Opta's supercomputer predicts who will win the Europa League and it's a disaster for Man Utd

Opta have predicted the winner of this season's Europa League as a host of teams, including Manchester United and Spurs, get ready to play their first game in the newly revamped competition.

UEFA have made a host of changes to the Champions League, Europa League and Conference League this season, most notably switching out the group stages for a 36-team league phase.

As a result, clubs in this season's Europa League will face eight different opponents (four at home and four away) in the league phase, which is two more than before.

Then, the top eight overall advance directly to the round of 16, whilst sides finishing from ninth to 24th will contest the knockout round play-offs, with the victors going through to the last 16. From then on it is a straight knockout.

So who will come out on top? According to the statisticians over at Opta, Portuguese side FC Porto are the most likely to lift this season's competition having been given a 17.8% chance of winning the lot.

Spanish outfit Athletic Bilbao have been given a 10.9% chance of being crowned the Europa League champions, whilst Czech First League leaders Slavia Prague are being pitted as another strong contender at 9.6%.

Tottenham Hotspur, who will host Azerbaijan Premier League outfit Qarabağ FK on Wednesday night, are the fourth favourites to take home the title, ahead of fellow English side Manchester United.

Ahead of their Europa League opener against FC Twente, Erik ten Hag's men are expected to progress to the last 16, according to Opta, but they have only been given a 26.4% chance of reaching the semi-final stage.

In fact, as you see from the graphic below, the Reds are below Italian side AS Roma when it comes to making the final.

Image credit: Opta

Erik ten Hag, meanwhile, will come up against old club FC Twente at Old Trafford on Wednesday night. It will be an emotional evening for the Dutchman.

"Twente's brought me a lot," he said ahead of kick-off. "I was put through their academy. I was part of the generation of the first youth team, when the youth competition was started up again after many years.

"For me, there's a great deal of history there, at the Diekman Stadium and now the Grolsch Veste Stadium. Of all the teams, Twente is the team that I follow the most."