Matchday 10: Probably won't live up to midweek's games

Right, here we go with an updated start. Apologies to those who saw the first draft without any results...

Bit of a mental week this one eh? Let's start with the major contentious decisions of the week:

• Mbia's red card - blatantly obvious red and not, as was suggested to me on Twitter, that he was just trying to play the ball.
• Arteta's goal - offside, no doubt. Thought as much when it went in, but don't really care 'cos Mark Hughes was unhappy which makes me happy. I can only assume that the lino didn't feel that the touch came off Ramsey in the tackle that sent the ball towards Arteta.
• Suarez's tackle on Distin - yellow card about right for me. "Striker's tackle", not a deliberate attempt to hurt Distin.
• Suarez's offside goal - yes, Coates (Coh-ah-tees by the way....I've been calling him Coats for ages) was all over Jagielka. That's not why the goal was disallowed though, and it was a terrible call to give offside there. Zero mitigation.
• Ivanovic red - fair enough I thought. Young would have been through and there was contact. Even if he didn't need to go over, he certainly would have been put out of his stride enough to have potentially lost the chance to score. That's the foul - and that's the red.
• Torres red - exactly the same as above - I felt that the contact from Evans was a foul. After that, the fact Torres fell was irrelevant. Fergie and Evans talk out their rears when they suggest it was Torres' own fault. Evans missed the ball, got some of the man and that's the foul . Torres was under no obligation to try and stay on his feet. I'd have given the booking to Evans, not a red as it was further out and there was enough cover. The obvious joke at Torres' expense is that there is no such thing as an obvious goalscoring opportunity for him either...
• Hernandez goal - Totally offside, and another poor call. I don't buy the excuse that the linesman has to look through players so it was more difficult. That's frequently the case, and they are trained for those situations. For a playing coming back from an offside position, you have to give the benefit of doubt to the defence in my opinion.
• Clattenberg accusations - I don't think it's appropriate to comment until more information is known. Suffice it to state the obvious - if he used racist language, then he never will, nor should ref again. If he used offensive language, then a ban is fair, but I don't blame him. If he's innocent, then I'd hope an apology would come his way from Mikel & Chelsea for marking his reputation.

Those were the controversies - but there were also some mental matches. Mainly involving Reading. A last minute goal to draw with Fulham wasn't enough.....oh no. They had to lose a 4-0 lead in one of the most ridiculous matches I've ever seen in my life. Chamakh with 2 from outside the area?!?!?! Arshavin playing 120 minutes?!?!?! Theo looking like a child when Jenkinson claimed the goal in the post-match interview (What happened there by the way? Who got the goal officially?) Utterly mad - and whilst yes, it's only the league cup....it's just fun to sit back and enjoy football and its most crazy.

Then, Stamford Bridge decided to get in on the action again. Firstly - the "Chelsea: Standing up to racism since Sunday" banner was one of the funniest I've seen in a long time. The match was also a good'un...and I thought the ref got all the big calls right. Awful defending from both sides, and some good attacking play makes for good TV. The match was predictably soured by some tool from the crowd who decided to make monkey noises and mimicry, allegedly aimed at Welbeck. His picture has been circulated, and Chelsea have said they'll take the strongest possible action when they find out who he is. Whether that'll be a lifetime ban or a secret internal confidential disciplinary action (there's precedent for both with Chelsea)...we'll have to wait and see.

Enough guff, to the stats:

This week, 17 people played.

Most popular predicted results: Arsenal & Man City WINS (17/17)

Most disputed result: Wigan vs West Ham (6-5-6)

Longest odds: Doron Salomon 5816/1

Shortest odds: Sam Ruback 1219/1

Average odds: 2786/1

Best predictor: Lawro, contiuing his unbelievable (Jeff) form, with 9/10

Worst predictor: Tarek with a mitigated 3/10. He did correctly call the Villa/Norwich game as a draw, but prediction was submitted after kick-off in that game, and thus cannot be counted as per Impossibilitee precedent.

Average score: 6/10

Best predicted result: Arsenal & Man City WINS (17/17)

Worst predicted result: Man Utd WIN (2/17) - quite incredible that so few though Man Utd would win! 

Villain of the week: The only match Lawro got wrong was the Reading vs Fulham game. Therefore, as per the rules, I have to find a villain from that game that stopped him getting the full 10. Officialdom (in general), has got a reprieve for this week therefore. Lawro went for a Reading win, and it's difficult to find a villain that stopped them from gaining that result. Reluctantly, I'm going to say MARK SCHWARZER gets the honour, for his stoppage time heroics preventing Reading scoring a 4th to win it. Just doing his job though...and doing it well!

Everyone's results:

Decent performances from most - Tarek's shoddy time keeping is the only reason he's alone on the right of the graph. The other side of the coin is Mr Chernick, who got his predictions in with 2 minutes to spare - although he did get that game wrong anyway.

To the leaderboard - and I'll try to write in English this week when explaining it. To reiterate, you only qualify for a place on the leaderboard when you play >2/3 of available weeks. This prevents someone having a great week as a one off and then refusing to play the rest of the season to protect their average. This rule is the fairest way of keeping the leaderboard a reflection of who consistently is the best predictor. It's early days yet in the season, so if you are not yet on the board, then keep playing and within a few weeks you will be.

And of course, it's still my flipping Dad, who increases his score to a scarcely believable 6. Lots of change in the middle, with Jonny Chernick leapfrogging me at the foot of the table. I'm still amazed at how well the 'professionals' are doing - last year they were embedded within us mere mortals. Let's see how long it stays this way...

For now though, my predictions for this week's matches:

Man Utd vs Arsenal - DRAW
Fulham vs Everton - EVERTON
Norwich vs Stoke - NORWICH
Sunderland vs Aston Villa - ASTON VILLA
Swansea vs Chelsea - CHELSEA
Spurs vs Wigan - SPURS
West Ham vs Man City - DRAW
QPR vs Reading - READING
Liverpool vs Newcastle - DRAW
WBA vs Southampton - DRAW

Total odds with PaddyPower....56,804/1. Of course, compared to my chances of winning £95m this evening in the Euromillions, that's small fry.

Good luck guys, and feel free to spread the word to whomever you think might be interested...