Matchday 36 Results & Matchday 37 Predictions

Eh....what do I know about football? Or gambling for that matter? I thought last week would be hard to call, with low scores. Instead,  as a group, we did pretty well - an average of 4.25 means that it was pretty average, as weeks go.

A pretty fun 45 minutes during the 1st halves of the Saturday 3pm kick offs saw goals going in like a Pinner vs HMH U14s game of a few years back - 27-1 the full time score (although to mitigate that, it was vs 10 men with no keeper) whilst the evening game saw Suarez score an outrageously good chip from40-odd metres. Sunday's games saw QPR and Blackburn decide to get relegated, neither of whom showed up at all in convincing enough wins for Chelsea and Spurs.

I actually only caught the last 3 minutes of the Manchester derby, but by all accounts, United decided to play for a point and didn't do so particularly well. You do wonder if they wouldn't have been better playing as if it was the away leg of a Champions' League knockout tie and looked for an "away goal" I still fancy Utd to pick up maximum points in the last 2 games, and I'm not sure I can say the same for City.

Last night saw Liverpool lose at home, and for all the criticism of Hodgson's home record, I'm not sure Kenny's has been any better this season. Does any Liverpool fan want him to stay on next season, regardless of what happens on Saturday? If anyone wants to answer with their predictions, please do.

Tonight sees Chelsea vs Newcastle, in what could be a 4th place eliminator-type game, whilst Spurs play Bolton, and Muamba is set to be present for the first time since his heart attack. I never really had my "professional" say on all that, but suffice it to say that the paramedics and medical staff are fantastic at what they do and all that training shows. When we run through crash drills, it sometimes is a little forced and difficult to recreate the mental and physical exertion involved, but their focus was impressive. It also showed, that whilst football is pretty retrograde when it comes to goal-line technology, common sense and racism in football, they've really learnt from the tragedies of Foe, Puerta, O'Donnell, Jarque and all the others who have died in what is ultimately, a fun diversion for most of us.

Bit serious that, let's talk numbers:

This week, 16 people played

Most popular predicted result: Everton & Spurs WINS (15/16 or 94% concordance)

Most disputed result: Norwich vs Liverpool (7-3-6 split)

Longest odds: Josh Daniels (27,630/1)

Shortest odds: Jonathan Chernick (506/1)

Average odds: 6391/1 although this was skewed by 2 bets at vastly higher odds than most (1910/1 without them)

Best predictor: Marc Joss, on debut with 7/10. Beginner's luck....let's see if he continues this next season

Worst predictor: Yanik Joshi (1/10)

Average Score: 4/10 as mentioned above.

Best predicted result: Spurs WIN (15/16)

Worst predicted result: Swansea vs Wolves DRAW and Wigan WIN (2/16)

Villain of the week: No real villain this week.

Everyone's scores:

Dan Davis continues his remarkable recent form, whilst Yanik, Joe and Nick all did pretty poorly. Ryan had a good week (for him....a tad patronising, but hey ho) and Lawro gets upstaged again by the statistical "experts" - objective beats subjective in a very simplistic interpretation.

To the leaderboard:

I don't want to make accusations of choking, but Joe's lead has been cut by ~40% in the last few weeks. Could he be pipped at the post? It's unlikely to be Yanik who does the pipping as he drops into the "Europa league" spot. Mid-table is still very tightly bunched and I think it's fair to say that the bottom is unlikely to change massively from here on.

The leaderboard remember is only for those who have played >2/3 of weeks, however, come the end of the season, I'll publish everyone's scores. I'm starting to plan for next season now, so if you have any ideas on how to improve this, please let me know either through Facebook, Twitter or email (ccdaniels65@gmail.com).

Finally, to predictions for this penultimate matchday:

Arsenal vs Norwich - ARSENAL
Newcastle vs Man City - MAN CITY
Aston Villa vs Spurs - DRAW
Bolton vs WBA - DRAW
Fulham vs Sunderland - FULHAM
QPR vs Stoke - DRAW
Wolves vs Everton - EVERTON
Man Utd vs Swansea - MAN UTD
Blackburn vs Wigan - WIGAN
Liverpool vs Chelsea (how convenient is that!) - CHELSEA

Total odds: 884/1 with Paddypower (only 1st 9 games as no odds yet for LFC/CFC)


Predictions in the comments as per usual, good luck chums, enjoy the FA Cup final with its ridiculous kick off time, and I'll see y'all next week.