English Women’s Football

English Women’s Football Tier 1 team rankings over the years

Ranking Chart (a bump chart) of Tier 1 English Women’s Football Teams from 2011 to 2023-24 seasons. The best performing teams are coloured, while others are greyed out to highlight the dominance of 3 teams - Chelsea, Manchester City and Arsenal.

How I made this graphic?

Loading libraries & data

# Data Import and Wrangling Tools
library(tidyverse)            # All things tidy

# Final plot tools
library(scales)               # Nice Scales for ggplot2
library(fontawesome)          # Icons display in ggplot2
library(ggtext)               # Markdown text support for ggplot2
library(showtext)             # Display fonts in ggplot2
library(colorspace)           # Lighten and Darken colours
library(patchwork)            # Combining plots

# Get data
ewf_appearances <- readr::read_csv('https://raw.githubusercontent.com/rfordatascience/tidytuesday/master/data/2024/2024-07-16/ewf_appearances.csv')
ewf_matches <- readr::read_csv('https://raw.githubusercontent.com/rfordatascience/tidytuesday/master/data/2024/2024-07-16/ewf_matches.csv')
ewf_standings <- readr::read_csv('https://raw.githubusercontent.com/rfordatascience/tidytuesday/master/data/2024/2024-07-16/ewf_standings.csv')

Data Wrangling

df <- ewf_standings |> 
  select(season, tier, team_name, position, 
         goals_for, goals_against, goal_difference) |> 
  filter(tier == 1) |> 
  mutate(team_name = str_remove_all(team_name, " Ladies")) |> 
  mutate(team_name = str_remove_all(team_name, " Women"))

sel_teams <- df |> 
  count(team_name, sort = TRUE) |> 
  slice_max(order_by = n, n = 7) |> 
  pull(team_name)

xlabels <- c("2011", "2012", "2013", "2014", "2015", "2016", "2017",
             "2017-18", "2018-19", "2019-20",
             "2020-21", "2021-22", "2022-23", "2023-24")

plotdf <- df |> 
  mutate(
    colour_var = if_else(
      team_name %in% sel_teams,
      team_name,
      "Others"
    ),
    colour_var = fct(colour_var, level = c(sel_teams, "Others")),
    season = str_replace_all(season, "-20", "-")
  ) |> 
  mutate(
    label_var = paste0(
      "**", goals_for, "**  ", 
      "   |  ", 
      goals_against
    ),
    .keep = "unused"
  )

Visualization Parameters

# Font for titles
font_add_google("Bangers",
  family = "title_font"
) 

# Font for the caption
font_add_google("Saira Extra Condensed",
  family = "caption_font"
) 

# Font for plot text
font_add_google("Martel Sans",
  family = "body_font",
  regular.wt = 300,
  bold.wt = 900
) 

showtext_auto()

# Credits for coffeee palette
mypal <- c(paletteer::paletteer_d("MoMAColors::Panton"), "grey70")
mypal |> seecolor::print_color()

bg_col <- "white"
text_col <-  mypal[5]
text_hil <- mypal[4]

bts <- 80

# Caption stuff for the plot
sysfonts::font_add(
  family = "Font Awesome 6 Brands",
  regular = here::here("docs", "Font Awesome 6 Brands-Regular-400.otf")
)
github <- "&#xf09b"
github_username <- "aditya-dahiya"
xtwitter <- "&#xe61b"
xtwitter_username <- "@adityadahiyaias"
social_caption_1 <- glue::glue("<span style='font-family:\"Font Awesome 6 Brands\";'>{github};</span> <span style='color: {text_hil}'>{github_username}  </span>")
social_caption_2 <- glue::glue("<span style='font-family:\"Font Awesome 6 Brands\";'>{xtwitter};</span> <span style='color: {text_hil}'>{xtwitter_username}</span>")

Annotation Text for the Plot

plot_title <- "English Women's Football"

plot_subtitle <- str_wrap("3 teams donimate the Rankings in the Tier 1 since 2015: Chelsea, Manchester City and Aresnal.", 53)
str_view(plot_subtitle)

plot_caption <- paste0(
  "**Data:** EWF Database by Rob Clapp & Data is Plural", 
  " |  **Code:** ", 
  social_caption_1, 
  " |  **Graphics:** ", 
  social_caption_2
  )

rm(github, github_username, xtwitter, 
   xtwitter_username, social_caption_1, 
   social_caption_2)

The static plot:

# Start the plot and build it layer by layer
g <- plotdf |> 
  ggplot(
    mapping = aes(
      x = season, 
      y = position, 
      group = team_name,
      colour = colour_var
      )
    ) +
  ggbump::geom_bump(
    alpha = 0.5,
    linewidth = 4
  ) +
  geom_point(
    pch = 21,
    fill = bg_col,
    stroke = 0.3,
    size = 15,
    alpha = 1
  ) +
  
  # Left side labels
  geom_text(
    data = plotdf |> filter(
      season == "2011-11"
      ),
    mapping = aes(
      label = str_wrap(team_name,1)
    ),
    lineheight = 0.3,
    size = bts / 3,
    hjust = 1,
    nudge_x = -0.4,
    # nudge_y = -0.4,
    family = "caption_font"
  ) +
  
  # Right side labels
  geom_text(
    data = plotdf |> filter(
      season == "2023-24"
      ),
    mapping = aes(
      label = str_wrap(team_name,1)
    ),
    lineheight = 0.3,
    size = bts / 3,
    hjust = 0,
    nudge_x = 0.4,
    # nudge_y = -0.4,
    family = "caption_font"
  ) +
  
  # Labels inside circle for goals data
  geom_richtext(
    mapping = aes(
      label = label_var,
      colour = colour_var
    ),
    size = bts / 8,
    family = "body_font",
    lineheight = 0.3,
    hjust = 0.5,
    vjust = 0.5,
    fill = "transparent",
    label.size = NA
  ) +
  scale_colour_manual(values = mypal) +
  
  # Coordinates and Scales
  coord_cartesian(
    clip = "off"
  ) +
  scale_y_reverse(
    breaks = 1:12
  ) +
  
  scale_x_discrete(
    expand = expansion(c(0.18, 0.14)),
    labels = xlabels
  ) +
  
  # Labels for the plot
  labs(
    title = plot_title,
    subtitle = plot_subtitle,
    caption = plot_caption,
    x = NULL, y = NULL
  ) +

  # Theme Elements
  theme_minimal(
    base_size = bts,
    base_family = "body_font"
  ) +
  theme(
    legend.position = "none",
    panel.grid = element_blank(),
    axis.ticks.length = unit(0, "mm"),
    axis.title = element_text(
      colour = text_hil,
      margin = margin(0,0,0,0, "mm")
    ),
    axis.text.y = element_text(
      size = bts * 1.5,
      colour = text_hil,
      margin = margin(0,0,0,0, "mm"),
      face = "bold"
    ),
    axis.text.x = element_text(
      size = bts * 0.5,
      colour = text_hil,
      margin = margin(0,0,0,0, "mm")
    ),
    plot.background = element_rect(
      fill = bg_col,
      colour = "transparent"
    ),
    panel.background = element_rect(
      fill = "transparent",
      colour = "transparent"
    ),
    plot.caption = element_textbox(
      colour = text_hil,
      family = "caption_font",
      hjust = 0.5
    ),
    plot.title = element_text(
      hjust = 0.5,
      size = 4.2 * bts,
      colour = text_hil,
      margin = margin(10,0,0,0, "mm"),
      family = "title_font"
    ),
    plot.subtitle = element_text(
      colour = text_hil,
      size = 1.7 * bts,
      hjust = 0.5, 
      lineheight = 0.3,
      margin = margin(7,0,3,0, "mm"),
      face = "italic"
    ),
    plot.margin = margin(10,10,10,10, "mm")
  )

Annotation

g_inset <- ggplot(
  data = tibble(
    x = cos(seq(0, 2 * pi, length.out = 1000)),
    y = sin(seq(0, 2 * pi, length.out = 1000))
    ),
  mapping = aes(x = x, y = y)
  ) +
  geom_polygon(
    fill = "transparent",
    colour = text_hil,
    linewidth = 3
  ) +
  annotate(
    geom = "richtext",
    x = 0, y = 0,
    label = "**24**  |  12",
    size = bts / 3.5,
    label.size = NA,
    fill = "transparent",
    colour = text_hil,
    family = "body_font"
  ) +
  
  # Arrows
  annotate(
    geom = "curve",
    x = -0.5, xend = -1.5,
    y = -0.3, yend = -1.5,
    curvature = -0.25,
    arrow = arrow(),
    colour = text_hil,
    linewidth = 1.5
  ) +
  annotate(
    geom = "curve",
    x = 0.5, xend = 1.5,
    y = -0.3, yend = -1.5,
    curvature = 0.25,
    arrow = arrow(),
    colour = text_hil,
    linewidth = 1.5
  ) +
  
  # Annotation Text
  annotate(
    geom = "richtext",
    x = -1.5, y = -1.5,
    label = "**Goals scored**",
    size = bts / 3,
    label.size = NA,
    hjust = 1, vjust = 1,
    fill = "transparent",
    colour = text_hil,
    family = "body_font"
  ) +
  annotate(
    geom = "richtext",
    x = 1.5, y = -1.5,
    label = "Goals against",
    size = bts / 3,
    label.size = NA,
    hjust = 0, vjust = 1,
    fill = "transparent",
    colour = text_hil,
    family = "body_font"
  ) +
  coord_equal(
    xlim = c(-2,2),
    ylim = c(-2, 1),
    clip = "off"
  ) +
  theme_void()

g_full <- g +
  inset_element(
    p = g_inset,
    left = 0.2, right = 0.4,
    top = 0.3, bottom = 0,
    clip = FALSE,
    align_to = "panel"
  ) +
  plot_annotation(
    theme = theme(
      plot.background = element_rect(
        fill = "transparent", colour = "transparent"
      ),
      panel.background = element_rect(
        colour = "transparent", fill = "transparent"
      )
    )
  )

Savings the graphics

ggsave(
  filename = here::here("data_vizs", "tidy_english_football.png"),
  plot = g_full,
  width = 400,    # Best Twitter Aspect Ratio = 5:4
  height = 500,   
  units = "mm",
  bg = bg_col
)

library(magick)
# Saving a thumbnail for the webpage
image_read(here::here("data_vizs", "tidy_english_football.png")) |> 
  image_resize(geometry = "400") |> 
  image_write(here::here("data_vizs", "thumbnails", "tidy_english_football.png"))