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!