European Club Rankings After October 5-7 Matches
Almost every top European team seems to be in some form of crisis. From Manchester United's Jose Mourinho conundrum to Real Madrid's scoreless streak, problems abound in myriad forms.
Few sides are managing to hold things together well enough to look even remotely imperious. Big wins are followed by shock losses or draws, and form differs greatly depending on the competition.
This all plays a formative role in this week's European Club Rankings, a list of the continent's top teams in order of form and performance at this stage of the season.
You can read the last set of rankings here.
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20. Lyon (-4)
Lyon's Champions League campaign is in good shape, with a win and a draw under their belts already, but in Ligue 1, things are looking less rosy. A 5-0 beating at the hands of Paris Saint-Germain on Sunday drops them to the bottom rung on this ladder.
19. Lazio (-2)
Lazio's win at the weekend against Fiorentina in Serie A put the wheels back on track, but they were demolished a few days before in the Europa League by Eintracht Frankfurt.
18. RB Leipzig (New!)
RB Leipzig caught our attention this week. A 6-0 victory over Nurnberg made it four wins on the bounce for the east German outfit. They're up to second in the Bundesliga.
17. Tottenham Hotspur (-5)
Spurs games just feel like a struggle right now. Even an easy matchup (on paper) like Cardiff City at home in the Premier League is tough going, with Toby Alderweireld required to perform two sets of heroics just to maintain a slender lead against a team everyone expects to be relegated in 2019.
The Champions League start (played two, lost two) has been terrible, too. Dropping five spots feels harsh given they won at the weekend, but in the context of what everyone else did, it's about right.
16. Manchester United (+3)
Speaking of struggles, Manchester United don't play comfortable games of football at the moment, either.
There were plenty of grumbles inside Old Trafford last Tuesday as Valencia had the better of their Champions League tie and Geoffrey Kondogbia outshone compatriot Paul Pogba in the centre.
Those grumbles extended into the first 10 disastrous minutes of the Premier League match with Newcastle United, where they went 2-0 down early and had to summon quite the fight to win 3-2.
You get the feeling it's done little to calm the storm surrounding Jose Mourinho's position, though.
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15. Roma (+3)
The waters surrounding Roma have calmed somewhat recently. A four-game win streak in all competitions, inclusive of a Derby della Capitale victory and a 5-0 pummelling of Viktoria Plzen, will do that for you.
14. Real Madrid (-6)
Los Blancos have now gone four games without scoring. It's placed manager Julen Lopetegui under the spotlight and the likes of Karim Benzema—who hasn't scored in seven games—in the crosshairs. A bad week has turned into a bad fortnight. Real Madrid drop out of the top 10 as a result.
13. Sevilla (Stay)
Sevilla are top of La Liga, so what are they doing languishing outside the top 10 of these rankings? Sadly for them, the season-long nature of our performance measurement means Los Rojiblancos have nowhere to hide from their earlier stumbles.
For all their high points (beating Real Madrid, putting six past Levante), there are low points to match. In midweek they lost to Krasnodar in the Europa League, and they've already been beaten by Real Betis and Getafe in La Liga this term.
12. Bayern Munich (-6)
Bayern manager Niko Kovac is a man under pressure. According to Bild (h/t the Mirror's Alex Richards), he's already fighting to save his job—the one he's only been in a matter of months!
The home draw with Ajax in the Champions League last week wasn't good, but fans inside the Allianz Arena were appalled to see things get even worse at the weekend in the Bundesliga, as Die Roten went down 3-0 at home to Borussia Monchengladbach.
11. Arsenal (+4)
Nine wins in a row. They haven't all been pretty, but they all count the same.
This weekend's three-point haul in the Premier League came courtesy of a 5-1 win over Fulham, a game in which Alexandre Lacazette, Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang and Co. ran riot and looked fantastic.
You may be wondering how this isn't enough to land a spot in the top 10, but competition is tight up there and Arsenal still have a few things working against them: They've lost two games, which is still more than 70 percent of the top 10 have, and they still haven't beaten anyone good yet.
10. Inter Milan (+4)
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The Inter Milan we were imagining during the summer has finally arrived. Six straight wins and a perfect start to their Champions League campaign lifts them back into the top 10 after a long absence.
Mauro Icardi is living up to the responsibility of captaining the club, scoring the winner in September against Tottenham and in the last two matches against PSV Eindhoven and SPAL.
Arsenal, Sevilla, and Bayern Munich were all in contention for this 10th spot, but Inter nab it as they combine form with high-level competition performance better than the others.
9. Napoli (+2)
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Napoli's victory over Liverpool in the Champions League last week blew Group C wide open.
It was assumed Carlo Ancelotti's men would have to settle for third place, but the Partenopei's impressive win over the Reds at the Stadio San Paolo on Wednesday is your proverbial cat thrown among the pigeons.
Carlo Ancelotti's heavily rotated side then beat a tidy Sassuolo team at the weekend to keep themselves nestled in second place in Serie A.
8. Atletico Madrid (+1)
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Atletico Madrid have now gone four straight La Liga games without conceding a goal. They've parlayed that into 10 points from a possible 12, with a trip to the Santiago Bernabeu mixed into that run.
In Europe, they're two from two, last week dismissing Club Brugge 3-1 thanks to some cool finishing by Antoine Griezmann. They still don't feel like they're hitting the heights available to them, but they are grinding through results during a period in which other sides just aren't.
7. Paris Saint-Germain (Stay)
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Last Wednesday, Neymar produced a sparkling performance against Red Star Belgrade in the Champions League. Two free-kicks and a nice reactive finish earned him the match ball and helped Paris Saint-Germain to a thumping 6-1 win.
Then, on Sunday, it was Kylian Mbappe's turn to steal the show, netting four goals in the space of just 13 minutes to lead the French champions past Lyon.
Two wins in the space of a week by an aggregate score of 11-1? Once PSG find their groove, it's pretty tough to stop them.
6. Liverpool (-4)
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Liverpool haven't won in four. It's a statistic that makes for grim reading, though context must be applied to their situation.
Those four games have come against Chelsea (twice), Napoli and Manchester City. Ahead of this run, they faced (and beat) Tottenham and Paris Saint-Germain.
So things are better on Merseyside than the form book indicates, though that performance against Napoli was pretty dreadful and can't be ignored. They drop down off the back of it.
5. Chelsea (Stay)
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Chelsea added Vidi FC and Southampton to the list of teams they've passed to death last week, though both threatened the Blues late on in the day. Kepa Arrizabalaga is finally being put to work between the sticks, too.
Another positive for Maurizio Sarri is the slow return to life shown by Alvaro Morata. He'd looked a shadow of his usual self up until last week, but suddenly, he's now netted twice in two games.
Still unbeaten in the Premier League, up there alongside Manchester City and Liverpool at the top of the table and perfect in Europe, the only real gripe Chelsea fans can have is the lack of minutes afforded to youngsters so far.
4. Barcelona (Stay)
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Barcelona have only lost one game this season, but somehow it feels like more.
Their La Liga form has been lacking for several weeks—they're four without a win in domestic matters—and although three have been draws, the insipid nature of some of them brings to light the struggles Ernesto Valverde is experiencing.
That said, this past week has been a relative success for them. Their performance at Wembley to beat Tottenham was incredible, while a draw against Valencia is hardly cause for a crisis.
3. Borussia Dortmund (+7)
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If you want footballing entertainment, plan your schedule around Borussia Dortmund kick-off times. Almost every game they play is electric.
What Lucien Favre often gets wrong in his starting XI he corrects with his substitutions, making for regular late-game shifts and dramas. Most recently, they beat Augsburg with a 95th-minute Paco Alcacer free-kick to stay top of the Bundesliga.
Days before, they beat Monaco 3-0 to put themselves in a phenomenal position in Champions League Group A. BVB are moving on up these rankings, one crazy game at a time.
2. Manchester City (+1)
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Manchester City snapped a four-game losing streak in the Champions League last week, beating Hoffenheim thanks to a late David Silva winner.
That led them nicely into their weekend clash with Liverpool at Anfield—a stadium they had already lost twice in during 2018—to renew rivalries with a team they're competing closely with on multiple fronts.
The 0-0 draw represents a good result, though it could have been a much more satisfying afternoon had Riyad Mahrez converted a late penalty.
These two results are strong, but in comparison to what most other top teams managed last week, they look even better. It leads them up to second place.
1. Juventus (Stay)
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Juventus' 100 per cent win record this season remains intact. No club who opposed them last week even came close to threatening it.
Paulo Dybala put Young Boys to the sword in midweek to the tune of a first-ever Champions League hat-trick, then on Saturday, Cristiano Ronaldo and Mario Mandzukic combined to help the Old Lady beat black-and-white rivals Udinese in Serie A.
Unless something pretty drastic happens, Juventus will top these rankings until they slip up.
All statistics via WhoScored.com
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