Champions League Power Rankings: Arsenal, Barca, Real Madrid near the top; Chelsea outside top eight

1 Paris Saint-Germain Needing to make things harder for themselves with Bradley Barcola missing a penalty, injuries wouldn’t slow Luis Enrique’s team down as PSG look to repeat as UCL champions. 2 Real Madrid Another red card, another Real Madrid win. Being without Dani Carvajal and possibly Trent Alexander-Arnold in their next match could create some issues, but nothing that a Kylian Mbappe brace can’t solve. 3 Arsenal Mikel Arteta’s changes paid off with Gabriel Martinelli and Leandro Trossard combining for two goals to get a strong victory over Athletic Bilbao. That’s how you start as one of the favorites to win this competition. 4 Barcelona Marcus Rashford got his first goal for the club in impressive fashion, taking advantage of poor defending from Newcastle United and then followed things up scoring his first UCL brace since October of 2020. Hansi Flick has the magic touch for attackers. 5 Liverpool They can’t keep getting away with this. Another day, another 90th-minute winner. Arne Slot has something cooking at Anfield, but it doesn’t feel sustainable. 6 Bayern Munich Harry Kane scores a brace and Bayern Munich win. This isn’t the stage that Bayern will begin to worry about their UCL hopes but getting off to a good start is important. 7 Manchester City Haaland became the player to reach 50 UCL goals in the fewest matches, doing so in only 49 games. City only gets half credit here though with Napoli going down to 10 men. 8 Inter Inter may have a new manager, but the result is still the same as Inter defeated Ajax via a brace from Marcus Thuram. The defense gave up too many chances, but a clean sheet is what the doctor ordered. 9 Chelsea Facing their toughest opposition since the Club World Cup final, Chelsea showed that there is still plenty of room for growth. The Blues were feisty and Cole Palmer was up for the challenge but it wasn’t enough to come close to defeating Bayern. 10 Napoli Seeing their captain dismissed 21 minutes into the match, it was impressive for Napoli to even stay in it. They’ll get a victory sooner than later. 11 Tottenham Thomas Frank has some work to do getting his team to create chances from open play but their defensive improvement gives him room for error. 12 Marseille The French side may feel hard done to lose to Real Madrid on a questionable penalty but taking a glass-half-full approach, being that competitive and seeing Tim Weah score will bode well moving forward. 13 Borussia Dortmund See, Juventus. Dortmund blew a two-goal lead in astounding fashion. It made for excellent viewing but was such a disappointment for the Black and Yellow. 14 Juventus It’s tough to know what to make of this. Trailing 4-2, Juventus were able to come back in stoppage time but they also conceded four goals. Gotta tighten that up. 15 Club Brugge Despite needing to retool after last season’s Champions League success and losing starting keeper Simon Mignolet to injury only 19 minutes into the match, Brugge came through winning by three goals. 16 Atletico Madrid If Atleti started off the match faster, maybe they come away with a victory at Anfield. The chances were there but instead it ended as a what if. 17 Athletic Club Losing 2-0 to Arsenal while creating some chances is nothing to be ashamed of. It’s going to happen to quite a few sides in this competition. 18 Eintracht Frankfurt Hitting the high fives, hosting Galatasaray at home, talk about a way for Frankfurt to respond to their first loss of the season. This is going to be a team that could cause some upsets. 19 Sporting Club Portugal It took a little for Sporting to get going but they got the job done at home, coasting to defeat Kairat Almaty. Defensively, stronger sides in the competition could create some issues. 20 Union Saint-Gilloise Another club that secured the first UCL victory in their history, USG went away into the Netherlands and announced that they’re going to push for the knockouts, going up two goals in the first half of play. 21 Qarabag Getting Bruno Lage sacked and also picking up the first UCL win for a club from Azerbaijan in this competition while scoring three unanswered goals to overcome a 2-0 deficit, that’ll do. 22 Bayer Leverkusen A front row seat at the Alexander Grimaldo show wasn’t enough for Leverkusen to complete a comeback in Copenhagen but Claudio Echeverri could offer their attack a way forward in this competition. 23 Copenhagen A strong home field advantage saw Copenhagen take the lead twice in their match but the Danish side couldn’t hold on. With a tough league phase schedule, they needed more from that one. 24 Galatasaray A team who can defeat anyone at home in Turkiye, Gala need to figure out how to take form on the road. Conceding five already isn’t good but then struggling to score in Germany makes things worse. 25 Atalanta Not that this was expected to end in anything other than a loss but allowing four goals to PSG is a demoralizing way to kick things off. 26 Newcastle United A poor defensive showing by Eddie Howe’s side. The Magpies could’ve been down by far more in the match. Harvey Barnes and Anthony Elanga were bright spots but it may not be enough. 27 Benfica Jose Mourinho is back! If it took losing to Qarabag in spectacular fashion, it’s something that was worth it for Benfica in the long run. Can “The Special One” make them special? 28 Villarreal Looking at the stats, Villarreal should’ve defeated Tottenham but their goalkeeper had other ideas. The Champions League isn’t a competition where a team can be their own worst enemy but it’s good to learn that lesson early. 29 Bodo/Glimt Without their full squad, the Norwegian side were able to come back after trailing by two goals and doing it away from home is an important show of resilience. 30 Monaco It took until the 91st minute for Ansu Fati to get a consolation goal for Monaco in what wasn’t a great showing. Defensively, there are always questions after conceding four goals. 31 Ajax Gotta bring your finishing boots at home. Ajax won the xG battle 1.26 to 1.24 but have nothing to show for it in their return to Champions League play. More will be needed. 32 Slavia Praha Dropping a 2-0 lead to Bodo/Glimt late isn’t how you want to kick off UCL play, especially at home. 33 PSV Failing to win at home against USG, PSV may be in for a rough road this season. It also doesn’t help that Ricardo Pepi didn’t have a great game, including conceding a penalty. 34 Pafos Got a red card early, saw David Luiz leave the match with an injury, and still legged out a draw away from home in Greece. Not a bad debut in Champions League league phase play. 35 Olympiacos Not being able to find a winner up a man at home for most of the match will only come as a disappointment. Being able to pick up points against sides like Pafos is critical to advance out of the league phase. 36 Kairat They got a consolation goal after making the trip away to Portugal but this is a team that will be happy to be here.