Matchday 22 Results!

I wrote a few weeks ago about the 'Moneyball' effect - the numbers not backing up what my intuition told me. I should know better than to trust my intuition. I've been languishing in the lower half of the table for most of the season, and those privy to my fantasy football selection will know that I have no right to boo Wenger (or anyone else) for making terrible player decisions.

However, this week really took the biscuit. Excluding my semi-wasted prediction for the Arsenal vs Man Utd game which I expected nothing from, (but out of a sense of loyalty, I'll never put money on Arsenal to lose,) I got 2 right. One of these relied on a 93rd minute penalty from a bloke who arguably shouldn't have been on the pitch.

Not my best week.

Not as terrible as Yanik however, who enters the leaderboard this week. He's had a few decent scores, so could have been a contender for top spot, but got a dismal 1 correct result. Our newest player, Jonathan Chernick (far too long, from now on JC) did much better with a solid 5.

Full stats breakdown below:

This week, 17 people played

Most popular predicted result: Stoke WIN(16/17 or 94% concordance)

Most disputed result: Fulham vs Newcastle (4-6-7 split)

Longest odds: Will O'Doherty with a redonculous 61100/1 (that's £611 from a 1p bet....I was gunning for you mate!)

Shortest odds: Sam Ruback at 1545/1

Best predictor: Doron (6/10)

Worst predictor: Yanik (1/10)

Best predicted result: QPR, Sunderland & Man City WINS (12/17)

Worst predicted result: WBA WIN (0/17)

Villain of the week: No official villain, but I have to say my bit on Balotelli. I'm fence straddling here - part of me thinks that he's clearly moved his leg unnaturally with some force, and therefore should have gone for a stamp. However, the other part of me thinks that he'd have had to have made up his mind to stamp on a guy he had no previous issue with so fast that I don't think it could have been a deliberate assault. My feeling is that, if I'm still undecided 4 days later after having seen it over and over, the ref was right not to send him off as the doubt must have been there (especially as he didn't appear to even get a proper view). Honorable mention to Karl Henry for costing me an extra point.

Goal of the Week: New category this week as there were some utter screamers. Keane and Sessegnon get commendations, as do Bale and Van Persie (more for the build up). The winner for me, was Craig Gardner's strike to seal victory for Sunderland.

Everyone's results:

So to the leaderboard: as stated before, Yanik has joined in and slots in comfortably in 2nd place. Last week, he was only 0.02 off Joe, so this might be the boost he needs to up his game! The rest are even more tightly congested and nothing too interesting is happening at the bottom. Ryan and Doron are still a few weeks off a return.

FA Cup weekend, so no predictions this time around.

Have a great weekend & I'll see you all back this time next week!