Power Rankings: The best teams in Europe - 2023
Following a year in which:
— Manchester City won absolutely everything.
— Arsenal won absolutely nothing.
— Antonio Conte fell out with absolutely everybody.
— Jude Bellingham became absolutely undeniable.
We at have decided to rank the 10 best teams in Europe throughout the calendar year:
For the first time since 1965, West Ham United won a European trophy in 2023.
The Hammers lifted the UEFA Europa Conference League back in June, besting Fiorentina in a dramatic final thanks to a Jarrod Bowen goal.
And despite selling their star man Declan Rice in the summer, David Moyes went out and signed Mohammed Kudus, turned Bowen into one of the most deadly number nines in the Premier League, topped his Europa League group, and muscled into the top six during the first half of the 2023/24 campaign. That's a pretty good year by anybody's standards.
Barcelona haven't been particularly good recently — in fact they've been quite bad — but that doesn't take away the La Liga title they won in the first half of 2023.
On their route to their first league title in four years, Barca were actually bloody brilliant, sweeping aside all opposition with relative ease thanks to Robert Lewandowski's deadly finishing and a record breakingly frugal backline.
The 'Arsenal bottled the league' brigade will tell you that 2023 was a disastrous year in which the Gunners failed to capitalise on an eight point lead atop of the table to win a first Premier League title in a decade.
The more level-headed readers out there will look at 2023 as a year of huge progress for Mikel Arteta's side, and one which will undoubtedly be the catalyst for trophies in future years.
2023 will go down as the year in which Jurgen Klopp's Liverpool 3.0 was formulated.
