Can they do it on a rainy Tuesday in Manchester? City top Midnite 'Rain & Wins' index as Oldham finish above Arsenal

For years, football fans have used weather as the ultimate litmus test for greatness, questioning whether the world's best could truly perform on a cold, wet night in Stoke. Now, the Midnite Built Different Index has attempted to quantify exactly who handles the elements best, combining regional precipitation data with sustained success on the pitch, as well as analysing wind conditions within stadiums.

Manchester City dominate the downpours

"I will miss Manchester, don't take [that] for granted. But, I will be in a better place in those terms." That's Pep Guardiola speaking in his final pre-match press conference before stepping down as Manchester City boss, with the specific 'terms' he's referring to being the weather. It rains in Manchester - a lot - but that certainly didn't stop Pep from assembling a winning machine that collected six Premier League titles on his watch, as well as the Champions League and many other trophies along the way. To emphasise the point, it even poured it down during the club's treble parade in 2023 - in the middle of June. Relentless.

It makes perfect sense, then, that Midnite's 'Rain & Wins Index' proves beyond any doubt that City are the true powerhouses of English football when dealing with the elements. Their score of 276 points puts them at the top of the pile of all 92 clubs in the pyramid, with Manchester receiving approximately 867mm of rainfall, coinciding with City's epic five-season win percentage of 78% to catapult them to the top of the standings.

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So what about Manchester United? Old Trafford may have experienced the same levels of rainfall as their noisy neighbours but the club's inconsistencies on the pitch - that's seen them get through as many as seven managers over the past five seasons, with Ruben Amorim overseeing that particularly wretched 2024-25 campaign that saw them finish 15th - meant an average win percentage of just 58%.

Even with their underperformance - remember, United haven't won the title now in 13 years - they still rank as high as fifth in the 'Rain & Wins' standings. In fact, the top 10 is essentially a weather forecast that tells us it hammers it down in the north, and Wales, with the likes of Wrexham, Liverpool - whose all-action, high-press system under former manager Jurgen Klopp perfectly suited a damp surface - Stockport County, Bolton, Swansea and Newport County all placing highly.

Oldham above Arsenal as Sunderland plummet

Premier League champions Arsenal, meanwhile, are perhaps surprisingly placed in 14th in the table - one spot below League Two side Oldham. That's because rainfall in the capital averaged 620mm, 330mm less than at Boundary Park, home of the Greater Manchester-based Latics, despite the Gunners possessing a 68% win rate amid their steady progression to the very top of the English football under the diligent stewardship of Mikel Arteta.

At the very foot of the table, meanwhile, are Sunderland, and despite rainfall averaging out at 650mm on Wearside, not dissimilar to the levels experienced in London, it's their dismal five-season win rate percentage of just 28% that's left them doomed in the 'Rains and Wins' Index. Having achieved Europa League qualification after a stellar 2025-26 season you may be wondering how on earth that's possible.

The Black Cats did, however, only achieve promotion out of League One via the playoffs in 2022, and then recovered from a disappointing 16th-placed finish in the Championship in 2024 to earn a spot in the Premier League at the expense of Sheffield United, again via the playoffs, a year later.

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As for the leaders of Midnite's 'Windiest Index', that measures the average yearly windspeed at a stadium, that honour goes to Barrow. At 14.9mph, they shot to the top of the standings, ahead of Championship outfit Swansea City in second. Not that it helped them, mind you, with Barrow struggling to contain the elements in a 2025-26 campaign that saw them finish dead last in League Two, falling through the relegation trap door and back into the National League.

And if wind really isn't your thing then consider a trip to Molineux. Wolves may have been relegated from the Premier League last season but at 11.2mph, you won't find calmer conditions anywhere else in the English football pyramid.