WCR Top 25 - October 24, 2023

Obviously nothing happened during the international break to change the rankings, and to be honest, there wasn’t much over the past weekend to change the rankings either.

Once again, the same ten clubs remained in the WCR Top Ten, but there were some position flips  within the rankings.  Liverpool and Bayern Munich changed places again, in our seemingly obligatory Top 5 minor switch and never seems to affect the top spot.  The biggest mover within the Top Ten was Arsenal, who dropped two notches from 5th to 7th, after coming back to draw Chelsea in their Saturday Premier League match.  This allowed both Inter Milan and Barcelona to move up a single spot.

Further down the rankings, we had three clubs that moved as many as three spots within the rankings, one downwards and two upwards.  The one that moved down was Benfica, and I really don’t have an explanation for this other than the fact that the clubs that jumped it beat more significant competition than did Benfica, who made their season debut in the Taça de Portugal this weekend.  The mover-uppers included Bayer Leverkusen, who beat Wolfsburg to remain on top of the German Bundesliga, and Juventus, who beat a short-handed AC Milan 1-0 at the San Siro.

We don’t have any new members to the WCR Top 25 this week, so I will just make note of the oddity of Group F of the UEFA Champions League.  This is the one that has been referred to as the group of death.  How close are the four clubs in the group?  This week, they are ranked 11th (Newcastle United), 12th (Borussia Dortmund); 13th (AC Milan) and 14th (PSG).  I expect there will be some sort of shake up in next week’s rankings after these four clubs have another crack at each other on Wednesday night.

All of the rankings are below.  If you don’t like the list, please feel free to check out our methodology page, which includes links to all of the source data we are using. 

1.  Manchester City (Eng) (125 pts) (5 first place votes) (LW 1) - City looked like they were going to turn their weekend match against Brighton into a laugher with a quick two-goal lead, but they seemed to let their foot off the gas and had to end up fighting off a tough challenge before finally prevailing by a 2-1 score.  The boys in light blue will have two away matches in the coming week, first in Switzerland against Young Boys in the Champions League and then across town from their own home as they will visit Old Trafford for a derby match against Manchester United.

2.  Real Madrid (Esp) (116 pts) (LW 2) -After returning to the runner-up spot in the rankings, Real Madrid didn’t look their recent dominant selves at Sevilla, and were behind for four minutes before Daniel Carvajal surprised with an equalizer in the 78th minute, which secured a 1-1 draw against the defending Europa League champions.  This week, Real Madrid has two away matches, heading to Portugal to play Braga in their UCL Group Stage match and then, probably more importantly to Los Blancos, a superclasico matchup at Barcelona on Saturday. 

3.  Bayern Munich (Ger) (115 pts) (LW 4) - Bayern took a quick two-goal lead on Mainz on Saturday, lost one of those goals, but then got it back for a 3-1 away victory.  In the coming week, Bayern will play in the early match in Turkey at Man United-killers Galatasaray on Tuesday in Champions LEague play and come home to Allianz Arena to host Darmstadt on Saturday

4. Liverpool (Eng) (112 pts) (LW 3) - Liverpool decided to switch things up this week by letting the other club take the red card and the Reds used this advantage to score a 2-0 victory on two Mo Salah goals in their Merseyside Derby tie against Everton at Anfield.  This week, Liverpool will look to continue their run through the Europa League Group Stage, this time against Toulouse, before hosting Nottingham Forest on Sunday in their next Premier League match.

5. Inter Milan (Ita) (102 pts) (LW 6) - After 55 minutes of what looked like it might turn out to be a goalless draw, and fairly, Inter’s quality came through and allowed them to eventually blow out Torino by a 3-0 score.  This week will see Internazionale have two matches at home, first on Tuesday against RB Salzburg in UCL Group Stage action, and then returning to Serie A play on Sunday night against Roma.

6.   Barcelona (Esp) (99 points) (LW 7) -Barça squeaked by Athletic Club by a 1-0 score this weekend, thanks to Marc Guiu’s historic goal, and that was enough to help them move within a point of La Liga leaders Real Madrid.  Speaking of Real Madrid, Barcelona’s match against the league leaders will be the match of the upcoming weekend and will take place Saturday afternoon.  Before that, however, Barcelona will also host Shakhtar Donetsk in a UCL Group Stage match.

7.  Arsenal (Eng) (99 points) (LW 5) - It looked like the Gunners were going to fall to a Chelsea club that has been playing well recently, albeit against weaker opponents than Arsenal.  Two late goals, however, let the team in red score a 2-2 draw that they would have been disappointed in before the match, but were praying for at the 75th minute.  Arsenal travels to Spain to take on Sevilla in their UCL Group Stage match on Tuesday night and then hosts Sheffield United on Saturday afternoon in Premier League action.

8. Atlético Madrid (Esp) (90 pts) (LW 8) - Atléti moved a bit closer to Real Madrid in the table this weekend with a 3-0 victory at Celta Vigo thanks to an Antoine Griezmann hat trick, including two goals he actually tried to make.  In Champions League action this week, Atlético will travel to Scotland to face Celtic on Sunday night and then return home to host Deportivo Alavés on Sunday night.

9.  RB Leipzig (Ger) (77 pts) (LW 9) - Leipzig scored forty-seconds in and never looked back against Darmstadt, picking up a 3-1 road victory in their return from the international break.  The Red Bulls will be at home twice this week, hosting Red Star Belgrade for their third UCL Group Stage match, and then hosting Köln on Saturday in its next domestic league encounter.

10.  Napoli (Ita) (77 pts) (LW 10) - For parts of the match, you could have confused this year’s edition of Napoli for last year’s edition as Napoli easily handled Hellas Verona for a 3-1 victory.  They will have to keep that up this week as they travel to the German capital to take on Union Berlin in the UCL Group Stage and then head home to host AC Milan on Sunday night.

11. Newcastle United (Eng) (75 pts) (LW 11)

12. Borussia Dortmund (Ger) (62 pts) (LW 13)

13. AC Milan (Ita) (60 pts) (LW 12)

14. Paris St. Germain (Fra) (54 pts) (LW 15)

15. Tottenham Hotspur (Eng) (51 pts) (LW 14)

16. Porto (Por) (47 pts) (LW 16)

17. Bayer Leverkusen (Ger) (41 pts) (LW 20)

18. Juventus (Ita) (39 pts) (LW 21)

19. Manchester United (Eng) (37 pts) (LW 17)

20. Real Sociedad (Esp)  (34 pts) (LW 19)

21.  Benfica (Por) (32 pts) (LW 18)

22. Aston Villa (Eng) (32 pts) (LW 22)

23. Brighton (Eng) (13 pts) (LW 23)

24. West Ham United (Eng) (8 pts) (LW 24)

25. Chelsea (Eng) (8 pts) (LW 25) 

Also receiving points:   Sporting CP (Por) (5), PSV Eindhoven (Ned) (4), Feyenoord (Ned) (4), Lazio (Ita) (3), Brentford (Eng) (2), Atalanta (Ita) (2).