Featured Image Credit: 20th Century Fox/TNT Sport
Topics: Arsenal, Aston Villa, Celtic, Champions League, Liverpool, Manchester City, Football
John McDougall
Topics: Arsenal, Aston Villa, Celtic, Champions League, Liverpool, Manchester City, Football
A supercomputer has predicted this season's potential Champions League winner and a surprise team features highly in the rankings as an outlier to the usual names we've come to expect.
As usual, four English teams will be playing in Europe's premier club competition this campaign, as Manchester City will be aiming to win their second Champions League title following their 2023 Treble triumph.
Premier League runners-up Arsenal feature again as the North London side still await their first European Cup.
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Six-time European champions Liverpool will be seeking to add a seventh crown this season, while Aston Villa will play in the competition for the first time since 1983, having won the famous trophy once before in 1982.
The competition has been reworked and has a new format this season in the group stage thanks to a massive table of 36 teams, with all sides to play eight fixtures each.
After these are played, the top eight will automatically reach the last 16 phase of the competition, while those who finish between ninth and 24th will be involved in the play-offs.
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The teams finishing between 25th and 36th in the table will be eliminated.
It promises to shake things up in the early stages of the competition before it takes on a more familiar look from the round of 16 onwards.
Every year, there are always predictions made by pundits and fans as to which side it is felt are the likeliest to be crowned European champions.
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And this season is no different, as statistics website Opta Analyst has run its supercomputer predictions to tip the sides it has calculated will progress to where in the competition.
In terms of where British sides are being tipped to finish, Celtic are ranked 28th out of 36 with a 0.1% chance of the Bhoys becoming European champions for the second time.
Villa meanwhile sit 22nd with a 0.2% probability of adding a second European Cup to the Villa Park trophy cabinet.
The three other Premier League sides are ranked in the top 10.
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Liverpool under new boss Arne Slot are seventh in the table with a 4.2% chance of winning the trophy, with Mikel Arteta's Arsenal fourth and boasting a 6.3% chance of winning their first Champions League.
Man City are the favourites and clinch top spot with a 25.3% chance of winning, with current holders Real Madrid second and Italian outfit Inter Milan third.
Xabi Alonso's Bayer Leverkusen are a surprise fifth following their Bundesliga triumph last season, which gives them a 5.4% overall chance of winning the competition.
Barcelona are sixth, Bayern Munich sit eighth, Paris Saint-Germain are ranked ninth, while RB Leipzig round out the top 10 in Opta's supercomputer predictions.