Not Madrid, City or PSG, the best team of 2023 in Europe was... PSV Eindhoven!

Manchester City were crowned the best team of the 2022-23 season at the recent Ballon d’Or gala in Paris, boosted by achieving the treble (Premier League, FA Cup and Champions League) with Pep Guardiola’s side unbeaten in all 2023 at their Etihad Stadium.

However, if there was an award that recognized the best annual team by statistics, it would go to Eredivisie side PSV Eindhoven!

Celebrated soccer website BeSoccer has developed a listing taking into account the average of points for the year across major European leagues - Premier, Turkish Super Lig, Portuguese Primeira, Serie A, Bundesliga, Ligue 1 along with Belgian, and Russian top flights and Peter Bosz’s men top the poll thanks to their 93 points in 36 2023 league games. Their stats equate to an average of 2.6 points per league game which are identical to those of Turkish giants Galatasaray with FC Porto closing the podium, with an average of 2.5 points per game (34 games, 84 points).

Peter Bosz’s PSV machine

PSV only lost three of their 54 games played in 2023 (5.5%) and these came against Emmen, in the Eredivisie (January 24; 1-0); against Sevilla, in the Europa League (February 16; 3-0) and against Arsenal, in the current edition of the Champions League (4-0).

This, coupled with a percentage of 74.07% of victories in 40 games coupled with their eleven draws, consolidated their position as the European team with the highest percentage of undefeated games in 2023, reaching 94.44%.

PSV are currently runaway leaders of the Eredivisie holding a ten point ahead of Feyenoord with other perennial Dutch powerhouse Ajax currently struggling this season with the Amsterdam side in fifth place following a poor start to the 2023-24 campaign.

The ‘rood-witten’ have not lost at the Philips Stadion since 12 November (2022), accumulating 22 wins and four draws since then.