S5M28: And Another one goes (remix)

5 years in and I'm still not quite sure how truncated matchdays should work. Does it benefit those who miss out? Should I include the postponed games and then amend the database retrospectively? The latter seems unfair as form/fitness/suspensions all could change your prediction.

So in our mini-matchday, we had a Homer Simpson inspired celebration (weird), late winners for the boys in blue, and 3 games with a tighter scoreline than the game suggested. The good ship Villa continue to just about stay afloat, although it's pretty clear that it's gonna take more than 11 deckhands with pails bailing out seawater to get these guys back to port safely. I think that metaphor drowned a while back. #sorrynotsorry

Palace are now scoring again, but the defence is looking old school Pardew. Plucky Leicester are holding on for now, but the looming chicken-on-a-basketballl juggernaut is starting to look irrepressible. I watched the Utd-Arsenal game with a Spurs fan who's attentions were diverted elsewhere. He was convinced that they'd drop point when they were 1-0 at half-time. "Au contraire", I assured him - Swansea are dreadful. Bang on their door hard enough and you'll equalise. When you equalise, their heads will go...legs become heavy etc and you'll win 2-1. 

Didn't bloody put money on it though did I?

Instead I watched the most insipid Arsenal performance since last week. Saw the Utd team - never heard of about 5 of them. That's a clear home win then....

Marking centre forwards in the box is a mug's game anyway - who'd want to win playing like that? We are pathetic - I think the only (non-minnow) team to have lost to Man Utd each year of the Post-Fergie era. Freddie wept.

Finally, a word on the league cup final. I'm pretty sure that Caballero was only signed to allow for puntastic headlines revolving around his first name, and the England's number 1's surname. Bet Sterling is relieved his miss didn't allow 40,000 Scousers to heckle him.

Let's get statty:

Last week, 25 people played

Most popular predicted result: Leicester WIN (25/25)

Most disputed result: WBA vs Crystal Palace (8-10-7 split)

Highest odds: Josh Daniels 362/1

Lowest odds: Zoe Daniels 278/1

Average odds: 318/1

Best predictor: EuroClubINdex (7/8)

Worst predictors: Me, Dinkin & David Brickman (3/8)

Best predicted result: Leicester WIN (25/25)

Worst predicted result: Watford vs Bournemouth DRAW (2/25)

Swing: Ivanovic's late winner for Chelsea - 11 had the draw

Everyone's scores:

Leaderboard (>2/3; 19/27)

To the midweek games:

Aston Villa vs Everton - EVERTON 

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

Good luck guys

S5M27: And another one goes

Now that's a matchday.

Sunderland's first Premier League victory against Man Uited at home kicked us off. We then had the Stoke revival with a cracker from Imbula. Watford & WBA gave examples of late away wins - the latter being absolute robbery.

West Ham came back from 2-0 down to draw, kick started by a lovely free kick from Payet. Quite the revelation there. I saw the headline on the back page of the Evening Standard today was some bitter nonsense from Allardyce - I'd quite enjoyed the silence form him after his smug appearance early on in the seaosn when West Ham were doing their inconsistent thing. I think every Hammer would agree that the managerial change was a gamble well worth making.

Southampton's good form continued with a long winner in Wales, slowing the momentum built up by Swansea since they imported their Ranieri copycat. Chelsea continued their improving course under Guus Hiddink by spanking Newcastle. I just don't get them. How their team is so poor, I just can't quite square in my mind.

Then to Sunday. Ah blissful Sunday. A massive game at the Emirates in the early kick off. Firstly...poor form from Sky to move it quite so late. Very disrespectful to fans, but they won't care - they got away with it without of the narrative games of the season.

I'm having none of the Vardy penalty. Pires did the same thing in the Invincibles season and was pilloried as a diver. Rooney and Gerrard have also done the same. Not great defending from Monreal, and for sure a missed foul on Ozil by Morgan but none of that excuses the way Vardy manufactured the contact. It's not clever play - he didn't draw the foul, he just kicked his leg into Monreal completely unnecessarily and it's simulation.

But that just made the end so much sweeter. After the red card (and bizarre withdrawal of Mahrez), there was really only one team going to score...it was a question of whether time would run out first. Enter Danny boy. Dat guy. I've never really understood the need to strip off after scoring a goal...it always seems so contrived but I could have happily run around my road naked for a good hour after that game. Massive result - keeps the race tight as had Leicester gone 8 points clear....

Then we went to Birmingham and Liverpool raced into a comfortable lead against a Villa side who managed to set new markers in atrocity. The final score of 6-0 at home is just pathetic, and it's clearly a team who are looking forward to pastures new in the summer - thoughts echoed by the manager, owner and anyone else associated with the club. The Lescott car tweet thing was just the cherry on top. Just a terrible afternoon for anyone relating to Villa. I blame Tim Sherwood.

Finally, we continue north to Manchester. Yet another farcical penalty decision - how Kante got away with his episode and Sterling got pulled up for his I'll never know. Man City huffed and puffed and drew level with a lovely swept finish from the new wonderboy. Then Spurs did what they've been doing all year - pressed City into a turnover, countered with quick, incisive parking and left City 4 points back. Not irretrievable but they're going backwards, whilst Spurs continue to go from strength to strength. Very concerning.

Let's get statty:
Last week, 26 people played
Most popular predicted result: Everton WIN (26/26)
Most disputed result: Crystal Palace vs Watford (11-5-10 split)

Highest odds: Me mom - 10254/1
Lowest odds: Sam Ruback 1671/1
Average odds: 4722/1

Best predictor: Zoe Daniels (7/10)
Worst predictors: Hesham, Menachem & Josh Gaon (2/10)
Average score: 3.96/10

Best predicted result: Chelsea WIN (23/26)
Worst predicted results: WBA WIN & Norwich vs West Ham DRAW (0/26)

Swing: Long's winner for Southampton - 8 left deflated

Everyone's results:

Leaderboard (>2/3; 18/26)

This week's predos:

West Ham vs Sunderland - WEST HAM
Leicester vs Norwich - LEICESTER
Southampton vs Chelsea - DRAW
Stoke vs Aston Villa - ASTON VILLA
Watford vs Bournemouth - WATFORD
WBA vs Crystal Palace - CRYSTAL PALACE
Man Utd vs Arsenal - DRAW
Spurs vs Swansea - SPURS

Good luck guys!

FA Cup 4.5: Always next week

So no major shocks then. Man Utd even decided to play some scintillating football. That ship's already sailed however. Chelsea play themselves back into some form, and West Ham came up with the goods late on to progress at the expense of Liverpool. Special mention go to Shrewsbury who came through a cracker against Sheffield Wednesday to become the lowest placed team left in the competition.

Their reward - to follow in the footsteps of Cambridge and Burton with a home tie against Man Utd - they'l be hoping for the same result as a minimum!

In R4:
11 people played (Joe, Sam - get organised...)
Most popular predicted results: Spurs, Arsenal, Hull & WBA WINS (11/11)
Most disputed result: Oxford vs Blackburn & Liverpool vs West Ham (5-6 & 6-5 splits respectively)

Best predictor: Me, (14/16)
Worst predictor to actually play: Joe Abbott (1016)

Everyone's scores:

A long way still to go - although admittedly Joe might find it a struggle from here..

Round 5 fixtures:

Arsenal vs Hull - ARSENAL
Reading vs WBA - WBA
Watford vs Leeds - WATFORD
Bournemouth vs Everton - EVERTON
Blackburn vs West Ham - WEST HAM
Spurs vs Crystal Palace - SPURS
Chelsea vs Man City - CHELSEA
Shrewsbury vs Man United - MAN UNITED

I'll message those yet to pay with my bank details. Appreciate the messages showing you haven't forgotten!

 Good luck guys!

S5M26: It'll never end

I'm going to start this week with a statistic. The only 3 to correctly predict Leicester beating Man City were the 3 (who I'm assuming) know the least about football. It's as if the rest of us can't comprehend that this is a bubble that shows no signs of bursting. If anything, they've got better. They are defensively sound, attack clinically and have no qualms about playing the football they want to play.
Challenge after challenge are swatted away, and it'd be no great surprise to see them 8 points clear on Sunday evening. Leicester bloody City.

I think something switched in me last weekend. I want nothing more than for Arsene Wenger to lift the Premier League again - to triumph over the jeers and the doubters. This is clearly his best chance for a long time - and arguably his last chance. But after last weekend, like a moth to a flame, I'm just attracted to the idea of Leicester winning the league - regardless of how much it hurts me. Dodgeball ain't got nothing on this true underdog story.

Of course, come Sunday, I'll be hoping that they concede another 5 to Alexis. However, I'd rather lose than draw I think. If we're going to get screwed, I think I want them to edge ever closer to the most remarkable sporting story in quite a while.

Bit emotional that. Not going into the other games I don't think...

Let's get statty:
Last week, 26 people played
Most popular predicted result: Spurs & Arsenal WINS (24/26)
Most disputed result: Aston Villa vs Norwich (7-9-10)

Highest odds: Zoe Daniels 121679/1
Lowest odds: Doron Salomon 1866/1
Average odds: 28, 149/1

Best predictor: Menachem Grunewald (7/10)
Worst predictors: Brad Allix, Yo Abbott, Aron Kleiman & David Dinkin (3/10)
Average score: 4.96/10

Best predicted results: Spurs & Arsenal WINS (24/26)
Worst predicted result: Leicester WIN & Liverpool vs Sunderland DRAW (3/26)

Swing: The late Defoe equaliser -  22 left deflated like a beachball

Everyone's scores:

The leaderboard (>2/3; 17/25)

To this week's predos:

Sunderland vs Man Utd - MAN UTD
Bournemouth vs Stoke - BOURNEMOUTH
Crysta Palace vs Watford - WATFORD
Everton vs WBA - EVERTON
Norwich vs West Ham - WEST HAM
Swansea vs Southampton - SOUTHAMPTON
Chelsea vs Newcastle - CHELSEA
Arsenal vs Leicester - ARSENAL
Aston Villa vs Liverpool - LIVERPOOL
Man City vs Spurs - MAN CITY

Good luck guys

S5M25: Check your fixture cards

As ever, the midweek games seem to creep up by surprise athough they really shouldn't. They also seem to generate a better quality of game - it's as if having less time to prepare for something lights up the creative fires, rather than unravelling the catenaccio fire blanket of doom. Or something.

Any any case, I'm not convinced that this metaphor works particularly well because not all clubs were in action at the weekend, and plenty made several changes to their lineups. It could just be that there's no real reason for this, but we as a species are pattern formers and so need so make sense of it all...

Anyway...Arsenal continued their wretched start to 2016 by dropping to 4th place after drawing with Southampton - a combination of wretched finishing and excellent goalkeeping in the light of day. This puts them below a really excellent Spurs side who are ruthless, efficient and really hard to beat. Quite concerned. Wazza's spurt (urgh) continue as Man Utd have shrugged off their critics with 6 goals in a week. Boom.

Jamie Vardy's back having a party as soon as I take him out my fantasy team. Thanks for that. See also "Aguero, Sergio" who'll soon be playing for the wizard Guardiola. We'll soon find out if he can cut it on a cold Tuesday night in Stoke...

Someone who might be about to get themself a cheeky look in to FC Impossibilitee (and therefore condemn himself to never scoring again) is Benik Afobe who's loving the sea breeze down in Bournemouth. 3 in 3 for him - and all crucial goals too. Adebayor is also on the shortlist as he does his unplayable shtick for a few months before vanishing again.

Jordan Ayew pushed the big red button as Villa lost to West Ham - no signings, no optimism, a new manger who already wants out - the karma for hiring Tim Sherwood...

Everton won at home for the first time in ages, with 2 late penalties adding some gloss to the scoreline. At least I didn't take Barkley out my team...

Where's the facepalm emoji when you need it?

A late WBA equaliser and a stalemate at Vicarage Road completed the set. Chelsea still unbeaten under Hiddink although they aren't really climbing up the table.

Let's get statty:

This week, 24 people played

Most popular predicted result: Man City WIN (24/24)

Most disputed results: Crystal Palace vs Bournemouth & WBA vs Swansea (13-7-4 splits)

Highest odds: Zoe Daniels  (20703/1)

Lowest odds: Doron Salomon (2227/1)

Average odds: 9602/1

Best predictor: WhoScored.com (8/10)

Lowest Predictors: Loads of us (4/10)

Average: 5.5/10

Best predicted result: Man City WIN (24/24)

Worst predicted result: Arsenal vs Southampton DRAW (1/24 - Congrats Mrs Feneley)

Swing: Jesse Lingard's opener for Man Utd - 9 players affected.

Everyone's scores (minus FT & SC who didn't predict...this wasn't me being rubbish this time)

To the leaderboard (>2/3; 17/24):

This week's predictions:

Man City vs Leicester - MAN CITY

Aston Villa vs Norwich - NORWICH

Liverpool vs Sunderland - LIVERPOOL

Newcastle vs WBA - NEWCASTLE

Stoke vs Everton - EVERTON

Swansea vs Crystal Palace - SWANSEA

Spurs vs Watford - SPURS

Southampton vs West Ham - DRAW

Bournemouth vs Arsenal - ARSENAL

Chelsea vs Man  Utd - MAN UTD

Good Luck guys!

S5M24: February made me shiver

With reflection - I feel I've used this title before...

Well what a cracker we had back in the last PL weekend.

Norwich vs Liverpool - is there anything better than a 5-4 yo-yo game? Especially one with a last minute equaliser from over 20 yards from a centre back...before an even later winner!

Then we had Dele Alli with a nonchalant flick-swivel-volley in a serious contender for goal of the season - am I the only one really worried about this Spurs team? Look to be the real deal in a way that they never did under Harry Redknapp or AVB - those teams were built on monkey-faced quicksand. These guys are lean, mean and tight - a few more goals and there's a really exciting future for the wrong side of North London.

Vardy got back amongst the goals - Leicester are just defying all odds here with how they haven't dropped off yet. The next month will be crucial here. Charlie Austin marked his debut with a late winner at Old Trafford - it's hard to see what LVG can do to arrest this slide. With Guardiola going to City, it's hard to know who could come in and stop the rot...Mourinho's certainly not the guy to bring the "attack attack attack" school of play.

West Ham and City played out a great game, and doesn't the world seem a better place when Aguero is on form. I'm a massive fan of his - fix those hamstrings and he's got the game to be at Messi level in my opinion.

Finally - Arsenal took the ceremonial pistol this month, cleaned it, loaded it and very carefully aimed square at their own foot. This was not a good Chelsea side. There were plenty of chances to be level (even if Remy was doing a great job of keeping the scores close late on) and obviously this perpetuates the narrative - rather than looking at a month of scratchy form, it gets extrapolated to a point about Chelsea. Yawn. 

Let's get statty:

27 people played

Most popular predicted result: Everton WIN (27/27)

Most disputed result: Sunderland vs Bournemouth (10-9-8 split)

Highest odds: Josh Daniels 15,754/1

Lowest odds: Zoe Daniels 2496/1

Average odds: 8072/1

Best predictors: Hesham, Aron & WhoScored.com (5/10)

Worst predictors: Tarek & Yo (1/10)

Average score: 3.11/10

Best predicted result: Liverpool WIN (20/27)

Worst predicted result:  Swansea WIN (0/27)

Swing: Drinkwater's opener for Leicester (10 left disappointed)

Everyone's scores:

Leaderboard (>2/3, 16/23))

To this week's predos:

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

Good luck guys!