Howdy peeps.
So last week was an interesting one, then.
I only caught (and have still only seen) the last 10 minutes of Man City vs Arsenal. What a redonculous 10 minutes that was. If the whole game was like that, then that must rate as one of the best value for money games in football history. Aside from the 3 goals I saw scored, Bendtner had a goal disallowed for offside (very close, probably correct), Walcott had a very good chance and City looked dangerous as well. Sure, the defending was mad, but the people want goals damnit!
If I'm totally honest, I didn't see another sausage of football all weekend, but if we fast-forward to Sunday, Spurs were spanked by the Scousers, which ultimately seems to have cost AVB his job. I have to say, I thought he was totally hard done by at Chelsea, and was worried when he took over from 'Arry at Spurs, but it's a real marmite issue - you can argue that he gave Spurs the highest points total they've ever had in the Premier League, whilst losing one of his star players, and that after losing the other star player, rebuilding 1/3 of a squad and rejecting a chance to manage Qatar FC in St Germain, he deserved time to consolidate on a decent start with new players and being in the running for CL football, in the QFs of the League cup and a good Europa League performance too.
On the other hand, he presided over several spankings, his football sometimes appeared dour if not strange, he clearly couldn't utilise Soldado, didn't trust Defoe and had no relationship with Adebayor. He'd lost the defensive stability of last year with Dawson and Lloris regressing and seemed unable to relocate it. Most crucially, he never won the press over, initally for not being 'Arry, and then latterly for singling out one of their own. Unfortunately, it seems impossible to survive once Fleet Street sets it's mind on unseating you.
For what it's worth, I think he's still unfortunate, although certainly more culpable than at Chelsea. The news that he didn't want 4 of the new signings also suggests that not all was well in the Kingdom of Chigwell. I'd welcome debate this week, along with predos. (I welcome debate all weeks, though it's rarely forthcoming).
In other news, Tan of Cardiff fame is a complete Wasteman.
Let's get statty:
This week, 24 people played
The most predicted results were Chelsea and Everton WINS (24/24)
The most disputed result was: Norwich vs Swansea (9-8-7 split)
Highest odds: er, Me, with a slightly audacious 16, 570/1
Lowest odds: Doron, 2228/1. It's apocalyptic.
Average odds: 5732/1
Best predictor: Gaj Thiru, with a storming 9/10. Bloody Cardiff.
Worst Predictors: er, Me (shocking, I know), Richard Verber and Tarek Najm (3/10)
Average score: 5.54/10
Best predicted results: Chelsea & Everton WINS (24/24)
Worst predicted result: Liverpool WIN (3/24)
Everyone's results:
The leaderboard:
The not-at-all-competitive Menachem Grunewald joins David Dinkin in being better than any of our statistical models. Gaj's great score puts him in a position to create a trinity of human success stories. Lawro for a second year running, puts many to shame. The usual suspects are located down the bottom, with no real major changes there. And yes, Nick, your score includes that other week.
There are a lot of games coming up in a short period, and I'm starting a batch of night shifts very shortly. So, I'll post the weekend fixtures now, followed by a new post on Monday for the Boxing Day fixtures, next weekend's fixtures & New Year's fixtures.
There will certainly not be any results posts in that time, but I'll catch up the first week of January. Speaking of which, there will be a cash FA Cup game again, as before. Details to follow, but it'd be great to have even more entrants than last year.
To this week's predos:
Liverpool vs Cardiff - LIVERPOOL
Crystal Palace vs Newcastle - NEWCASTLE
Fulham vs Man City - MAN CITY
Man Utd vs West Ham - MAN UTD
Stoke vs Aston Villa - DRAW
Sunderland vs Norwich - SUNDERLAND
WBA vs Hull - DRAW
Southampton vs Spurs - SOUTHAMPTON
Swansea vs Everton - EVERTON
Arsenal vs Chelsea - ARSENAL
Total odds: 1650/1 (PaddyPower)
Good luck all, and have a great festive footy season.
