European co-efficients are a funny thing and never moreso than this season when Arsenal are ranked above United, Spurs and Chelsea despite being in the Europa League once again.
Hands up if you remember the last time Arsenal won a European trophy…If your hand is currently raised then we know you’re a few years over 25 because the last time was in 1994 and you don’t remember sh*t from your first few years.
We’ve had three unsuccessful finals since then and, if you want a total recap of Arsenal’s history of European trophies, we need only add the Inter-Cities Fairs Cup from 1970 to complete the list.
So, it seems surprising, then, given that Arsenal have dropped out of the Champions League for a third successive year and have yet to work out how to win the Europa League that they should be ranked above both last year’s winners of that tournament and the side that won it in 2017.
Yet here we are.
Liverpool also find themselves below perennial Champions League underachievers, Manchester City and PSG, and only four points ahead of Arsenal despite winning it last season while the Gunners didn’t even qualify.
Last season, Arsenal also picked up the same number of points (although less money) for losing the Europa League final as Spurs got for losing the Champions League.
The whole thing is bonkers…
UEFA top 15
- Real Madrid – 121
- Atletico Madrid – 109
- Barcelona – 108
- Bayern Munich – 104
- Juventus – 99
- Manchester City – 95
- PSG – 86
- Liverpool – 85
- Arsenal – 81
- Man United – 78
- Sevilla – 76
- Tottenham – 73
- Borussia Dortmund – 71
- Chelsea – 70
- Roma – 69