Anfield tops Guardian survey of English stadium Google ratings; two grounds score 4.0
Pete Tomlin has compiled Google ratings and vote counts for every home stadium in the English Football League and published the results in The Knowledge section of the Guardian on 23 September 2026, finding ratings range from 4.7 down to 4.0. His table, drawn from searches of each ground’s Google entry, identifies the highest- and lowest-rated venues and lists vote totals alongside each score.
“As someone who occasionally has to search for stadiums to find directions and the like, I always enjoy that people take the time to rate their experience of visiting a football ground,” begins Will Unwin, introducing the project with the example that Hull City had “4.3 stars from 3,655 reviews.” Tomlin explains his method and approach: “I have literally searched every home football ground in the Football League via Google and I have recorded the rating and number of votes for every one,” he starts. “The range is not particularly large – the highest recorded rating is 4.7 and the lowest is 4.0. Therefore, where the scores are tied, I have used the higher number of votes as the decider with the largest number of votes being the winner. Not surprisingly, the bigger and more successful clubs tend to have the higher ratings. The nine highest-rated grounds are all Premier League clubs.”
The top-rated venues are led by Anfield (Liverpool) on 4.7 from 54,546 votes, with Tottenham Hotspur’s ground also on 4.7 from 26,545 votes and Nottingham Forest’s City Ground on 4.7 from 2,245 votes. A cluster of major Premier League stadia sit on 4.6: Old Trafford/Manchester United (4.6 from 54,535 votes), Emirates/Arsenal (4.6 from 34,778), City of Manchester Stadium/Manchester City (4.6 from 32,246), Stamford Bridge/Chelsea (4.6 from 25,434), St James’ Park/Newcastle United (4.6 from 12,116) and Elland Road/Leeds United (4.6 from 10,066).
Tomlin’s list places Wolverhampton Wanderers’ Molineux as the highest-ranked Championship ground in 11th overall, on 4.6 from 7,408 votes, while Leicester City’s King Power Stadium is the highest League One entry in 10th with 4.6 from 7,573 votes. Exeter City’s St James’ Park is the top-rated League Two ground, ranked 31st with a 4.5 rating from 246 votes. At the other end of the Premier League spectrum Tomlin records Hull City’s MKM Stadium at 4.3 from 3,676 votes, while the earlier Unwin example quoted 4.3 from 3,655 reviews; in the Championship the lowest-ranked ground is QPR’s Loftus Road, 85th with 4.1 from 3,458 votes.
Only two Football League venues were recorded at the survey’s bottom mark of 4.0: Oxford United’s Kassam Stadium with 2,506 votes and Stevenage’s SPORTA Arena with 350 votes. Tomlin’s table is presented as a complete English list, colour-coded by division, showing how ratings and vote totals compare across tiers.
Responding to separate reader queries, Chris Roe addresses the question of goalless draws in Serie A: “I only have just over 30 years’ worth of Italian league data so, within that small sample, this is equal to the longest wait for a goalless draw (between Napoli and Carpi), which came in the fifth round of matches in Serie A in the 2015-16 season.” He notes the Premier League waited until the fifth round on 17 September 2023 for its first 0-0 (Bournemouth v Chelsea) and cites earlier historical examples where the first goalless ties arrived much later in seasons, including the 1889-90 top-flight first 0-0 in round 17 and the 1894-95 second-tier first 0-0 on 23 March 1895 between Arsenal and Crewe Alexandra (the 25th match for Crewe, the 26th for Arsenal). He adds that the Scottish third tier in 2013-14 also saw its first 0-0 in the 25th round (Airdrie United v East Fife on 22 February 2014).
On the history of replica shirts, The Knowledge had initially given Leeds United in 1973 as an early example, but readers supplied older instances. Correspondents report Umbro Brazil shirts and other unofficial garments from around 1970, a Nottingham Forest child replica around 1970, a Manchester United child kit circa 1967, and a replica Chelsea 1965 shirt bought from Frank Blunstone’s shop. Contributors also recalled Alan Hull appearing on the Old Grey Whistle Test in 1971 wearing a Newcastle shirt, Liverpool shirts in 1969, and film and childhood memories showing replica or unofficial shirts in the mid- to late-1960s; one reader wrote of packing Manchester United kit into boxes in 1959, and another relayed a Michael Parkinson anecdote about a 1950s Barnsley supporter who kept a full kit under his outdoor clothes.
In response to additional reader questions, the smallest Premier League-era ground for a title winner is identified as Ewood Park with a capacity of just over 31,000 when Blackburn won in 1995, with Highbury listed as next at 38,419 when Arsenal last won in 2004 and a 2026 update noting Leicester’s capacity was 32,259 when they won in 2016; the postwar candidate for the smallest ground is Portman Road at about 29,000 when Ipswich won in 1961-62. Other short items reported by readers include Greg Hunt’s note that Andy Burnham and Mark Carney attended an Everton v Wolves Carabao Cup match, David Gregory’s account that “Antoine Semenyo (wearing No 42 for Manchester City) scored his second goal against Sunderland to make the score 4–2,” Matt Walker’s opening observation that “Manchester United and Spurs are not in Europe, and both knocked out of the League Cup,” and Mat Hope’s note that in an Oxford United v Cambridge United League One fixture the starting goalkeepers in both teams were called “Eastwood.”
The Knowledge invites further questions and contributions from readers; mail submissions of questions and answers are requested for future editions.
