Man City Lose Power Rankings Top Spot and Robert Lewandowski Nears UCL Century

By Opta Analyst | Created at 2024-11-26 17:19:59 | Updated at 2024-11-26 20:00:58 2 hours ago

Stat, Viz, Quiz is the Opta Analyst football newsletter. This week’s edition looks at the Opta Power Rankings, Robert Lewandowski, and the Premier League’s youngest goalscorers.

It was back to club football and the drama of the Premier League this weekend.

Manchester City lost 4-0 at home to Tottenham. We realise you probably already know that, but there might still be people out there who can’t quite believe it really happened, so we thought we’d assure you that it did.

It’s five losses in a row in all competitions for Man City for the first time since 2006, and it’s cost them a significant top spot. Not in the Premier League, but still one that’s noteworthy enough for us to cover in this week’s SVQ.

Someone who isn’t struggling in 2024-25 is Robert Lewandowski, and he could reach a significant landmark in the Champions League this week, which we’ll look at further.

Our Ask Opta question flips last week’s on its head, while it’s also quiz time where we see how much attention you were paying to the Premier League this weekend.

Let’s start at the Etihad Stadium, where the champions were flailing on Saturday.

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STAT – Man City’s Power Ranking Plunges

Apologies in advance Man City fans, this isn’t going to be pleasant (though the rest of you might want to grab some popcorn).

City hoped to get back on track after a recent wobble as they hosted Tottenham. Not only did they not get back on track, they spectacularly fell off it like their former manager Kevin Keegan on Superstars in 1976 (no, your references are outdated).

Ange Postecoglou’s side ran out 4-0 victors at the Etihad, leaving City eight points behind Premier League leaders Liverpool and wondering when this run will halt.

They have lost five consecutive games in all competitions for the first time since April 2006 under Stuart Pearce, while they’ve lost three straight Premier League matches for the first time since March 2016 under Manuel Pellegrini.

Man City are also the first reigning English top-flight champions to lose five games in a row in all competitions since Chelsea in March 1956.

Most importantly for us here at Opta, though, they dropped from a notable top spot over the weekend.

Since 11 March 2023, Manchester City had been top of the Opta Power Rankings, which is a global team ranking system that assigns an ability score to over 13,000 men’s domestic football teams and over 2,000 women’s domestic football teams on a scale between zero and 100, where zero is the worst-ranked team in the world and 100 is the best team in the world.

That’s 624 days on top of the pile. Until now.

In fact, City have fallen two spots, with Inter and Liverpool ahead of them. The Serie A champions now sit in first place, while Arne Slot’s Reds are narrowly behind the Nerazzurri in second.

It is the first time City haven’t been in the top two of the Opta Power Rankings since 28 December 2021, almost three years ago!

Of course, they’ll likely hop back to the top if they can beat Liverpool at Anfield next Sunday, so this might just be short-term pain, but it’s still a notable moment in a difficult period for Pep Guardiola’s side.

Some may argue that Man City will be more concerned about the Premier League and Champions League than the Opta Power Rankings.

We don’t want to use the clichéd ‘real quiz’ comment, but we will if forced.

VIZ – Lewandowski Chasing Down Messi and Ronaldo

Many would agree that Lionel Messi and Cristiano Ronaldo stand alone in the pantheon of modern football. Two of the best to ever kick a ball, if not the two best, and we’re not going to dispute that here (lest we be thoroughly humbled by the fanatical followers of both legends on social media).

However, some could make an argument that Robert Lewandowski may still, how do the kids say… enter the chat?

We revealed in SVQ just a few weeks ago that Lewandowski had passed the great Gerd Müller (365 goals) for all-time goals across Europe’s top five leagues, leaving him only behind Messi (496) and Ronaldo (495).

Now, we’re back with more ‘Lewy’ propaganda as the Polish striker needs just one more goal in the UEFA Champions League to reach 100 in the famous competition. That would make him only the third player to score a century in European Cup/UEFA Champions League history (currently 99 goals in 124 games), after… yep, Messi (129) and Ronaldo (140).

The 36-year-old should be in the Barcelona team to face Brest on Tuesday on Matchday 5 of the league phase of the Champions League. It would be Lewandowski’s 125th appearance in the competition. If he does find the net and bring up his century, he will have done so in just two games more than Messi did (123) but will have done so in 12 games fewer than Ronaldo (137).

Lewandowski – like Messi and Ronaldo – continues to make people in their mid-to-late thirties feel better about their age (or worse depending on how full their glass is) as he has tallied 20 goals in 18 appearances in all competitions this season.

Age might stop him from catching Messi and Ronaldo. With 99 goals in 124 Champions League appearances, his rate of 0.85 goals per 90 in the competition compares identically with Messi (0.85) and ahead of Ronaldo (0.79), but at the age of 36 it seems time could get away from him to catch their overall totals.

Can he reach 100 goals this week? We hope so for this newsletter to seem timely and relevant, but even if not, he will surely get there eventually.

QUIZ – Arsenal’s 2,000, Tottenham’s Champion Slaying, and Amorim’s Fast Start

There were a few landmarks reached in the Premier League over the weekend, but can you unravel the details behind some of them? Answers are at the bottom of the page.

1. Arsenal’s 3-0 victory over Nottingham Forest was their 2,000th win in English top-flight history, making them just the second side to reach this milestone after who?

2. Ollie Watkins has been directly involved in 50 goals in 80 Premier League appearances at Villa Park (35 goals, 15 assists), now the outright-most of any Aston Villa player in the competition. Who did he overtake in their 2-2 win with Crystal Palace at the weekend?

3. After their thrashing of Man City, Tottenham are responsible for two of the three examples of a team winning away against the reigning Premier League champions by 4+ goals. When was the other time Spurs managed such a victory?

4. Arne Slot has won 10 of his 12 Premier League games in charge of Liverpool (D1 L1), the joint-fastest any manager has reached double figures for wins from the start of their career in the competition. Who are the two former Chelsea managers who also achieved 10 wins from their first 12?

5. Rúben Amorim became only the second permanent manager in Premier League history to see his side score within the opening two minutes of his very first game in charge in the competition as Marcus Rashford netted against Ipswich Town. Which former Manchester United manager was the first? (Clue: It wasn’t for United)

Ask Opta

This week’s question comes from Mark Atkinson, who asks: “I saw your list of the oldest players to score for current Premier League clubs in last week’s newsletter. Do you have the list for youngest scorers for each team?”

Do you have a stats-based football question you want to Ask Opta? If so, send it to editors@theanalyst.com and we’ll do our best to provide you with the answer in a future edition of SVQ.

Answer:

A timely request given Ethan Nwaneri’s first Premier League goal for Arsenal on Saturday. He doesn’t actually make this list, but it was still impressive at just 17 years and 247 days old.

Here are the youngest scorers for each current Premier League club:

Arsenal – Cesc Fàbregas (17 years, 113 days vs Blackburn)
Aston Villa – Gareth Barry (18y, 60d vs Nottingham Forest)
Bournemouth – Alex Scott (20y, 132d vs Tottenham)
Brentford – Kevin Schade (21y, 272d vs Crystal Palace)
Brighton – Evan Ferguson (18y, 73d vs Arsenal)
Chelsea – Mikael Forssell (17y, 342d vs Nottingham Forest)
Crystal Palace – Clinton Morrison (18y, 361d vs Sheffield Wednesday)
Everton – James Vaughan (16y 270d vs Crystal Palace)
Fulham – Ryan Sessegnon (18y 155d vs Cardiff City)
Ipswich – Darren Bent (18y 77d vs Middlesbrough)
Leicester City – Emile Heskey (18y 223d vs Southampton)
Liverpool – Michael Owen (17y 143d vs Wimbledon)
Man City – Micah Richards (18y, 98d vs Everton)
Man Utd – Federico Macheda (17y, 226d vs Aston Villa)
Newcastle – Lewis Miley (17y 229d vs Fulham)
Nottingham Forest – Marlon Harewood (19y, 68d vs Middlesbrough)
Southampton – Michael Obafemi (18y, 169d vs Huddersfield)
Tottenham – Andy Turner (17y, 166d vs Everton)
West Ham – Rio Ferdinand (18y, 86d vs Blackburn)
Wolves – Fábio Silva (18y, 155d vs Burnley)

If you’re curious about the overall youngest players to have scored in the Premier League, you can find our article all about it on Opta Analyst.

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