S5M14: Giddy Lineker

I know a few Leicester fans. Suffice it to say, they're generally full of optimism. They've experienced enough rough over the years to enjoy the good times when they come - like the victory over Man Utd last year.

They've been enjoying being this year's surprise package, but now, with 13 matches gone - or 1/3 of the season, they find themselves unable to remain calm any longer. Top of the table, led by Vardy & Mahrez and managed by a rejuvenated Ranieri.

No-one expects them to go the distance as greater squad depth is likely to tell for the bigger clubs as the season progresses - but for now, they're loving life, and fair play to them.

Let's face it. Neither Arsenal nor Man City are nailed on. Man Utd are consistent but unconvincing - it feels like they could be derailed very easily. Liverpool swing between sublime and ridiculous, whilst Spurs are the quietly efficient dark horses. So why shouldn't Leicester make hay, and if they end up 4th or 5th, it'd be a phenomenal season.

Truth be told, I didn't see much football last weekend, nor even MOTD so I'm in no place to comment on the games - but a quick word for Sunderland who somehow managed to Big Sam their way to a win at Selhurst Park. He's gonna bloody do it, isn't he?

Just the short one this week then!

Let's get statty:

This week, 28 people played
Most popular predicted results: Everton & Arsenal WINS (27/28)
Most disputed result: Newcastle vs Leicester (2-13-13 split)

Highest odds: My mother 123,617/1 - then my sister 22,255/1, followed by Andrew Feneley's mother 12,860/1. Dear oh dear
Lowest odds: Feneley 423/1
Average odds: 15, 256/1

Best predictors: Loads (5/10 - see below)
Worst predictors: Sam Ruback & David Brickman (2/10)
Average score: 4.07/10

Best predicted result: Everton WIN (27/28)
Worst predicted result: WBA WIN (0/28 - oops)

Swing: Vardy's opener (and eventual winner) upset 13 people

Everyone's results:

Leaderboard (>2/3; 9/13)

To this week's predictions:

Aston Villa vs Watford

Bournemouth vs Everton

Crystal Palace vs Newcastle

Man City vs Southampton

Sunderland vs Stoke

Leicester vs Man Utd

Spurs vs Chelsea

West Ham vs WBA
Liverpool vs Swansea
Norwich vs Arsenal

Total odds to be updated later in the week

Good luck guys

S5M13: A big week

Since the last time I pressed publish, a hell of a lot has happened. I've had some great stuff in my personal life, which is always nice (classic footballer interview phrase) and some major stuff professionally too (see the news for more details).

And then there was Paris.

I got home last Friday night and had a push notification on my phone with the headline waiting for me. 2 hours of rolling news later I went to bed, and then resumed on the Saturday morning.

It's sickening, scary and outrageous all at once. It's difficult to process such a sustained, sophisticated attack on joie de vivre. The footage of the match at the Stade de France with the explosions audible was just bizarre.

I think it all feels more personal as a football fan - or a music fan. The ability to create a mental image of what happened, but translocated to your own sacred space. The cursory searches that you're subject to, The realisation that for all the bile spewed at the opposition players and fans, you'd drop it all in a heartbeat for real life.

Sport has a phenomenal redemptive power. It is the eternal optimist. The renaissance followed at Wembley, with a raw, emotional crowd and stoic guests. I've been singing the Marseillaise in my head for the last week. My own act of rebellion. For they shall not win.

To this week's predos:

Watford vs Man Utd -  MAN UTD
Chelsea vs Norwich - CHELSEA
Everton vs Aston Villa - EVERTON
Newcastle vs Leicester - DRAW
Southampton vs Stoke - SOUTHAMPTON
Swansea vs Bournemouth - DRAW
WBA vs Arsenal - ARSENAL
Man City vs Liverpool - MAN CITY
Spurs vs West Ham - SPURS
Crystal Palace vs Sunderland - CRYSTAL PALACE

Total odds: 511/1 (Paddypower)

Good luck guys

S5M13: Var dydlier than Ruud

In the beginning, there was Terry. And all who knew him, hated him for he was a terrible person. However, before the beginning...lets call it the prologue, there was the horse. And some people liked the horse even though he didn't do much beyond tap ins except for that one time against Fulham, but that was the exception that proved the rule, and anyway shut up...

I didn't like the horse. Didnt like him one bit. Liked him less after the infamous afternoon with the whole Keown thing. Liked him even less a year after. Liked Ronaldo more after I found out he wound the horse up. That was nice.

Anyway, I'd repressed most memories of the horse until recently when Jamie Vardy started scoring and never really stopped. All of a sudden, graphics pop up on my screen as he overtakes premier league great after premier league great. And now we stand, with Vardy in joint 2nd place, with a chance in the next game to top the list.

I'm aware that he'll only equal the horse if he scores - but he'll have done it in 10 consecutive games in a single season, which is obviously better than horse's split season effort. In fact, given that I've just jinxed Vardy, I award the record to him anyway, on the grounds above and moral grounds for not being a cheaty horse.

In other news, Man Utd won again which is nice for them. Wazza sticking it to the man with another great goal anonymous performance. Everton drew with West Ham and Remi Garde ground out a point against City in his first game. Swansea are really struggling with yet another loss...this time out tactic'd by a rope-a-dope Norwich side. Southampton came away with maximum points from the long trip to Sunderland after a stupid late tackle gave them a penalty. The look on Allardyce's face. Scenes.

Bournemouth played really well against Newcastle in every way except the scoring way to lose the other South coast - North East match up...it's almost like this is planned. The North London derby was a score draw where both sides left relieved and disappointed. Weird. Spurs dominated in long patches, whilst Arsenal (Giroud) had several great chances and certainly finished the stronger. Klopp suffered his 1st defeat against Scouse bogie team Palace after Scott Dann nodded in a cracking opportunistic rebound. Finally to the goal of the weekend...a wonderful scissor kick from Arnautovic to condemn ex-boss Mourinho to yet another defeat. Although I'm not sure if he takes that defeat...if you're suspended, are you to blame?

The results from last week...

This week, 29 people played

Most Popular Predicted result: Man City WIN (28/29)

Most disputed result: Bournemouth vs Newcastle (9-10-10 split)

Highest odds: Aron Kleiman 11,717/1

Lowest odds: Me 1005/1

Average odds: 5042/1

Best predictor: WhoScored.com (6/10)

Worst predictor: Stan Collymore (2/10)

Average score: 4.1/10

Best predicted result: Man Utd WIN (27/29)

Worst predicted result: Aston Villa vs Man City DRAW (1/29 - er...my mum)

Swing: Ayoze Perez's winner for Newcastle - 10 broken predictors...

Everyone's scores:

Leaderboard (>2/3 - 9/12)

Happy International break y'all.See ya back for the next PL game

S5M12: Foggy Fluoro-balls

You can say many things about how BT have waded full throttle into the sports market, but they've often had a large helping of luck with their game selection. It might be selective bias (not having Sky, and relying on streams/SkyGo), but I really think that the Sky games often fail to live up to the uber-hype afforded them by the Isleworth crew.

BT - and again, it's not like I've watched every game they've had, seem to get the games that either have the high scorelines (classically Arsenal away to another big side) or, this season, the narrative games - Klopp's first game at Spurs, and now first PL win at Chelsea. This of course, only perpetuated the Mourinho meltdown stuff that is responsible for somewhere approaching 85% of all sports coverage.

I'll admit up front - I'm a fan. I'm a fan of the roving "studio" form pitchside, to poorly thought out platforms outside the stadia. I like Jake Humphrey, and I like the massive studio thing, with multiple areas and multi-sport use. I like the experiment with Howard Webb and the use of good quality journalists. They don't always get it right but it's great to see some innovation.

Update: Just remembered they're to blame for Michael Owen infecting the airwaves. Black mark

Anyway - Kloppy did a job on a Chelsea side starting to fall apart off the pitch too. Cesc did the old "wasn't me guv" thing - but there aren't too many candidates who it could be - Matic? Hazard? And MouMou's Moud was probably not improved by the announcement that Eva Carneiro is going after him personally, as well as the club for constructive dismissal. Good on her - even without my minimal dislike of all things Chelsea (boots, pensioners, Clinton etc), the way she was treated was absolutely disgusting and I hope she takes them to the cleaners, then gets another high profile job elsewhere. Would love to know what happened to Jon Fearn too, but he didn't have the sexist element to this too.

Man Utd are another sad story - the toothless old tiger now struggling to even pounce on the horsemeat lobbed into their cage. LVG is a baffling chap - with total objectivity, I feel that he's been zero improvement on Moyes, especially given the money he's had to spend.

Man City did the whole "mark of champions" thing, which was a shame for a Norwich side under a lot of pressure, although it wouldn't have been an issue were Joe Hart not a complete klutz.

Arsenal weathered a south-Welsh storm in the first half to secure a comfortable win against a Swansea team also struggling to build any momentum. Newcastle will be happy with their back to basics draw, whilst West Ham have basically decided not to compete in games were they can't counter-attack - although this is not helped by having an utter donkey for a centre-forward. Spectacular error there for the first goal. (I typed foal accidentally here. Freudian).

Vardy managed to keep the streak alive with yet another comeback win for Leicester, and Mahrez also boosted my fantasy football team with a pair of mirror images goals. On Sunday, Everton and Sunderland decided to play rush goalies or something...not a clue what happened, but Allardyce has really got a job cut out there. It's fair to say that the Bournemouth fairytale has never really got going - injuries have killed the enthusiasm and they too are finding it hard to get any traction. And Villa - well...Bon chance Remi.

'Nuff chat. Let's get statty:

This week, 29 people played
Most popular predicted result: Man City WIN (29/29)
Most disputed result: Newcastle vs Stoke (11-12-6 split)

Highest odds: Zoe Daniels (6461/1)
Lowest odds: Sam Ruback (625/1)
Average odds: 2267/1

Best predictors: David Silverman & WhoScored.com (8/10)
Worst predictor: Nick Collins (4/10)
Average score: 5.97/10 (season high)

Best predicted result: Man City WIN (29/29)
Worst predicted result: Liverpool WIN (1/29 - congrats to my mother. Tail. Donkey. Blindfold)

Swing: Coutinho's 2nd and eventual winner outfoxed 11 of us. And Gary Cahill.

Everyone's scores:

The leaderboard (>2/3; 8/11)

To this week's predictions:

Bournemouth vs Newcastle - NEWCASTLE

Leicester vs Watford - LEICESTER

Man Utd vs WBA - MAN UTD

Norwich vs Swansea - SWANSEA

Sunderland vs Southampton - SOUTHAMPTON

West Ham vs Everton - EVERTON

Stoke vs Cheslsea - CHELSEA

Aston Villa vs Man City - MAN CITY

Arsenal vs Spurs - ARSENAL

Liverpool vs Crystal Palace - LIVERPOOL

Total odds: 1005/1 (PaddyPower)

Good luck guys!