S6M6: Goals Galore

I'd thought after Koscielny & Costa's overheard kicks that the Goal of the Month competition was wrapped for September. Jordan Henderson had other ideas. Then Granit Xhaka decided he wanted some too. And Mahrez wanted to show off his dribbles and City did the whole lightening counter-attack team goal thing twice. Basically, this weekend saw some great goals, and more so, lots of goals!

It started off on the Friday. Friday night games are a real bugger for the rhythm of this blog, and also screw over the FinkTank who automatically loses a potential point. That said, I'm unwilling to try and assist them on this matter due to the eponymous Lord being quite unpleasant to a number of colleagues over a small industrial dispute playing out in the courts at the minute. So, the FinkTank and others have to remember that Friday evening weeks are here to stay and I recommend a phone reminder to do all predictions by lunchtime Friday as to not find yourself in the same situation.

Special props to Nick Jones who snuck in with a 1 word prediction at (according to my system) 8:01 on Friday night, before giving me the full list on Saturday. I've allowed it because 1) I'm allowing for the internet delay betwen send-receive, 2) I'm not certain the game didn't kick off at 8.05 as is customary with TV games and 3) it amused me. Next time, let's try for a few minutes earlier as to avoid any doubt.

Arsenal, City & WBA raced through the gears on their way to comfortable wins (although West ham briefly threatened a comeback) and Leicester took a little while to hit their stride, but were never really in danger of dropping points once they'd scored against Burnley. Everton continued their good form with a good win against potential banana skin Middlesborough, coming from behind after an interesting decision to allow a rather agricultural challenge from Negredo on the 'keeper. Quelle 1960s...

On Sunday, we were treated to a huge win from Watford against Man Utd, Mazzari triumphing over a disgruntled Mourinho gaining revenge for some old school Serie A beef from back in the day. A result so surprising the only 2 to predict it were mine and Andre Feneley's mothers....regular players will appreciate that this is a rare occurrence. Charlie Austin scored again to secure 3 points for Southampton and Harry Kane scored the winner for Spurs before getting injured and then weirdly sucking his thumb as he left the pitch.

Bizarre.

Let's get statty:

This week, 28 people played (season high)
Most popular predicted result: Leicester WIN (27/28)
Most disputed result: Chelsea vs Liverpool (12-9-6 split)

Highest odds: AFM 35191/1
Next highest odds: RDM 4177/1
Lowest odds: Doron Salomon 407/1
Average odds: 6327/1 (1517/1 without the outlier)

Best predictors: EuroClub Index, Josh Daniels & Brad Allix (8/10)
Worst predictor: Joe Miller (4/10)
Average score: 6.5/10

Best predicted result: Leicester WIN (27/28)
Worst predicted result: Watford WIN (2/10)

Everyone's scores:

To the leaderboard (>2/3; 4/5)

Menachem keeps a clear lead at the top before some clustering below. If I knew anything about cycling, I'm sure there's a peloton comment there somewhere...David climbs off the bottom in a Spurs-eat-Spurs battle.

To this week's predictions:

Man Utd vs Leicester - DRAW

Bournemouth vs Everton - EVERTON

Liverpool vs Hull - LIVERPOOL

Middlesborough vs Spurs - SPURS

Stoke vs WBA - STOKE
Sunderland vs Crystal Palace - CRYSTAL PALACE (I think I'm going to bet on Sunderland to lose every single game this year)

Swansea vs Man City - MAN CITY

Arsenal vs Chelsea - DRAW

West Ham vs Southampton - SOUTHAMPTON

Burnley vs Watford - WATFORD

Total odds: 3772/1

Good luck guys!