed were typically tight, physical affairs between two sides with plenty to prove.

133 years of Goodison history, traded for 52,888 seats and a waterfront view.

Everton's move to their new stadium at Bramley-Moore Dock on Liverpool's waterfront marks the end of 133 years at Goodison Park. The 52,888-capacity ground transforms the matchday experience entirely. For visiting sides like Leeds, the old Goodison atmosphere, tight and hostile, will be replaced by something altogether more modern. Whether the new ground can replicate the intimidation factor of the old one remains to be seen.