After the holidays, the UEFA Europa League should be exciting to watch, with teams like Arsenal, Manchester United, Juventus, Barcelona, Atletico Madrid, Sevilla, and Ajax all possibly participating. 

When discussing ways to improve the club's financial situation, Barcelona often referred to 'economic levers', but after being eliminated in the UEFA Champions League Group Stage for the second year running, that particular pulley is no longer available. The Blaugrana knew they would have to play in the Europa League in 2023 instead of the Champions League before Wednesday's game against Bayern Munich at Camp Nou even started. 

As a favor to the Spaniards after their thrilling 3-3 tie with Inter two weeks ago, Viktoria Plzen needed to beat Inter. However, it was all over for Barca after a 4-0 defeat at the hands of the Nerazzurri. The hurt was compounded when Bayern celebrated a comfortable 3-0 win at Camp Nou, making it six straight wins for the Bundesliga club against their La Liga rivals.

Supercomputer makes strange 2022 UEFA Europa League predictions

Also, another major side, Juventus' woes extend to the Serie A as well, as they have gotten off to a slow start there after being eliminated from the Champions League. Considering their superior goal differential over Maccabi Haifa, the Bianconeri are the clear favorite to finish third in Group H. Meanwhile, Atletico Madrid's journey in the UCL also came to an end at the Wanda Metropolitano as the Spanish club played host to German Bundesliga side Bayer Leverkusen and the match concluded in a 2-2 tie. 

Although Arsenal have already qualified for the Europa League quarterfinals, they still aim to finish first in their group. Manchester United, their archrival in the Premier League, needs only one point from two games to go to the Europa League knockout round. If these two sides come in first, they will skip a two-legged tie against the Champions League's third-place club and move directly to the Round of 16.

Even though they were eliminated from the Champions League on Wednesday, Barcelona are now the favorites to win the Europa League. According to FiveThirtyEight's probabilistic model, Xavi Hernandez's players have a 23 percent probability of winning the Europa League title this season.

The supercomputer thinks Arsenal will be their opponent in the Final. It's interesting to see that teams like Manchester United, Tottenham, Juventus, Roma, and even six-time champion Sevilla have poor prospects of winning or even advancing to the Semi-Finals (estimates range from 5% to 0%).