S4M10: Singing the Praises of Allardici

Typing that title made me feel a wee bit queasy. However, the Big Sam Walrus man has now beaten both Liverpool & Man City this season - and arguably deserved both those wins. Someone wrote into the F365 mailbox this week detailing his record since he was at Bolton, and generally, he's done pretty well once he's taken a season or 2 to stabilise. The big question is whether this is intentional, or a stroke of luck by having the temptation of Andy Carroll taken away from him. We'll never know, because he's one of those managers ('Arry as another prime example) who take the credit when it's going well and shift the blame when it's not....and that bugs me, so I hope for the latter.

What else? Well late goals at Old Trafford and the Hawthorns saw draws there, whilst QPR won for the first time since a long time, and Newcastle continued their revival with a good win at the Lane. I was driving home from work when they were playing and the commentary went something like this:

"Newcastle get us under way in the second half with Remy Caballa, a second half substituuuuuu.......*background roar*....they've equalised! 7 seconds on the clock"

I went something like this:

Seriously....I swear if Spurs didn't exist, someone would have to invent them. Also my car is not a massive truck.

Sunderland didn't score loads of own goals this week, but they might as well have done, losing 2-0 to Alexis Sanchez & 9 other yellow statues. Balotelli did his shtick of playing well enough for a neutral to think he was alright, whilst contriving to miss a great chance to wind up the Scouser Keyboard Army. Southampton kept up their worryingly good form and Swansea & Everton both won their bankers.

All in all, a nice fun weekend - less mental than I'd have hoped for though.

Let's get statty:

This week, 22 people played
Most popular predicted result: Man City WIN (22/22)
Most disputed result: QPR vs Aston Villa (9-4-9 split)

Highest odds: Josh Daniels 4407/1
Lowest odds: Feneley 963/1
Average odds: 2007/1

Best predictors: Quite a few (6/10 - see below)
Worst predictor - Lawro - horror show 1/10
Average score: 4.50/10

Best predicted result: Southampton WIN (20/22)
Worst predicted results: West Ham & Newcastle WINS (0/22)

Everyone's results:

Er...ignore JC & JT. They didn't play, not play & get 0.

To the leaderboard now, for those who have played >2/3 of weeks or 7/10:

Lawro's shocker sees him drop into second place. There are a few minor movements elsewhere, but 2 new entries...so let's get everyone onto the leaderboard this year!

To this week's predos:

Newcastle vs Liverpool - DRAW

Arsenal vs Burnley - ARSENAL

Chelsea vs QPR - CHELSEA

Everton vs Swansea - DRAW

Hull vs Southampton - DRAW

Leicester vs WBA - LEICESTER

Stoke vs West Ham - STOKE

Man City vs Man Utd - MAN CITY

Aston Villa vs Spurs - SPURS

Crystal Palace vs Sunderland - DRAW

Total odds: 4674/1 (PaddyPower)

Good luck guys!