Leagues Where Favourites Win

Tottenham boss Jose Mourinho has said Manchester United are now one of the favourites to win the Europa League -- but reiterated his belief Champions League clubs should not be allowed into the competition.

La Liga returns this weekend, and it will surely be a lot of fun to see our footballing icons running again. However, the Champions League is set to relaunch after the leagues, and these are the five favourites to win the coveted title. The Champions League is a festival of football many are eager to. Who is the favourite to win the Europa League? Perhaps understandably given the amount of trophies that manager Jose Mourinho has won in his career, Tottenham Hotspur are now the favourites for the. Who are the favourites to win the Premier League? Manchester City are 1/16 (1.06) to reclaim the title after somewhat of a down year by their lofty standards last time. Fresh off winning the.

United crashed out of the Champions League on Tuesday night after a 3-2 defeat at RB Leipzig meant they finished third in Group H.

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Ole Gunnar Solskjaer's side drop into the Europa League, along with seven other third-placed Champions League teams, to join Spurs and Arsenal in the round of 32 stage in February.

Mourinho has never failed to reach the Champions League knockout rounds during a managerial career that also included two years in charge of United, most notably securing a famous win at Juventus to qualify for the round of 16 in the 2018-19 season.

'I'm happy with [my] record because it meant my clubs were always in a position of progressing, economically important but also for the prestige. Sometimes, more difficult than others,' Moutinho told a news conference on Wednesday.

'For example, at United, when we lost at home against Juventus, we had to go to Turin and win there to then qualify from a very difficult group, also with Valencia. And of course now Manchester United become one of the top favourites to win the competition. The teams that drop from the Champions League are always strong, normally they don't belong to that level of Europa league competitions and of course Manchester United is one of the top teams.

'The group [this season] was very hard. Paris Saint-Germain, Manchester, Leipzig, we all knew it was not going to be easy for any one of them. And we all knew that from that group a top team would drop to the Europa League.'

However, Mourinho repeated his frustration that Champions League teams were able to enter the Europa League at the midway point, essentially believing UEFA are rewarding sides for failure.

'It is a point of principle and if it happened to my team, I would feel exactly the same,' he added. 'It is the way it is and honestly, brings more quality to the competition. We cannot forget that.

'When you have eight new teams in the competition and eight teams that belong to another level and they drop to the Europa League, of course the level of the competition is going to improve, no doubts. And when the quality improves, the attention improves. It is a good thing for the competition.

'But by the sport's point of view is where I think it is not fair. That a team doesn't succeed in one competition drops to another. It is the same thing as imagining the third team in the Europa League, instead of finishing, goes to a third competition in the hierarchy of European football.

'It is just a principle. In football, when for some reason we don't succeed, unlucky, next season. But it is what it is and it's not a problem for me.'

Spurs face Royal Antwerp at home on Thursday evening having already qualified for the latter stages, but only a win will ensure they top Group J.

The Champions League is back.

Now, don't get me wrong, it's been lovely to tuck into a feast of Premier League football over the festive period, but there's nothing like hearing the 'chaaaaampions' belted out in stadiums across Europe.

No matter how events are unfolding across the continent's top leagues, you just know that anything can happen in Europe's premier competition, particularly in an unprecedented season like this.

Round of 16 blockbusters

Now, sure, there's still some way to go before the dramatic climax for European supremacy set to be held in Istanbul, but there are already some blockbuster ties for us to watch in the round of 16.

Barcelona vs Paris Saint-Germain are due to rerun their 2016/17 classic, Liverpool vs RB Leipzig has the makings of an underrated gem and Chelsea vs Atletico Madrid looks set to be a tactical chess match.

But even if these almighty European fixtures descend into absolute snoozefests, the knockout rounds mean that a winner must be found somehow and that alone makes for guaranteed drama.

European contenders

However, that doesn't make picking a potential winner any easier and I think you'd be pretty hard-pressed to say that a particular European giant has emerged as the favourite for 'Big Ears'.

And while it might be impossible to predict something as unpredictable as the Champions League, data at least allows us to come as close as possible and that's where FiveThirtyEight comes in.

The revered data analysts forecast everything from politics to science and they've lined up their ranking of the remaining 16 Champions League teams by their estimated chances of winning.

Champions League favourites

Intriguing, right? Well, fear not, because we decided to put their statistical model under the spotlight to see how the clubs ranked from least to most likely to win, so check out the findings below:

16. Lazio - less than 1%

15. Borussia Monchengladbach - less than 1%

14. FC Porto - less than 1%

13. Atalanta - 2%

12. Sevilla - 2%

11. Paris Saint-Germain - 2%

10. RB Leipzig - 3%

9. Borussia Dortmund - 3%

8. Atletico Madrid - 3%

7. Juventus - 5%

6. Chelsea - 5%

Leagues Where Favourites Windows

5. Real Madrid - 6%

4. Liverpool - 7%

3. Bayern Munich - 11%

2. Barcelona - 13%

1. Manchester City - 37%

GIVEMESPORT's Kobe Tong says

Go on, accuse of me hopping aboard the hype train, but I'm in complete agreement with the data analysts when it comes to backing City and I've felt that way since the early days of the season.

Long before the Citizens pulled away in the Premier League title race, I was wondering whether Pep Guardiola would plough all his focus into Europe a la Rafael Benitez's Liverpool in 2005 and 2007.

Besides, you'd have forgiven Guardiola for not renewing his deal and bowing out of the Etihad Stadium if it wasn't for the singular hole in his resume at the club: the Champions League.

Maybe I'm reading between the lines too much, but I think City are going to throw the kitchen sink at Europe and potentially achieve something special with one of the continent's finest defensive units.

With Ederson, Ruben Dias, Aymeric Laporte, John Stones and Joao Cancelo firing on all cylinders, they have an imperious foundation on which their world-class midfield can flow freely and cause havoc.

They have, from where I'm sitting, shown a stronger propensity for consistent performances, high-quality football and big-game nerves than the likes of Barcelona, Liverpool and Juventus at least.

Leagues Where Favorites Winter

But then again, given City's track record in Europe, I wouldn't be surprised if all of the above looked like the ravings of a lunatic in just a few week's time. That's football for you.

Leagues Where Favorites Winner