By Alan Duffy
They say you can prove anything with statistics and the latest statistical boffinry to throw us a cureveball comes courtesy of statty men and women Infostrada, who have thrown lots of games and facts and figures into a big magical computing machine, with some interesting results coming out the other end.
After comparing both clubs and national teams, Infostrada produced a ranking of the best teams in Europe, with our dearly beloved Three Lions only coming in in 18th place, one spot behind Ukrainian side Shakhtar Donetsk, The top 20 is as follows:
1. Real Madrid 11. Borussia Dortmund
2. Barcelona 12. Arsenal
3. Manchester United 13. AC Milan
4. Spain 14. Atletico Madrid
5. Manchester City 15. Benfica
6. Bayern Munich 16. Italy
7. Chelsea 17. Shakhtar Donetsk
8. Netherlands 18. England
9. FC Porto 19. Valencia
10. Germany 20. Ajax.
You can see more results here.
So what does all this statistical tomfoolery tell us? Well, in my opinion, absolutely nothing. Although from England’s point of view, coming behind only Spain, Netherlands, Germany and Italy amongst national teams is a pretty decent result, no?