Barcelona’s win and Real Madrid’s loss opens up Pep Guardiola’s side’s lead at the head of our ranking of Europe’s top clubs.

HOW IT WORKS

This season we are using the Hypercube Infostrada Euro Club Index, which scientifically analyses hundreds of thousands of matches from the top divisions in all European nations as well as Europa League and Champions League games.
The Index takes into account all matches played over an eight-year period but with recent results carrying more weight than older ones. The most recent result has 20 times more impact than a result of three years ago.
The performance of a league’s teams in Champions League and Europa League reflects the rise or fall of the sporting level in that league. So, for example, if English teams perform well in Europe, all Premier League teams receive a small bonus in their ECI score. The ranking and its predictive power are thus made even more accurate.

Real Madrid boss Jose Mourinho admitted that his side’s loss to Sporting Gijon – his first home league defeat in nine years – had all-but ended their La Liga hopes; Barcelona beat Villarreal 1-0 in a game as entertaining as Real’s was poor, opening up an eight-point lead with as many games remaining.

That result is reflected in our rankings as, while Real stay second, the gap increases from 185 to 274 points. Que pena, as they say in Madrid.

Otherwise there is no positional change in the top 10, with a bit of rotation in the bottom half of the top 20 that sees the same sides switch around a few domestic draws and wins here and there: Milan and Manchester City exploiting wins over Inter and Sunderland to move up two spots each, with Valencia gaining five places thanks to a win at Getafe.
Top 20

1 (1) Barcelona – 4194 points
2 (2) Real Madrid – 3920
3 (3) Manchester United – 3833
4 (4) Chelsea – 3576
5 (5) Porto – 3517
6 (7) Internazionale – 3403
7 (6) Arsenal – 3348
8 (8) Bayern Munich – 3275
9 (9) Marseille – 3236
10 (10) Shakhtar Donetsk – 3200
11 (15) Valencia – 3168
12 (14) AC Milan – 3165
13 (11) Lyon – 3156
14 (12) Tottenham – 3152
15(13) Benfica – 3148
16 (16) Zenit St Petersburg – 3086
17 (17) Villarreal – 3055
18 (20) Manchester City – 3052
19 (18) Lille – 3051
20 (19) Borussia Dortmund – 3028

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