Europe's Biggest Under-Achieving Clubs Featuring Manchester United, AC Milan

Welcome to our latest round-up of the biggest clubs in Europe who continue to under-achieve this season, following another round of exciting domestic games around the continent at the weekend.

Last week's rankings saw both Manchester clubs feature from the Premier League, along with AC Milan and two teams from Spain—but none from Germany.

Manchester City's big win over Norwich means they duly exit the rankings, but two new clubs are included, one from La Liga and a re-entrant from the Bundesliga.

Here are the seven biggest underperforming sides around Europe.

7. Manchester United

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Manchester United at least got themselves back to winning ways at the weekend with a fairly routine win over struggling Fulham, with the 3-1 scoreline a reflection of United's first-half dominance.

However, such has been their poor start to the league campaign that the win was not enough to catch up with the teams above them in the table, leaving the Red Devils marooned in eighth place. 

Three wins in four has closed the gap to the top four, though, and United will surely continue their improvements over the coming weeks.

A big test awaits them at the weekend though, playing at home to Arsenal.

6. Sevilla

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Sevilla's season has continued to disappoint as they suffered successive defeats to Real Madrid and Celta Vigo recently, the former by a whopping 7-3 scoreline and the latter a disappointing 1-0 home loss.

They now sit 14th in the La Liga table after just three wins all season, with 25 goals conceded, making them the second-leakiest defence in the top flight.

Sevilla are away to Espanyol at the weekend as they look to get back to winning ways.

5. Hamburger SV

Hamburger SV had gotten their season back on track with a four-game unbeaten streak, but their poor start combined with another home defeat at the weekend has sunk them back into the lower reaches of the Bundesliga.

It's not a dire situation by any means for HSV, but they will expect to pick up points to move them further up the table soon.

They sit 14th, four points above the relegation playoff spot, and they face Bayer Leverkusen at the weekend.

4. Olympique Lyonnais

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Lyon finally put an end to their horrible domestic run by beating Guingamp 2-0 at home at the weekend.

That victory lifted Lyon to 12th position, still way off the pace where they would expect to be, but at least the quick-fire goals from Alexandre Lacazette and Bafetimbi Gomis put a stop to the five-game winless streak.

Lyon are away to Saint-Etienne next weekend, who are unbeaten in three games and sit in seventh place.

3. Real Betis

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Having finished seventh in La Liga last season, this year has been a huge come-down for Real Betis.

Following the weekend's 3-2 defeat at Malaga, they have now lost four of their last five games and currently occupy a place in the bottom three—in fact, they, Almeria and Rayo Vallecano are all propping up La Liga on nine points.

A nice, easy fixture against Barcelona is exactly what they need at the weekend, then.

2. Sunderland

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Just when you think things couldn't get an awful lot worse for Sunderland...they go and get beaten 1-0 by Hull City and have two players sent off in the first half for awful challenges.

Lee Cattermole and Andrea Dossena both saw red at the end of the first 45 minutes, in separate incidents, by which time the Black Cats already trailed to an own goal by Carlos Cuellar.

The derby win over Newcastle already seems a long, long time ago.

Sunderland are one off the bottom of the Premier League, five points from safety and are at home to Manchester City at the weekend.

1. Anzhi Makhachkala

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Just when you think things couldn't get an awful lot worse for Anzhi Makhachkala...they go and lose to the team one place above them, who had only won once all season beforehand.

Anzhi themselves remain bottom of the table, winless now in 15 league games this season and with just six points.

To make matters worse, Gerson Acevedo's winner came in the 90th minute...with Ural's only shot on target of the entire game.

Anzhi now sit a whopping 11 points from safety, with their only real hope for the season being to finish in the relegation playoff places and hope to survive from there.

They are three points adrift of even that at present and play mid-table Amkar Perm' at the weekend.

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