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.<\/p>\n
HOW IT WORKS<\/p>\n
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.
\nThe 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.
\nThe 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.<\/p>\n
Real Madrid boss Jose Mourinho admitted that his side\u2019s 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\u2019s was poor, opening up an eight-point lead with as many games remaining.<\/p>\n
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.<\/p>\n
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.
\nTop 20<\/p>\n
1 (1) Barcelona – 4194 points
\n2 (2) Real Madrid – 3920
\n3 (3) Manchester United – 3833
\n4 (4) Chelsea – 3576
\n5 (5) Porto – 3517
\n6 (7) Internazionale – 3403
\n7 (6) Arsenal – 3348
\n8 (8) Bayern Munich – 3275
\n9 (9) Marseille – 3236
\n10 (10) Shakhtar Donetsk – 3200
\n11 (15) Valencia – 3168
\n12 (14) AC Milan – 3165
\n13 (11) Lyon – 3156
\n14 (12) Tottenham – 3152
\n15(13) Benfica – 3148
\n16 (16) Zenit St Petersburg – 3086
\n17 (17) Villarreal – 3055
\n18 (20) Manchester City – 3052
\n19 (18) Lille – 3051
\n20 (19) Borussia Dortmund – 3028<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
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.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":35,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4,7,3873,3875],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-954","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-barca","category-champions-league","category-gossip","category-random"],"yoast_head":"