Who is the Best Team in Group D?

The Uefa Champions League Groups are concluded in early December and the list of already qualified teams is a familiar mix of Spanish, German, French and English teams.

Seeding and a six game, home and away league format attempts to ensure the best sides progress and aren't caught out in a single knockout match,

Group D appeared one of the most competitive prior to match day one, containing a representative of the four major European countries, in Juventus, Manchester City, Sevilla and Borussia Moenchengladbach.

Juve and City had already qualified after match day four, with the former holding a two point lead going into match day six. Bookmaking odds had favoured Manchester City to top the group, although in a preview written for Pinnacle, I suggested that Juventus should be considered the more likely group topping side.

So it is tempting to claim that my assessment of the two sides was well founded.

However, although the runner up from last season currently head the group, they are merely odds on to top it after the final reckoning, so City may still justify pre tournament, group favouritism.

There is also a significant possibility that City may be superior to Juve, but still finish below them after just six home and away, round robin games.

The bookmaker's assessment of each of the four teams can be broadly demonstrated by converting the match odds into expected group points. City were expected to gain an average of 10.3 points compared to 9.6 for Juve, with Sevilla and Moenchengladbach trailing with 8.4 and 4.9 points, respectively.

More usefully, simulating the group using the same bookmaking odds that favoured City results in the English team topping the table 45% of the time compared to 35%, 15% and 5% for the respective remaining three teams.

So City may be the best side in the group, but it is more likely that someone else would top the table if they play just six group stage matches.

Therefore, the books may claim to have been correct, but randomness may still overcome their best predictions after match day six.

If we extend the group stage fourfold so that each team plays 24 matches, the separation between the current top two and the others increases.

Juve now win the group 33% of the time and City become slightly more likely than not to top the group. Sevilla has a 9% of winning and Moenchengladbach is relegated to the realms of improbable, but not quite impossible.

If we become even more extravagant and condemn each team to play 96 group games based on bookmaker's odds, City are now a 74% chance to top the group, Juve 25% with the other two teams a virtual probabilistic irrelevance.

Even turning a four team group into a weekly event spread over nearly two years, there is still a one in four chance that the best team doesn't win the group when two of the teams are closely matched.

Therefore, declaring one team superior to another, even based on a 38 game Premier League season almost certainly fails to account for a set of trials that are awash with randomness and similarly comparing players based on a paltry amount of data, often without context is likely to be equally misleading.

League position = talent + randomness.