📈 Power Rankings: Chelsea enter, new leaders

Thursday’s Power Rankings are back after another week of thrilling action across Europe’s top leagues and UEFA competitions.

Here are the 10 sides in our updated Power Rankings table.

📈 Power Rankings: Chelsea enter, new leaders

10. Benfica (🆕)

New entrants this week after big back-to-back wins. Bruno Lage has hit the ground running as Benfica’s boss with five consecutive wins in all competitions since replacing Roger Schmidt last month.

The Eagles came from behind to thump Gil Vicente 5-1 at the Estádio da Luz at the weekend, before producing arguably the result of matchday two in the Champions League.

Benfica thrashed Atletico Madrid 4-0 in the Spanish capital, with the in-form Kerem Aktürkoğlu and evergreen Angel Di Maria among those on the scoresheet. It’s maximum points after two games in Europe for the capital club.

9. PSV Eindhoven (👎 Last week: 8)

PSV Eindhoven remain at the summit of the Eredivisie with a perfect record after seven games. Ricardo Pepi’s double earned the Dutch champions a 2-0 win at Willem II at the weekend before PSV got on the board in the Champions League in midweek.

In a battle between the league leaders in the Netherlands and Portugal, PSV were unfortunate not to take all three points after dominating their 1-1 draw with Sporting Lisbon.

8. Chelsea (🆕)

Something seems to be clicking at Chelsea.

Enzo Maresca’s team have racked up four consecutive wins in all competitions, beating Bournemouth, West Ham, Barrow and Brighton in successive games.

Cole Palmer produced an incredible performance in that latter result, becoming the first player in history to score four first-half goals in a Premier League game. It’s now 10 goals and assists in six league appearances for Palmer this season, with the 22-year-old the face of Chelsea’s rebrand.

7. Juventus (🆕)

Thiago Motta has breathed new life into the Old Lady this season, with Juventus showing early progress under the new head coach. Juve are the only side in Europe’s top five leagues to have not conceded this season, a run of six straight shutouts to start the 2024/25 campaign.

In Europe, it’s six points from six available in the Champions League. Juventus showed real spirit to recover from 2-1 down and beat RB Leipzig this week, despite injuries to Bremer and Nicolas Gonzalez and Michele Di Gregorio’s 59th-minute red card.

6. Bayern Munich (👎 Last week: 2)

Bayern Munich drop down our table after the German side’s winning run was halted this week.

A crunch clash with last season’s Bundesliga winners, Bayer Leverkusen, ended in a 1-1 draw at the Allianz Arena before Bayern were beaten in Europe in midweek.

For the first time since September 26th 2017, Bayern has lost a Champions League group stage match. Jhon Duran scored the only goal as Aston Villa claimed a 1-0 win over Vincent Kompany’s side.

5. Manchester City (👎 Last week: 4)

Manchester City move down a place after being held in the Premier League at the weekend. Pep Guardiola’s side drew 1-1 at Newcastle, their third consecutive draw in all competitions.

The Citizens responded in midweek with a convincing 4-0 win at Slovan Bratislava in the Champions League. James McAtee scored his first goal for the Blues in Slovakia.

4. Barcelona (👎 Last week: 1)

Barcelona are another faller after losing in La Liga for the first time. Immaculate after seven games heading into the weekend, Hansi Flick’s side were beaten 4-2 at Osasuna to see their lead at the top reduced.

Fortunately, Young Boys provided perfect opposition to bounce back against in Europe. Robert Lewandowski scored twice with Raphinha also impressing as the Spaniards won 5-0 to get their Champions League campaign up and running.

3. Sporting Lisbon (No change)

Sporting moved to seven wins from seven games in the Primeira Liga with a comfortable 3-0 rout of Estoril Praia. Geny Catamo, Hidemasa Morita, and Daniel Braganca scored the goals to keep Ruben Amorim’s team above Porto and Benfica at the summit.

The Portuguese champions then earned a 1-1 draw at PSV Eindhoven in the Champions League with the competition in Europe significantly stronger than that in opposition domestically right now.

2. Liverpool (👍 Last week: 7)

Liverpool jump up our Power Rankings table after a strong start to life under Arne Slot.

The Reds have won eight of their nine games under the Dutchman this season and moved to the top of the Premier League with a 2-1 win at Wolves. Liverpool then beat Bologna in the Champions League on Wednesday evening to continue their perfect start to the new-look league phase. There’s plenty to be positive about at Anfield.

1. Arsenal (👍 Last week: 6)

Arsenal are our new leaders after a statement win in the Champions League this week.

The Gunners remain unbeaten across all competitions this season, though left it late to beat newly-promoted Leicester at the weekend.

Two stoppage-time goals rescued Arsenal at the Emirates before Tuesday’s tie with Paris Saint-Germain saw the North London side send a message. Kai Havertz and Bukayo Saka were on target in a 2-0 win over the French champions, a performance and result that showed Arsenal can mix it with Europe’s best this season.

Read – Five things we learned from the Champions League action

See more – Champions League Team of the Week as Villa stun Bayern

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