Scolari, Chelsea hit the Blue notes; Liverpool, Juventus back in action

The greatest show on earth is back in action. If you're looking at these rankings and coming to the conclusion that Champions League play seems to dominate, good for you. That's the biggest mountain-moving criteria we're using this time around. To us, the grandest club tournament in the world is the best gauge to determine who the movers and shakers are.

Not to be outdone, we've got Latin America's No. 2 competition -- the Copa Sudamericana, set to kick off -- as well as confederation club tournaments also in full swing in Africa, Asia and CONCACAF, too. (Anyone bold enough to lobby me for places on here for the Montreal Impact and Puerto Rico Islanders?)

As usual, controversial choices had to be made. Arsenal just missed out, while Manchester United and Barcelona barely hung on. Meanwhile, a certain Scouser team is back, as is the Old Lady of Turin, making an appearance for the first time since the Calciopoli scandal broke more than two years ago.

Note: All rankings, records and statistics are through Sept. 17.

World Soccer Power Rankings

1 Previously: 2	Chelsea All right, Big Phil, you have me sold. To be sure, the road is very, very long -- but as of this week, Chelsea is the best team in the world. Luiz Felipe Scolari has added a few parts to a team he inherited, and so far, it's working like a charm. His Blues were tested early at Manchester City last Saturday, and responded with an empathic bulldozer of a performance, including an awesome strike by Frank Lampard. Then three days later in France, Lamps was back again, terrorizing Bordeaux while Joe Cole continued his mid-career renaissance. If this is just a honeymoon, it sure is five-star accommodations.
2 Previously: 3	Inter Milan Updated: My mistake, José Mourinho did have a typically awesome comeback for Catania chairman Pietro Lo Monaco's comment that the Special One "should have his teeth smashed in." Said Mourinho: "Who is Lo Monaco? I know of the Tibetan monk, the Principality of Monaco, Bayern Munich and the Monaco Grand Prix, but that's all. If this Lo Monaco wants to make a name for himself by talking about me, then he should pay me." Be champions! (Thanks to our buddy Bruce McGuire of du Nord.) Meanwhile, I'm starting to think Ricardo Quaresma and Mancini on opposite wings has to be one of the most dangerous tandems in the world. And if Adriano can stay level-headed and productive at the same time (two things that have always been mutually exclusive with L'Imperatore), special things may be ahead for the Special One's team.
3 Previously: 5	Bayern Munich Back on the big stage again, Bayern made the most of a tricky road game at surprisingly strong Steaua Bucharest (yep, that's FC Dallas alum Juan Toja on international TV!) and came out with a 1-0 win. This on the heels of a very impressive 3-0 victory last Sunday at FC Köln that saw Lukas Podolski score a last-minute goal against his old club. Bayern is undefeated so far this season, and this is all with recovering Franck Ribéry yet to make an appearance.
4 Previously: 4	Real Madrid Here's another club with loads to prove in the Champions League. And opening your campaign with a 2-0 win over a tiny Belarussian club at home is a nice way to start -- and a perfectly misleading gauge. To boot, Real had to battle hard last Sunday to grab a win at home (its first of the Spanish La Liga season) against newly promoted Numancia. Barely beating inferior teams and then using European minnows for target practice isn't going to get them that far.
5 Previously: --	Liverpool Predictably, I got a ton of flack for leaving the 'Pudlians off last time around, but people seem to have conveniently forgotten how close they came to missing out on Champions League play entirely. That said, we all know that with Rafa Benítez & Co., it's not the size of the margin that matters; it's how you use it. Liverpool's 2-1 win at Marseille on Tuesday was big: The Reds aren't in a hole immediately in the group phase, as they were last season. And how hugely gratifying was that win over Man. United on Saturday? Consider Liverpool's spot on here officially earned.
6 Previously: 9	Atlético Madrid Welcome to the Champions League, Sergio Agüero. In the Argentine prodigy's first taste of the biggest stage, "Kun" was genius, scoring two fantastic goals as Atlético dismantled PSV Eindhoven 3-0 on Tuesday. The challenge now for los Colchoneros is balancing their first taste of the tournament in 11 years with their La Liga schedule. They can't hold Agüero and Diego Forlán (sidelined up to a month) out of every league game the weekend before European action, or this will be a quick cameo.
7 Previously: 1	Manchester United Yikes. By virtue of the fact that they were No. 1 last time around, and still grabbed a point in Wednesday's scoreless draw at home with Villarreal, the defending double-winners stay on the Rankings this week -- barely. Man. United badly needs a shot in the arm. The loss at Liverpool will sting for awhile, and that opening result in the Champions League is a bad omen. The last time the Red Devils kicked off with a stalemate against the Yellow Submarine three years ago, it was the beginning of a cripplingly embarrassing last-place finish.
8 Previously: --	Juventus For the first time in more than two years, the Bianconeri are back in this space. And so far this season, they're undefeated ... with exactly one goal scored per game (God bless Italian soccer). Still, Juve got the result it needed to open its first taste of the Champions League in three years with a 1-0 win over UEFA Cup champs Zenit St. Petersburg. Il Pinturicchio Alessandro Del Piero is showing he's still reliable at age 33, Amauri is proving he can hack it at a big club and, to me, any team with Gianluigi Buffon in goal has a chance to win hardware.
9 Previously: 7	FC Barcelona If it was stability we were looking for after the Camp Nou makeover, it isn't here yet. Barça has been uninspiring so far this season, despite its 3-1 steamroller over Sporting Lisbon in the Champions League on Tuesday. Pep Guardiola even dropped Thierry Henry before last weekend's embarrassing league loss to Racing Santander to make a point -- almost kowtowing to the local media who have been ripping the Frenchman apart. Then Henry contributes well without scoring on Tuesday and has this to say: "People talk a lot, but I've played football for 14 years and I know that it's 11 players that win or lose matches, not one. Yet here, sometimes it seems that this isn't the case."
10 Previously: 10	LDU Quito We're going to keep the Copa Libertadores champs in the charity spot for another week as they seem to be getting their footing again in the Ecuadorian league, and the goodwill has also been translating lately into World Cup qualifying (read Tim Vickery's column here). Small clubs traditionally have major reality checks after winning major titles, so it'll be interesting to see what happens to LDU from here on out. They can help their cause here by making sure they don't let up on Bolívar of Bolivia Thursday night in the second leg of their Copa Sudamericana qualifier.
Honorable mentions: Arsenal, FC Porto, Villarreal, Boca Juniors, Olympique Lyonnais, Fiorentina, Zenit St. Petersburg, Hamburger SV, Schalke 04, Al-Ahly Cairo, Grêmio Dropped off: AS Roma, Zenit St. Petersburg