Matchdays 18 & 19: It's the end of the world as we know it

In 2009, I found myself on top of a pyramid in Tikal, Guatemala. The pyramid was built by the Mayans about 1500 years previously, and whilst impressive, it definitely wouldn't pass a health & safety assessment, London style.

Heights ain't exactly my bag at the best of times, but I was just about relaxed enough to listen to our guide talk about how on 21/12/2012, the world was going to end* (according to a people who ironically, weren't around to see it. Like me prophecising the date the Sun's gonna give out...). I'll be honest - I didn't take the threat all that seriously, but now, facing the impending doom that may come in a few short hours, I've realised, this is not how I want to go out.

Rock bloody bottom of the leaderboard.

I'm massively unimpressed - with my odds of ~500/1 last week, and that was hardly anomalous, I expected a nice big score to boost my average, but a combination of Twitchy at QPR, T'witterer at Liverpool & T'walrus at West Ham put paid to that. At least Twalcott (sorry, I'm finished now) managed to put a smile on my face on Monday night.

Basically, the situation needs to change. Either you lot need to do poorly, or I need to improve. Or else, I'm picking up my ball and going home**. I think that everyone should do their bit, and put in silly results, like an Arsenal win, this week, to give me a chance to catch up. Sound fair?

* I'm unsure if this is the 2nd or 3rd "end of the world" in my relatively short time on Earth. It's good to see that it's not just football predictions that are awful.
**not really.

Ah, enough wallowing in pity. If you're still alive, let's get statty:


This week, 17 people played
Most popular predicted result: Man Utd WIN (17/17)
Most disputed result: QPR vs Fulham (7-4-6 split)

Longest odds: Doron with a rather anomalous 3760/1
Shortest odds: Feneley 200/1
Average odds: 939/1 (469/1 without Doron)

Best Predictors: Josh Daniels & Josh Gaon (7/10)
Worst Predictors: Me, Sam Ruback & Yanik Joshi (4/10)
Average Score: 5/10

Best predicted result: Man Utd WIN (17/17)
Worst predicted result: Aston Villa WIN (0/17)


Villain of the week: No-one scored highly enough

Everyone's results:

To the leaderboard, and as always, only for those who have played >2/3 of weeks or 12/17 in this instance. We're a couple of weeks off having another addition to the board, and then, I think that'll be that for this season - all those in play will be on the board.

Lots of little leaps: at the top, my old man has leapfrogged his co-former-moustache-wearer, Josh Gaon's good week combined with Sam's bad week allows them to swap places, and Mr Verber gains a place too. My poor week, Chernick's no show and Feneley's pretty good week, makes for loads of drama at the bottom. Exciting...but I'd far rather be sitting pretty about 8 places higher.

The comeback starts here folks, this week's predictions:

Matchday 18:

Wigan vs Arsenal - ARSENAL

Newcastle vs QPR - DRAW

Southampton vs Sunderland - SOUTHAMPTON

Man City vs Reading - MAN CITY

Spurs vs Stoke - SPURS

West Ham vs Everton - DRAW

WBA vs Norwich - NORWICH

Liverpool vs Fulham - LIVERPOOL

Swansea vs Man Utd - MAN UTD

Chelsea vs Aston Villa - CHELSEA

Total odds: 1009/1 with Paddypower

Matchday 19 (Boxing Day games):

Sunderland vs Man City - MAN CITY

Reading vs Swansea - SWANSEA

Everton vs Wigan - EVERTON

Fulham vs Southampton - DRAW

QPR vs WBA - QPR

Norwich vs Chelsea - CHELSEA

Man Utd vs Newcastle - MAN UTD

Aston Villa vs Spurs - ASTON VILLA

Stoke vs Liverpool - STOKE

Total odds: 951/1 with PaddyPower (only 9 games, thanks Tube Drivers)

I'll be posting the games for next Saturday after Boxing Day, but if anyone is going away for Christmas/New Years and wants to send me their predictions early, then feel free and I'll add them in to the database. I'm contactable by email, text, twitter, facebook, or leave a comment below, making it clear that it's for a different week (and ideally, let me know that you've done so).

Good luck everyone, and may your festive period be as happy on the pitch and at the bookie as around the table.

Until next time