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At the start of the 2014-15 season Manchester City were more dominant than Manchester United have ever been in the Premier League era according to our exclusive football index.

Trinity Mirror's Data Unit have been hard at work coming up with a comprehensive ratings system for football teams that looks beyond league positions and points to rank teams.

Manchester City's peak position came on August 25 2014 when they beat Liverpool 3-1 at home off the back of their title winning campaign in 2013-14.

This win elevated their index score to 1,571 which is the highest achieved by any team other than Chelsea who reached 1,578 in 2006.

Manchester United's highest position came in Sir Alex Ferguson's final season when they reached 1,567 after beating Sunderland 1-0 away from home in March 2013.

Manchester City's ranking at the end of last season (1,455) was third behind Arsenal (1,471) and Chelsea (1,507) with Manchester United fourth (1,377).

See how City have fared against different rivals over the years by using our interactive gadget below

How the index works

Our index takes inspiration from the ELO rating system used in Chess for calculating the skill levels of players.

Every time a game is played the winner is allocated a certain number of points based on criteria such as the score and the prestige of the match.

However, our index also awards more points to the underdog should they win by working out the probability of victory for each team based upon their index rating going into the game.

For example, a team on 100 points would gain far more points by beating a team on 150 than the other way around. The higher the team's score the bigger their scalp.

This also ensures that, in the event of a draw, the team which was expected to win would lose points and the weaker team would gain points.

To make the rankings even more realistic we've also slightly adjusted our calculations to account for home advantage. In practice, this means that if two evenly ranked teams were playing then the home side would be expected to have a better chance of winning.

We started off in 1992 at the start of the Premier League era and to start things off awarded 1,000 points to all Premier League teams, 900 to all division one sides, 800 to division two sides and 700 to division three sides.

The higher the league, the more prestigious the game and subsequently the more points available to the victor.

The figures generated on the graph are averages of all the scores in a given month.

Manchester City

The Peak: 1,571 points. Man City (Home) vs Liverpool on 25/08/2014. Result: 3 - 1

The Slump: 830 points. Man City (Away) vs Barnsley on 28/12/1996. Result: 2 - 0

Biggest Gain: 57 points. Man City (Home) vs Man Utd on 14/03/2004. Result: 4 - 1

Biggest Loss: -51 points. Man City (Home) vs Leicester on 09/11/2003. Result: 0 - 3

Manchester United

The Peak: 1,567 points. Man Utd (Away) vs Sunderland on 30/03/2013. Result: 0 - 1

The Slump: 946 points. Man Utd (Home) vs Everton on 19/08/1992. Result: 0 - 3

Biggest Gain: 45 points. Man Utd (Home) vs Arsenal on 24/10/2004. Result: 2 - 0

Biggest Loss: -58 points. Man Utd (Away) vs Newcastle on 12/02/2000. Result: 3 - 0