European Club Rankings: Barcelona and Bayern Shoot Upward; Chelsea Fall
It was a good weekend in European football for strikers. Barcelona's MSN trio wreaked havoc, Edin Dzeko and Gonzalo Higuain did the damage in Serie A, and Edinson Cavani and Kylian Mbappe proved the scourge of Ligue 1 defences once again.
There isn't actually that much movement in the top 25 this week—a product, largely, of most of the teams winning their games—but there is a shuffle in the top five and the English clubs have been reordered.
The rankings are now season-long in their measurement of clubs. Previous editions only took recent form into account (spanning four to six weeks), but this version tracks teams throughout 2016-17.
Teams that have lost the fewest games in all competitions naturally rank higher, and Champions League form and presence is used as a tiebreaker for those with similar records.
25-21
1 of 17
25. Villarreal (-1)
A 1-1 draw with Malaga took Villarreal to 14 ties this season—14! Consider the fact they've won 12 games and lost eight, that's an astonishing tally.
24. Inter Milan (+1)
Inter Milan did extremely well to procure three points from their match with Empoli given the suspensions hindering team selection. With no Mauro Icardi or Ivan Perisic—players who have combined for 22 Serie A goals this season—they still managed a 2-0 victory.
23. OGC Nice (stay)
Nice started Sunday's clash with Rennes really badly but fought back to claim a draw. Add that to their midweek win and it makes for a decent pair of results.
22. Real Sociedad (stay)
Real Sociedad beat a pretty handy Espanyol side away from home to keep pace with La Liga's top order. As a result, all of the top five won this weekend.
21. Lazio (stay)
Lazio will have been extremely disappointed to take just a point from their match with Milan on Monday. They totalled 23 shots and forced nine saves from Gianluigi Donnarumma, then conceded in the 85th minute.
20-16
2 of 17
20. Tottenham Hotspur (-4)
Tottenham Hotspur never really got going against Liverpool at Anfield, struggling to find form in yet another big game. This was their seventh loss of the season—few in these rankings have as many as that.
19. Manchester City (-2)
Manchester City beat AFC Bournemouth on Monday to keep this little streak of form going. They move below FC Porto, though, who have finally stopped drawing games and have an overall record that betters the Citizens'.
18. FC Porto (+2)
FC Porto are tuning up for their UEFA Champions League clash with Juventus in style. They're on a five-game win streak and only have lowly Tondela to worry about between now and then.
17. Manchester United (+2)
Despite missing a glut of first-half chances, Manchester United overcame Watford at Old Trafford on Saturday with relative ease. Fans will have been relieved to see Anthony Martial make the most of the chance Jose Mourinho handed him.
16. Liverpool (+2)
Tottenham gave Liverpool the space to play in they've craved for months, and the Reds took full advantage. Where would they be had Sadio Mane not gone to Gabon?
15. Sevilla
3 of 17
Last Week: 15th
Movement: None
A marker for how far Sevilla have come this season is that their away form is superb. With 21 points from 12 games, their record is the second best in La Liga behind only Barcelona.
They had to scrap for their latest one, a 1-0 victory over Las Palmas. Sergio Rico made seven saves as the hosts pushed and pushed, while the defence creaked a little under the pressure of possession.
14. Roma
4 of 17
Last Week: 14th
Movement: None
"Next time I might leave the penalties for someone else to take," admitted Edin Dzeko to Sky Sport Italia (h/t Football Italia) after his latest miss from the spot. Roma have a tendency to make life difficult for themselves, and the former Man City man's negligence from the spot has been a key part of it.
Regardless, the Giallorossi beat Crotone 2-0 to keep pace at the top, and Dzeko's 18 goals has him level with Gonzalo Higuain in the Capocannoniere stakes. Radja Nainggolan, now unleashed in a more advanced position, netted the opener and Mohamed Salah, back from the Africa Cup of Nations, played superbly.
13. Atletico Madrid
5 of 17
Last Week: 13th
Movement: None
Fernando Torres' looping, overhead lob for Atletico Madrid on Sunday is surely one of the finest goals you'll see in years. If you haven't caught it yet, fix that now.
Diego Simeone will be delighted with his team's hard-fought 3-2 victory, but a nagging feeling remains that this is indicative of the sticky situation Los Colchoneros find themselves in in La Liga.
Victories over Celta Vigo don't come easy, but it says plenty about how big the gap is between Real Madrid/Barcelona and Atletico that while the latter is eking out home victories thanks to 86th- and 88th-minute goals, the former two are dispensing with opponents quickly and easily.
12. Borussia Dortmund
6 of 17
Last Week: 11th
Movement: -1
An extremely young, experimental Borussia Dortmund team lost 2-1 at Darmstadt on Saturday, blowing the chance to make up ground on RB Leipzig.
It's entirely possible Thomas Tuchel was caught in the eye of a fixture storm here, as BVB went to extra-time and penalties midweek against Hertha Berlin in the DFB Pokal, and have Benfica away on Tuesday evening in the Champions League.
But that doesn't make the loss any more palatable. Darmstadt are bottom of the Bundesliga and hadn't previously won a game in months.
11. RB Leipzig
7 of 17
Last Week: 9th
Movement: -2
One of the major upsets of the footballing weekend, in any country, was Hamburg's 3-0 destruction of high-flying RB Leipzig.
Kyriakos Papadopoulos scored for the visitors having only recently terminated a loan spell with the hosts (he scored against his parent club Bayer Leverkusen last week, so call him the scourge of recent employers if you will) to help HSV register rare back-to-back wins.
RB Leipzig racked up 68 per cent possession, fired off 15 shots and hit the woodwork, but they still left the stadium with a second consecutive loss to their name.
10. Arsenal
8 of 17
Last Week: 12th
Movement: +2
In the words of Andy Townsend, this was better from Arsenal. A 2-0 home victory over Hull City may not look much on paper, but this was an important corner turned.
Alexis Sanchez put together a peculiar game in which he scored with his hand, converted a not-so-great penalty and was booked for simulation. All that said, he won the match for the Gunners and therefore received the man-of-the-match acclaim.
The truth is, handball outrage aside, this could have been a cricket score given Hull's penchant for giving the ball away in incredibly dangerous areas. The win was coming regardless of how.
9. Benfica
9 of 17
Last Week: 10th
Movement: +1
Benfica face Borussia Dortmund in the Champions League round of 16 this week, and they prepared for the fixture in far more appropriate fashion than their Black and Yellow rivals.
Friday night's 3-0 victory over Arouca was done and dusted by the 50th minute, and although goalkeeper Ederson Moraes was sent off in the first half, the visitors managed just three shots on target all game.
Manager Rui Vitoria will have some tough selection calls to make for Tuesday, most notably with regard to Andrija Zivkovic. The 20-year-old has impressed in consecutive games, but will he be trusted on the big occasion?
8. Napoli
10 of 17
Last Week: 8th
Movement: None
Napoli continue to pull star players from every pocket. What Maurizio Sarri has moulded in the south of Italy is truly remarkable.
On Friday, in lieu of a Dries Mertens goalscoring bonanza, Piotr Zielinski and Emanuele Giaccherini notched to help down Genoa 2-0. Zielinski's performance was particularly excellent, dribbling through Genoa's midfield at will and netting the opening goal with a lovely strike.
Next on the fixture list is Real Madrid. They couldn't, could they?
7. Paris Saint-Germain
11 of 17
Last Week: 7th
Movement: None
Paris Saint-Germain's 2017 renaissance continued this past week as they beat Lille and Bordeaux in the space of four days.
The wins were a product of more goalscoring goodness from Edinson Cavani, who netted three to take his personal Ligue 1 tally up to 25 for the season (from 22 starts!). He's scored nine in his last six games in all competitions. Ridiculous.
Still, PSG sit three points off Monaco and continue to have to make do with second place in Ligue 1. Now, attentions turn to the club's seemingly annual Champions League tie with Barcelona.
6. Monaco
12 of 17
Last Week: 6th
Movement: None
Monaco beat Montpellier 2-1 midweek then battered Metz 5-0 on Saturday, with Kylian Mbappe—a hot topic right now due to Arsene Wenger's purported interest in him, per Bleacher Report's Dean Jones—enjoying a stellar week.
He netted four goals across two games, combining superbly with Valere Germain first, then Radamel Falcao second as Leonardo Jardim rotated his squad. They'll be fresh as daisies for their Champions League clash with Manchester City this week—Thomas Lemar, Tiemoue Bakayoko and Germain all started from the bench against Metz.
The only sour note? Gabriel Boschilia, one of Les Monegasques' talented young midfielders, suffered a serious knee injury against Metz.
5. Juventus
13 of 17
Last Week: 5th
Movement: None
"Gonzalo Higuain is nearly automatic [in front of goal] at this point," remarked B/R's Gianni Verschueren on Twitter on Sunday following the Argentinian's most recent goalscoring exploits. His double led Juventus to a 2-0 win over Cagliari and took his personal Serie A tally for the season to 18.
The match represented another victory for Max Allegri's 4-2-3-1 formation, making it six from six since switching to it, and it's the fourth time the scoreline has been 2-0.
Next up is Palermo at home before a daunting trip to the dreaded Estadio do Dragao.
4. Chelsea
14 of 17
Last Week: 2nd
Movement: -2
Competition in these upper reaches of the European Club Rankings is tough, so while Chelsea's 1-1 draw at Burnley seemed like a reasonable result in the context of the Premier League table, it knocks them down two spots here.
The Blues started the game superbly, and it must be said that their goal was brilliant. A great move, some fantastic work from Victor Moses in the buildup and Pedro's touch to take it away from Michael Keane before the finish...just sublime.
But then they faded, conceded to a stunning free-kick and, had Matthew Lowton possessed the sense to lay the ball rather than shoot toward the end of the first half, this could have been a loss. Also, Diego Costa hasn't scored in over 225 minutes of Premier League play. Is that a problem, or?
3. Barcelona
15 of 17
Last Week: 4th
Movement: +1
It's never quiet when Barcelona are involved, and as weeks go, the club might well have just experienced one of most eventful in quite a while.
The 1-1 draw in midweek with Atletico, securing passage to the Copa del Rey final on aggregate, saw three red cards and a missed penalty; Barca then played Deportivo Alaves—the team they'll face in the CdR final in May—and demolished them to the tune of a 6-0 scoreline.
All of this was accomplished with the backdrop of yet more Ronald Koeman to Barcelona links being quashed, per the Mirror's David Maddock, further unsettling Luis Enrique's position as manager.
2. Bayern Munich
16 of 17
Last Week: 3rd
Movement: +1
A strong week's work for Bayern saw them win two games, concede zero and progress to the quarter-finals of the DFB Pokal. Wrapped in among these feats was also an intriguing formation change.
Against Ingolstadt's press-heavy approach, Carlo Ancelotti felt it necessary to move to a 4-3-2-1 shape, packing the midfield zone with passing options and using Robert Lewandowski and Thomas Muller as out-balls. The 2-0 scoreline suggests it worked superbly.
1. Real Madrid
17 of 17
Last Week: 1st
Movement: None
Real Madrid did well to overcome a ridiculously poor Osasuna pitch to win 3-1 and continue their charge toward the Liga title.
Cristiano Ronaldo played well and scored; Isco showed predatory nous to grab the second; and Lucas Vazquez netted what was, astonishingly, his first La Liga goal of the season to sew things up late.
Zinedine Zidane tried a three-at-the-back system that probably won't be seen again in a hurry, with the reversion to a back four instantaneously improving their performance.
All statistics via WhoScored.com
