Week 31: I'm not lazy....I swear

I know I promised a massive results post this week, but due to circumstances entirely under my control, I've been off my feet busy.

For those who have yet to go through this step, when buying an engagement ring, it should come with a Government health warning:

CAUTION: THE PERIOD YOU ARE ENTERING IS HIGHLY STRESSFUL. YOUR TIME WILL EVAPORATE AND NOTHING WILL GET DONE.

Lovely problem to have, but a problem nonetheless with an important document due in for my elective today, that's been the priority. Thanks again to all of you who sent messages of congratulation - we both really appreciated every message and were overwhelmed about how many people wanted to share our joy.

Enough mushy stuff, I PROMISE (comes with a 30 day Ricky D money-back guarantee) to do a results post for the last 2 weeks over the weekend, and will catch up totally next week.

Apologies to those grown men who didn't do posts because they didn't get a reminder. Thanks to WOD for giving me the ECI/WSC predos.

So to the bets this week:

Aston Villa vs Chelsea - CHELSEA

Everton vs WBA - EVERTON

Fulham vs Norwich - FULHAM

Man City vs Sunderland - MAN CITY

QPR vs Arsenal - ARSENAL

Wigan vs Stoke - DRAW

Wolves vs Bolton - BOLTON

Newcastle vs Liverpool - NEWCASTLE

Spurs vs Swansea - SPURS

Blackburn vs Man Utd - MAN UTD

Total odds: 615/1 (Paddypower)

Posts in the comments as per usual, and check back Sunday night for the promised results post. Good luck

Matchday 30: Just a quickie

Massively busy week finishing off one of my rotations so haven't had time to do the results yet. I also want to have a quick say (belatedly) on Muamba but don't have the time now. So next week I'll do a mega post with 2 sets of results and a little bit on my slightly-professional view on the events at WHL.

My predos:

Chelsea vs Spurs - CHELSEA

Norwich vs Wolves - NORWICH

Sunderland vs QPR - DRAW

Swansea vs Everton - DRAW

Arsenal vs Aston Villa - ARSENAL

Bolton vs Blackburn - BLACKBURN

Liverpool vs Wigan Athletic - LIVERPOOL

Stoke vs Man City - MAN CITY

WBA vs Newcastle - NEWCASTLE

Man Utd vs Fulham - MAN UTD

Total odds: 1171/1 (Paddypower)

If someone would be so kind as to post the ECI (http://www.euroclubindex.com/asp/matchodds.asp) and WSC.com (http://www.whoscored.com/Regions/252/Tournaments/2/England-Premier-League) predictions in the comments as I'm not gonna have internet access tomorrow, I'd be much obliged.

Good luck guys, see you next week

Matchday 29: The definition of a long weekend

So it's been pointed out to me that, in fact, there is a full Premier League programme spread between Saturday and Wednesday, and therefore predictions need to be made.

Apologies for the confusion, here are my predictions and I'll make an effort to contact every one individually so that you all have a chance to predict too...

Fulham vs Swansea - FULHAM

Wigan vs WBA - WIGAN

Wolves vs Man Utd - MAN UTD

Newcastle vs Norwich - DRAW

Aston Villa vs Bolton - ASTON VILLA

Blackburn vs Sunderland - BLACKBURN

Man City vs Chelsea - DRAW

Spurs vs Stoke - SPURS

QPR vs Liverpool - LIVERPOOL

Everton vs Arsenal - DRAW

Total odds with Paddypower: 2787/1

Good luck!

Matchday 28 Results: The old guard go on a charge...

In what has been, frankly, a batshit mental Premier League season, something resembling natural order is starting to take place. Arsenal, Chelsea and Man Utd - the 3 best* clubs in PL history have been cranking up the pressure on the upstarts of Man City and Spurs, who have been threatening to gatecrash the party all season. Man Utd take 1st place with 10 games (and arguably an easier run in), Spurs have gone from a 10 point gap and a 2-0 lead to only being 1 point ahead of Arsenal in a little over 2 weeks and Chelsea are still in the hunt for CL football - pulling away from Newcastle and Liverpool.

It's down the other end of the table where the craziness still exists, with each of the clubs scrapping for survival able to take points off their rivals and strengthen their push to stay up.

*Best: best performing clubs in PL history.

The craziness, I'd like to think, has played a part in why a group of football enthusiasts have been relatively poor at predicting results over 75% of a season. However, maybe we've got smart to the way things are going, with a decent set of scores this week, even with Man City's shock defeat!

To the stats:

This week, 19 people played. I had a busy Friday and totally forgot to get the pros' opinions. ECI was the only one not recoverable so they missed out.

Most popular predicted result: Man Utd WIN (19/19 or 100% concordance)

Most disputed result: Sunderland vs Liverpool (7-5-7 split)

Longest odds: Jonathan Chernick 10826/1

Shortest odds: Will O'Doherty 1392/1

Average odds: 4631/1

Best predictor: Nick Collins (7/10)

Worst predictor: Will O'Doherty & Daniel Wigman (3/10)

Average Score:5/10

Best predicted result: Man Utd WIN (19/19)

Worst predicted result: Swansea WIN (1/19 - well done Josh Benson)

Villain of the week: No-one really deserves it this week.

Everyone's results:


To the leaderboard:


Lots of movement but I just want to highlight Nick's rise from lower midtable to being hot on the heels of Yanik in 2nd. That's due to his increase and Yanik's decrease, which has resulted in Joe extending his lead at the top. With only 10 games to go, can he be caught?

FA Cup this weekend so no blog, see you for the midweek games next week however!

Separated at Birth

For last night's game, I sat in an area of the stadium I'd never sat in before (West Upper, about 10 yards up from the goal line...level with where RVP missed that chance in the first 5 minutes).



On the concourse walls as part of the Arsenalisation process, there is a row of framed photos of every club captain in Arsenal's history up to Fabregas. Our captain in the mid-1970s was English World Cup winner, and midfield terrier Alan Ball, known for his short stature and highly visible hair.



This is the picture they have of him....and I've placed it next to another photo who I reckon is a doppelganger for Ball.






























Damian Lewis, star of Band of Brothers and Homeland, and (according to Wikipedia) a Liverpool fan. He also takes a decent penalty (from 07:19 in this video http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WNnpEmWG9_U ).



Nerves of steel facing pretend Nazis or Jamie Theakston. What a hero

Matchday 27 Results & Matchday 28 Predictions

I've already posted in great length this week about my thoughts about the last 3 Arsenal matches (see the last 2 posts if you're interested), so I'd just like to touch on 2 other issues

1) Adebayor's disallowed goal - I'd have given the goal as I felt his hand was in a natural position and he couldn't really have gotten out of the way. That said, he did move when the ball hit him and gained advantage from the bounce, so understand why it was disallowed. It'd have been interesting whether Man Utd could have come back from that though.

2) AVB's sacking - a joke in my opinion. What's the point in getting a bloke in to rebuild the squad to sack him when those who are likely to be shipped out get pissy that their places are under threat? Weak from Abramovich and yet another character indictment of so many of the old guard at Chelsea. Whoever is mental enough to take the job on full time in the summer will need balls of steel.

To the stats from this week:

This week, 20 people played

Most popular predicted result: Man City WIN (20/20 or 100% concordance)

Most disputed result: Liverpool vs Arsenal & QPR vs Everton (5-6-9 and 6-5-9 split respectively)

Longest odds: Feneley 29253/1

Shortest odds: Sam Ruback 2431/1

Average odds: 9468/1

Best predictor: Ryan Wain (7/10)

Worst predictor: Whoscored.com & Ben Grabiner (3/10)

Average Score: 5/10

Best predicted result: Man City WIN (20/20)

Worst predicted result: Newcastle vs Sunderland DRAW (2/20)

Villain of the week: None this week

Everyone's scores:

To the leaderboard:

There wasn't too much movement - I think the least change yet, however everyone's scores seemed to move in the right direction this week. Yanik gets back to 5.00; can he catch Joe?

For Ben and others wondering why they are not on the leaderboard, you have to have played >2/3 of weeks to qualify - ie 18/27 weeks so far. At the end of the season, I'll publish a full leaderboard, but for now...you'll have to wait in suspense.

This weekend's matches:

Bolton vs QPR - DRAW

Chelsea vs Stoke - CHELSEA

Sunderland vs Liverpool - LIVERPOOL

Aston Villas vs Fulham - FULHAM

Wolves vs Blackburn - WOLVES

Everton vs Spurs - EVERTON

Man Utd vs WBA - MAN UTD

Swansea vs Man City - DRAW

Norwich vs Wigan - NORWICH

Arsenal vs Newcastle - ARSENAL

Total odds: 2275/1 (Paddypower)

Merseyside derby on Tuesday is not being included as this is a make up game from a couple of weeks ago.

Good luck guys, predictions in the comments as usual

Just stick your laces through it: Thoughts on Arsenal 3-0 Milan and Belated thoughts on the 5pur2 game

I play 5-a-side every week with a bloke called Daniel. Daniel, like the rest of us, pulls up no roots with his footballing ability. It's a pretty low standard game. Where Daniel does excel is in goal - partly because he is roughly the same dimensions as Martin Johnson and partly because he naturally has a feel for the angles and decisions that need to be made in goal.

I've never been a good finisher 1 on 1 - I clearly lack composure and have always been more likely to score from 30 yards than 3 (penalties aside....). Against Daniel, this problem is compounded 'cos I know he's gonna save it no matter what I do. My tendency is therefore to leather the ball as hard as I can in the hope that it flies past him before he can react.

Tends not to work all that often, so I'm not really the person to give advice but...Robin, if you read this blog...why did you try to chip Abbiati? Just smash the ball - if he saves it then fair play, but it's more likely to deflect in.

That'd have been 4-0 and we would have been flying. As it happens, I'm proud of how we played and think we redressed the balance somewhat from one of our worst performances this season in Milan. Ultimately, an offside goal, a slip from Vermaelen and a dodgy pen did for us, although we were so dreadful that 4-0 was quite kind.

Other thoughts on tonight:

• Yet another fantastic atmosphere at the Emirates. After 6 years we've cracked it. Play so shit for so long that all the Jonny Come-Latelies lose interest, sell their tickets to fans who want to go, even to hopeless dead rubber matches and who'll support their team. Great noise throughout, and the stadium was still full at the end. Let's make this the norm please.
• Szczesny made some great saves, and often was right to come off his line, but got very lucky with his crappy clearance that Zlatan hit wide, and I haven't a clue how he saved that shot from Nocerino.
• I called Kos as 1st goalscorer. Unfortunately, I had no money on it.
• Gibbs did well, my love for Sagna is well documented and he was his usual superb self, Kos was brilliant (is there a better defender 1 on 1 in the league?) and Vermaelen looked more like his normal self.
• Song was decent if a little lazy (so Song was Song), Theo was Theo, with the usual poor decision making alongside the flash of brilliance. Gervinho was garbage - he was the only player who was always on his heels competing for loose balls.
• Rosicky's renaissance is remarkable. I said at the beginning of the season that we needed the little Mozart back, and he's starting to get up a head of steam.
• AOC was excellent and very disciplined in an unfamiliar role. His direct running scared the bejesus out of Milan and his corner delivery was excellent for the most part. I thought he was unlucky to be taken off before Walcott, although apparently he was ill before the game.
• RVP didn't have a great game in my opinion - I thought he tried to do too much himself. That said, the pen was superb and he brought another quality save from the keeper in the 1st half.
• The ref was awful. Booking Sagna and someone else for winning the ball, playing on when it was a clear foul, then blowing up when the advantage would have been preferred. Not biassed, just crap.
• Zlatan has a great touch. He's also a utter prick and I hate his ugly face. Poor tonight, excellent in San Siro.
• We know nothing about football - one bloke 2 seats from me said Rosicky can't pick a pass, another 2 seats the other way said Rosicky was having a stormer (which I agreed with). However, he called absolutely every offside wrong. Literally. Every single one. The bloke behind me also had an erroneous opinion that was amusing, but I've forgotten what it was. Great story I know.

All in all, a proud night for Gooners. It's just a shame we were so poor in the 1st leg. Let's keep this momentum going and win the 11 cup finals we have left this season.

_________________________________

I wanted to post something about the NLD last week but was crazy busy. It's all been said, but here's my take on it anyway.

• It's been said over and over that we are at our best with a high-energy game, pressing high up the pitch. We did this last season to beat Chelsea, Barcelona and Man United and did it again to destroy Spurs. It's so difficult to live with a team that does it - this should be how we try to play every week. It worked in the 1st half vs Milan too.
• To go through the goals - their's were both as a result of poor communication between Vermaelen and Gibbs. Saha lucky with the finish, but he should never have had that much space.
• The penalty - DIVE DIVE DIVE DIVE. After watching it several times, there is no contact between Gibbs or Szczesny with Bale. If there is one thing that I learnt from Rise of Planet of the Apes, it's not to ever trust monkeys and that simian thing is no different. He has a reputation and it's totally deserved. Whilst I'm ranting about the offspring of Jonny Bravo and King Louis from the Jungle Book, he really has too high an opinion of himself. Modelling his game on Ronaldo? Do me a favour, son. You are effective at running fast and powerfully in a straight line and whipping in a ball, or shooting across goal. It's effective and has won you plaudits from the lobotomised gentlemen from the Wapping area. You don't fool me - you're a one trick pony and will fade like that bloke from Blazing Squad that used to be on the right wing for Spurs
• Why didn't MOTD mention that there was even any controversy over the award? Call a spade a spade please.
• We were bloody great and went close through RVP and Rosicky before we scored. I thought Gibbs should have had a pen in front of me as well. RVP was unlucky to hit the post but Bac bulldozed his way to meet a lovely floated ball from Arteta. As Peter Hill-Wood no doubt said, "Never in doubt".
• The crowd hardly dropped at all, and it was a question of when, not if we scored again. RVP's goal showed his great technique and will be played over and over again in slo-mo on Sky in years to come.
• 'arry utterly bottled it with his changes at half-time. It was 2-2. Van der Vaart I just don't get - he's a great player but is bone idle and can't be carried when you're scrapping for every ball (see Arshavin, Andrei). Tightening up the midfield with Sandro would have been ok if Sandro had then played in midfield. I'm not sure what he did, but Spurs were very poor second half.
• Rosicky deserved his goal and showed how effective arriving from deep can me. Hint hint Aaron Ramsey.
• Theo was utterly bollocks first half and deserved all the criticism he got. It's not 'cos we hate him, it's 'cos we want him to succeed, and credit to him, he picked his game up second half. He had one sighter and then scored 2 lovely instinctive finishes - he's always at his best in my opinion when he doesn't think. Ironic for such a lovely young man. He's a total confidence player and hopefully that game will boost his. Great weapon to have in the squad in form - especially in "big games" where he will get space. Useless against 2 packed banks away at WBA (for example).
• Mike Dean is an egotist. Some of his decisions beggar belief. The Koscielny booking being one of them...he was shoved by Spurs player into other Spurs player....mental.
• The argument that diving is no worse than claiming a FK, throw, corner etc that you know is not yours as you're trying to con the ref is one I'd agree with. I'd make them all bookable offences and ENFORCE THE SODDING LAW. Once players were picking up bans for stupid reasons, they'd quickly learn to play in the Corinthian fashion. I'd enable retrospective discipline too. Strangely, imaginary card waving doesn't bother me - it's not cricket but I don't think it influences the ref in the same way.
• Seeing the Spurs end that empty with 15 to go was lovely.
• Yossi and Rosicky were immense. Song owned Parker and Modric. We won that game in midfield.
• I'm over Adebayor. 1 bloke near me sung about Angola. No one else joined in.
• BAE has great hair
• Parker was always going to get sent off
• Mikky Arteta does a lovely star jumpy thing whenever he wants the ball. Watch it next time - it's hilarious.

I was gonna do this properly with pictures etc but its gone midnight, I got 3.5 hours sleep last night, had a new cousin born and was in surgery from 8am until football o clock today so I just can't be bothered.

Thanks for reading - Congrats if you got to the end. Love to hear everyone else's thoughts.

Arsenal & Liverpool - disproportionately dramatic!

RVP's 94th minute winner at Anfield today got me thinking - do matches between Arsenal & Liverpool contain more late goals than any other fixture - many of which are crucial?

Off the top of my head, I can come up with the following:

2011/12: LFC 1-2 AFC (RVP last minute winner)

AFC 0-2 LFC (Suraez last minute to seal the game)

2010/2011: AFC 1-1 LFC (Injury time penalties from RVP & Kuyt)

LFC 1-1 AFC (Late Reina OG)

2008/2009: LFC 4-4 AFC (Arshavin & Benayoun in injury time)

2007/2008: LFC 4-2 AFC (Late goal from Adebayor, Gerrard & Babel)

2005/2006: AFC 2-1 LFC (Gerrard's brain freeze, Henry winner)

LFC 1-0 AFC (Garcia winner)

2004/2005: LFC 2-1 AFC (Neil Flipping Mellor - really?)

2000/2001: AFC 1-2 LFC (Michael Owen robbed my FA Cup)

That's not even mentioning the greatest football match ever ever ever, with Mickey Thomas' late winner, or the FA Cup final in 1971.

Clearly there are other occasions I've missed out, and I'm sure I could compile a late drama list for any fixture if I tried hard enough - but Arsenal & Liverpool seem to consistently leave it late!

Thoughts? Am I being overly sensitive to these goals? What have I missed out? Lemme know!