S5M6: Stronger down the Left

So, last week's early kick off saw a late signing for the Labour party come (nominatively deterministically) from Left field. Although talk about a transfer saga - de Gea ain't got nothing on Jez.

Suffice it to say, Premier League footballers are quite rich. Most of them aren't hugely bright. I wonder if Sky News had been on in the Chelsea dressing room before the game, distracting the multi-millionaires to the extent that Naismith was able to score the perfect hat-trick. Maybe they watched the post-announcement press conference instead of their technologically-thwarted tactical meeting.

Anywho, for all of us non-Chelsea fans, that was a thoroughly enjoyable start to the weekend. However, the Corbynmania had died down by the 3pm kickoffs, with Arsenal thrashing Stoke 2-0, City proving that the massive investment in their academy pays off once a season and Watford upsetting a Swansea start who had got off to a great start. In the battle of the new boys, Norwich comfortably saw off Bournemouth who are struggling to adjust to the Premier League.

I read something (dunno where) last year which talked about the physical differences between the PL and the Championship. Players actually cover more ground in the lower division, but the interviewee was talking about when and where the movement occurs as being the difference. In the Championship, it's end-to-end like a Basketball game. High energy, high turnover. In the PL, it's generally more sedate in the middle third, but teams up the pace of passing and show explosive movement in the attacking zones, and that's the bit that "lesser" clubs tend to struggle with - keeping focus and discipline for 90 minutes in and around the box. If I can find the article, I'll update the blog with a link.

I'll skip WBA vs Southampton, and let's talk about the Fallen Giant Derby. Man Utd deserved a win with a great second half, with a great goal off the training ground to open the scoring. New boy Martial sealed the game late on with a goal which will do nothing to ease the 'New Henry' comparisons being fired around (If anyone hasn't already heard about this, here's the breakdown of the add-ons - by my reckoning, Man Utd will end up paying 70m Euros by the end of the season if he makes it into the France squad for Euro 2016!)

However, Benteke gets the plaudits for me. Frankly a ridiculous goal. Up there with the best overhead kicks I've ever seen and not something I thought he had in his locker. Just woof.

On Sunday, Spurs bored us all to death to beat an already-relegated (yeah, I'm paying out) Sunderland and then Timmy gave us all a chuckle by ballsing up a 2-0 lead with 15 minutes to go. No gilet throwing this time. West Ham continued their cracking start to the season with a 2-0 win over a Newcastle side who are a little baffling - they certainly look better than last year, but 1) can't score and 2) can't defend. Bizarre.

'Nuff chat. Let's get statty:

This week, 29 people played
Most predicted result: Arsenal WIN (28/29)
Most disputed result: WBA vs Southampton (5-14-10 split)

Highest odds: My mother debuting at (30,552/1) - AFM has got competition
Lowest odds: Josh Daniels (2272/1)
Average odds: 4815/1 ignoring the ridiculous outlier

Best predictor: Doron Salomon (8/10)
Worst predictors: Ryan Wain & Eli Daniels (3/10)
Average score: 5.67/10

Best predicted results: Arsenal WIN (28/29)
Worst predicted result: Everton WIN (0/29)

Swing: Naismith's 2nd goal - the eventual winner - left 13 people shaking their fists & screaming with joy simultaneously.

Everyone's results:

And the leaderboard for those who've played >2/3 available games (4/5)

So, to this week's predictions:

Chelsea vs Arsenal - DRAW
Aston Villa vs WBA - VILLA
Bournemouth vs Sunderland - BOURNEMOUTH
Newcastle vs Watford - NEWCASTLE
Stoke vs Leicester - LEICESTER
Swansea vs Everton - DRAW
Man City vs West Ham - MAN CITY
Spurs vs Crystal Palace - DRAW
Liverpool vs Norwich - NORWICH (Rodgers to go after 1 more defeat)
Southampton vs Man Utd - MAN UTD

Total odds: 18,872/1 (PaddyPower) - if there's one week I wouldn't mind winning my acca....

Good luck guys!