I had a look at the last five seasons of domestic draws for us and City, looking at home draws and which division the opponents were in. For the two-legged ties and finals, I've considered all of them as neutral.
19/20
Man City
So far, City have had -
7 matches
42.8% home games
42.8% Championship
28.5% Premier League teams
14.2% League One
14.2% League Two
Liverpool
So far, we have had -
5 matches
60% home games
60% Premier League
40% League One
18/19
Man City
Man City went further in the cups than we did, which skews this, but they got -
11 matches
45.4% home games
54.5% Premier League
18.1% Championship
18.1% League One
9.09% League Two
Liverpool
As we know, we got knocked out of both cups early, but we did go on to win something City will never win -
2 matches
50% home games
100% Premier League
17/18
Man City
8 matches
25% home games
50% Premier League
37.5% Championship
12.5% League One
Liverpool
3 matches
66% home games
100% Premier League
16/17
Man City
7 matches
14.2% home games
85.7% Premier League
14.2% Championship
Liverpool
7 matches
57.1% home games
57.1% Championship
28.5% Premier League
14.2% League Two
15/16
Man City
8 matches
25% home games
100% Premier League
Liverpool
7 matches
42.8% home games
71.4% Premier League
28.5% League Two
Overall
Adding up all of the above seasons -
Man City
Total matches - 41
31.7% home games
63.4% Premier League
21.9% Championship
9.75% League One
4.87% League Two
Liverpool
Total matches - 24
50% home games
62.5% Premier League
16.6% Championship
8.3% League One
12.5% League Two
The above is skewed by a few things - City have played almost twice as many matches as we have and one of their seasons above they drew only Premier League teams, whilst we had the same in another season. It does look like they tend to get easier draws, but over five seasons, our overall totals are fairly similar. I'm not saying there's no corruption or that there can't be any, but I think it's just luck plus we tend to be biased against City - someone on another forum described them being drawn with Southampton as a bye, for example. I think some also underestimate smaller teams and assume City will automatically win. To be honest, it's the same accusations that were made against United in the 90s and the same made against us by Everton fans since 1892.
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