I do think defining a single league strength value to order is tricky, and probably needs breaking down into various metrics

E.g. English Champ is ranked 6th by "average" rating which is probably too high. That's more due to the depth of the league as it drops to 13th using top 5 team quality (2/2)

After beating Chelsea at the weekend, the mighty Sunderland are back inside the top 50 of the Opta Power Rankings. It's their first time inside the top 50 since 1st February 2011 before they lost 4-2 at home, also to Chelsea...

Interesting insights from the Opta Supercomputer himself

Great to see the WSL added to @optaanalyst.optajoe.com, with detailed stats alongside fixture and season level predictions.

theanalyst.com/competition/...

Szoboszlai's high workrate against Arsenal was highlighted on MoTD www.reddit.com/r/soccer/com...

For this 23 second interval, we labelled 2 off-ball runs with our new Playing Styles framework

A 82.3m cross option run (max speed 34.48 kph) and a 76.8m tracking back to position run (max 30.96 kph)

All of those runs can be seen here for the past couple of seasons.

It's only been 1 gameweek, but Mbeumo is continuing his incredible off-ball work rate at United. So far he's completed the most runs in behind the opposition (whilst his team has possession), a metric which he topped last season at Brentford.

What an innings from Jordan Cox. He went from scoring 8 runs off his first 8 deliveries, to scoring 78 from his next 21.

An incredible first international 100 from Dewald Brevis, from just 41 deliveries!

So close to a new world record from Wiaan Mulder! Just the 220 runs in boundaries

On 9-5-2011 we had FK Bodø/Glimt ranked 2212 in the world. They had taken 2 points from the first 5 games in the Norwegian 2nd tier and were sat in the relegation zone.

Today they are ranked 68 and Europa League Semi-Finalists. An incredible turnaround.

At 14 years old I was doing this on Brain Lara Cricket to be fair, not that impressive 😪

Exciting semi-final line-up for the Women's Champions League, consisting of the top 4 teams in the world according to our Power Rankings on @optaanalyst.optajoe.com

theanalyst.com/na/2024/08/w...

We had UP Warriorz down at 1% to win when they required 42 off 18 deliveries.

An incredible effort from Sophie Ecclestone to drag them to a super over and eventually victory against RCB.

#WPL2025

A brilliant final few overs from New Zealand has them ahead of the game at the interval in the ICC Champions Trophy opener.

Our win predictions had New Zealand at ~55% going into the final 10 overs, but at the break we have them at ~72%.

@optaanalyst.optajoe.com

A first international century for Ben Curran, getting to his milestone off 120 balls.

Two clear stages in his innings. He hit 10 boundaries in his first 40 deliveries, but only 2 in his next 80.

A stunning hundred from Mitchell Owen in the Big Bash final to break the back of the chase within a handful of overs.

He also ends up as the BBL 2024/25 top scorer, with 452 runs at a strike rate of over 200. The leg side took a battering.

#BBL14

A great game between Afghanistan and Zimbabwe. The win predictions were all over the place in the final few overs.

#ZIMvAFG

After their 2-0 win away against Roma last night, Atalanta BC are now ranked 6th globally in the Men's Opta Power Ranking.

This is their joint highest position since the rankings started in 2010 (held 6th from 22nd-24th October 2020).