Following a week-and-a-half in which:
– Arsenal invited Manchester City to take Premier League top spot.
– Newcastle United discovered they can score lots and lots of goals.
– Borussia Dortmund decided to finally take some initiative in the Bundesliga title race.
90min’s Sean Walsh and Jack Gallagher reconvened and recorded the third episode of our new ‘Definitive European Power Rankings’ podcast series.
Here are their picks for the top 10 best teams in Europe right now.
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On this edition of 90min’s Definitive European Power Rankings, part of the 90min podcast network, Sean Walsh and Jack Gallagher discuss the top 10 teams from across the continent after a busy week of football.
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Heading into the final month of the season, Xabi Alonso’s Bayer Leverkusen are six points off a Champions League spot in the Bundesliga and are through to the semi-finals of the Europa League.
They were in the relegation zone when he took over.
Sean: “A team we’ve talked about pretty much every week, that have been on the cusp this whole time and we’ve really willed them into these rankings because they’re fun to talk about.”
Real Madrid’s weird season would look much, much better if you just ignored the standings in La Liga.
Los Blancos sit 11 points behind Barcelona with only seven games left to play.
Sean: “For some reason, Real Madrid decided to concede four goals to Taty Castellanos in a 4-2 defeat to Girona.”
Sean and Jack revisited the ‘are Arsenal bottling the Premier League title’ debate on the pod, and there’s now a stronger case against the Gunners.
Losing at Man City? Understandable. Being embarrassingly torn apart by them? Less so. Drawing at home to Southampton? Unforgivable.
Sean: “The quality between Man City and Arsenal didn’t appear close.”
Inter have gone on some extraordinary runs this season for a team that is wildly underperforming in Serie A.
They’re through to the semi-finals of the Champions League and beat rivals Juventus to reach the Coppa Italia final earlier this week.
Jack: “It was a season-defining moment and they stepped up to the plate in that big game.”
For so long, Juventus have piled the misery on Napoli.
But I Partenopei could wrap up their first Scudetto since the days of Diego Maradona if results go their way this weekend having won in the 93th minute at the Allianz Stadium.
Jack: “Juventus have taken the Serie A title from Napoli’s clutches in the last few years…this time, it feels like they can actually enjoy a win over Juventus. This has made winning the league a certainty.”
After getting completely turned over by Aston Villa nearly a fortnight ago, Newcastle have responded with huge wins against Tottenham and Everton.
Alexander Isak, Joelinton, Jacob Murphy and Callum Wilson have found their scoring form at the right time.
Sean: “This a hot take based on nothing – Newcastle will go further than Arsenal in the Champions League next season.”
Aston Villa beat Fulham 1-0 on Tuesday. Seems normal.
Fulham only had one shot.
One.
Jack: “The scoreline didn’t do Aston Villa justice…they completely dominated Fulham.”
Bayern Munich’s surprise 3-1 loss at Mainz opened the door for Borussia Dortmund to move to the top of the Bundesliga table.
They smashed Eintracht Frankfurt 4-0 and lead the standings heading into the final five games of the season.
Jack: “They should win the Bundesliga. There have been a lot of seasons where they should but don’t, but now they’re not up against the machine that Bayern Munich have been in previous seasons.”
Milan are on a six-match unbeaten run heading into Saturday’s trip to Roma, rising to fourth in the Serie A standings.
Their Champions League semi-final showdown with rivals Inter is creeping over the horizon.
Jack: “Milan have been consistent and it doesn’t feel like they’re going to slip up at any point anymore. They’re comfortably cruising through games.”
Manchester City’s destiny is in their own hands again.
They trail Arsenal in the Premier League by two points but retain two games in hand. They’re heavy favourites to win the Champions League and FA Cup as well.
Can Pep Guardiola’s men complete the treble?
Sean: “It would be a failure if Man City don’t win the treble now. That’s how good they are.”
Credit: 90min.com
