S6M5: Pep Talk

Well that got interesting.

The Manchester derby was given the full hype...and legitimately so. 1-0 Pep in the battle for Mancunian supremacy and deservedly so. Working night shifts isn't exactly the ideal way to watch games, but from what I saw, de Bruyne was terrific. When I saw him at the Emirates last year, he absolutely terrified me. A superb player, direct and efficient - Pep's clearly got him playing at the top of his game and, in tandem with Aguero and a slowly-returning to form Sterling, could recreate a modified version of Barca's MSN - pace, trickery and lethal finishing. One to watch, especially as Fernandinho continues to protect the possible weak links in the defence.

Returning to my work pattern, I was annoyed to be woken up at 5pm on Saturday a good hour earlier than I'd planned. I'd stupidly forgotten to put my phone on mute and heard 3 double vibrations in quick succession. Thanks BBC Sport:

** PENALTY (Arsenal)**
** GOAL (Cazorla 90+4)**
**FT Arsenal 2-1 Southampton**

There are worse ways to be woken than a last minute Santi winner :D

My next topic is the kray kray game at the Olympic stadium. West Ham 2-0 up and cruising before Watford go into overdrive and end up disappointed to have only scored the 4! What a game!

Liverpool dismantled Leicester to continue a miserable start to their tile defence - I think you'd struggle to find odds of 5000/1 for a repeat this year. Spurs battered a poor Stoke side shorn of the ever passhunate Sparky from the sidelines, whilst Lukaku scored a hat trick far too late to help my fantasy league team.

Finally to overhead kicks. 2 glorious efforts from Koscielny and Costa this week to draw their teams level. Anyone who thinks these goals should be banned due to dangerous play needs a timeout in a dark room. Who amongst us didn't spend hours in the garden as a child willingly throwing themself backwards to the ground, legs and arms flailing as you tried to connect with a ball thrown straight in the air moments earlier.

It's what it's all about...

Let's get statty:

This week, 27 people played
Most popular predicted result: Arsenal WIN (26/27)
Most disputed result: Burnley vs Hull (13-9-5 split)

Highest odds: Feneley 18954/1
Lowest odds: Steven Daniels 1118/1
Average odds: 9419/1

Best predictor: Menachem Grunewald (6/10)
Worst predictors: David Brickman & Aron Kleiman (2/10)
Average score: 4.15/10

Best predicted result: Arsenal WIN (26/27)
Worst predicted result: Swansea vs Chelsea DRAW (1/27 - well done AFM)

Everyone's results:

Leaderboard (>2/3; 3/4)

To this week's predictions now:

Chelsea vs Liverpool - CHELSEA
Hull vs Arsenal - ARSENAL
Leicester vs Burnley - LEICESTER
Man City vs Bournemouth - MAN CITY
WBA vs West Ham - DRAW
Everton vs M'Boro - EVERTON
Watford vs Man Utd - DRAW
Crystal Palace vs Stoke - CRYSTAL PALACE
Southampton vs Swansea - SOUTHAMPTON
Spurs vs Sunderland - SPURS

Total odds: 737/1 (Paddypower)

Good luck guys!