S6M19 & M20: All downhill from here

The annual landmark that is Boxing Day football was slightly different this year, spread out over 3 days. Don't like that. It's a beautiful tradition - the simultaneous kick off all around the country after a heavy Christmas Day. I don't know if this is the first time they've ruined it - but you can be sure it won't be the last. It'll also spread to the other time this happens on the last day of the season soon enough - mark my words.

On the pitch, Big Sam marked his return to management with a point against Watford, Deeney scoring his 100th goal for Watford in that game.

Arsenal huffed & puffed and eventually blew the house down, which was a crying shame for a side who had done their utmost to waste every last second from kick off. Foster suddenly speeding up added a whole new level of enjoyment there.

Burnley won late to take 3 valuable points against 'Boro, whilst Chelsea swatted aside Bournemouth and Everton won away for the first time in ages to continue the worst title defence since last year.

Manchester United comfortably beat Sunderland, with the pick of the goals coming from Zlatan. Mkhitaryan scored a lovely flick too, but was unfortunately offside and so the highly capable officials were left with no choice but to rule it out, thus depriving the game of a gif to be played on loop forever. What's that you say?

West Ham thumped Swansea, who decided to get rid of useless Yank (TM Daily Mail) coach Bradley. 'Cos it's his fault that they bought a load of no-hopers in the summer...

Man City's wagon keeps rolling - Hull the latest team to show minimal resistance, and Liverpool decided that attack is the best form of defence, coming from behind with 4 unanswered goals to beat Stoke. The same scoreline was seen on the South coast with Poch's return to St Mary's...Delle Alli somehow beating Van Dyk to a header to score one of those goals.

Let's get statty:

This week, 24 people played

Most popular predicted results: Arsenal, Man Utd & Man City WINS (24/24)

Most disputed result: Swansea vs West Ham (5-8-11 split)

Highest odds: Doron 988/1

Lowest odds: AFM 421/1

Average odds: 687/1 (a new record)

Highest scorers: Josh Daniels & Nick Jones (9/10)

Lowest scorers: Matt Abbott, David Brickman & David Silverman (5/10)

Average score: 7/10

Best predicted results: Arsenal, Man Utd & Man City WINS (24/24)

Worst predicted result: Everton WIN (2/24)

Everyone's scores:

Ignore the FT 0, I'm trying to source their results

To the leaderboard (>2/3; 13/18)

Weekend predos:

Hull vs Everton - EVERTON
Burnley vs Sunderland - BURNLEY
Chelsea vs Stoke - CHELSEA
Leicester vs West Ham  - WEST HAM
Man Utd vs Middlesbrough  - MAN UTD
Southampton vs WBA - DRAW
Swansea vs Bournemouth  - BOURNEMOUTH
Liverpool vs Man City - DRAW
Watford vs Spurs - SPURS
Arsenal vs Crystal Palace - ARSENAL

Midweek predos:

Middlesborough vs Leicester - MIDDLESBOROUGH

Everton vs Southampton - EVERTON

Man City vs Burnley - MAN CITY

Sunderland vs Liverpool - LIVERPOOL

WBA vs Hull - WBA

West Ham vs Man Utd - MAN UTD

Bournemouth vs Arsenal - DRAW

Crystal Palace vs Swansea - CRYSTAL PALACE

Stoke vs Watford - STOKE

Spurs vs Chelsea - CHELSEA

This is also the last blog before the FA Cup game returns - so as ever, let me know if you want to join the cash game for £ prizes. £5 remains the entry fee.

Good luck guys

S6M18: Festive Fixtures

Good news!

I've sorted my technical gremlins so will replace this text in due course with all the results from the last 3 matchdays.

Just thought I'd put a quick placeholder in with the festive predos 'cos I know people vanish off the face of the planet to stuff their faces with turkey, so wanted to give you as much time as possible.

The plan is for the the updated blog to go live later this evening

For now however:

Right - here goes with 3 matchdays' worth of data. I've tried my hardest not to drop the ball on this - but I've received submissions via a variety of media so, if I've missed one of your submissions out, my apologies. Please let me know where you sent it and I'll add it to the database so future scores will be updated. If anyone has a spare copy of the Times from 10/12/16 knocking about and wants to let me have the FT predos from that day too....

Let's get cracking:

Matchday 15

Total players: 25
Most predicted result: Liverpool WIN (25/25)
Most disputed prediction: Watford vs Everton (9-7-9 split)

Highest odds: My mother (4377/1)
Lowest odds: Feneley 770/1
Average odds: 2249/1

Best predictors: EuroClubIndex, David Dinkin + Mrs F (7/10)
Worst predictors: Loads of you (3/10)
Average scores: 4.36/10

Best predicted result: Chelsea WIN (24/25)
Worst predicted result: Liverpool vs West Ham DRAW (0/25)

Matchday 16

Total players: 21
Most predicted results: Man City & Spurs WINS (20/21)
Most disputed prediction: Stoke vs Southampton (11-6-4 split)

Highest odds: Josh Daniels 55,979/1
2nd highest: Sam Ruback 6,008/1
Lowest odds: Both my parents...217/1
Average odds: 12,552/1 (1695/1 without the anomaly)

Best predictors: A few of you (8/10)
Worst predictor: Mrs F (3/10)
Average scores: 6.38/10

Best predicted results: Man City & Spurs WINS (20/21)
Worst predicted result: Everton WIN (0/21). How nice.

Matchday 17

Total players: 25
Most predicted results: Spurs |& West Ham WINS (25/25)
Most disputed predictions: Sunderland vs Watford & Manc City vs Arsenal (10-6-9 & 9-10-6 respectively)

Highest odds: Mrs F 6916/1
Lowest odds: Josh Daniels 1850/1
Average odds: 3205/1

Best predictor: ECI 9/10
Worst predictor: David Silverman (3/10)
Average scores: 6.04/10

Best predicted results: Spurs |& West Ham WINS (25/25)
Worst predicted result: Stoke vs Leicester (5/25)

Everyone's results:

A really horrible graph. My apologies. I've also noticed an error  for M17. TN didn't play so each bar should shift 1 to the right. DSIL scored the 3 given to DS, who scored the 7 from SR and so on. The database is correct, but to remake the graph would make me cry. Sorry.

The leaderboard (>2/3; 12/17)

A phenomenal run of form from ECI sees the model open up a good lead at the top. All 4 models in the top 6. I've gone into freefall. Very tight at the bottom however. Sure there's some sort of Sid James/Barbara Windsor-esque noise to make at that sentence...

To this week's predictions:

Boxing Day (M18)

Watford vs Crystal Palace - WATFORD
Arsenal vs WBA - ARSENAL
Burnley vs Middlesborough - MIDDLESBOROUGH
Chelsea vs Bournemouth - CHELSEA
Leicester vs Everton - LEICESTER
Man Utd vs Sunderland - MAN UTD
Swansea vs West Ham - WEST HAM
Hull vs Man City - MAN CITY
Liverpool vs Stoke - LIVERPOOL
Spurs vs Southampton - SPURS

New blog to follow with the New Years Fixtures!

Check back later on for the fully updated blog!

Good luck guys! Normal service should now be resumed from now on!

Whatever you're up to this weekend, have a good one! And if anyone sees a lonely looking Chilean bloke walking 2 dogs around Hampstead, send him over to Whitechapel. Ya know. For the kids....

S6M17: Technical difficulties

A quick one now as unfortunately, due to a slight computing problem, I'm not going to be able to provide you with the last 2 matchday's results right now. Aside from this midweek's Fink Tank predictions (which may not exist - if anyone has them, please pass them along), I've got everyone else either online or elsewhere, so the database will be updated in due course and hopefully, you'll get a nice long blog to read for the Xmas weekend.

So, for now, it's just the weekend predos:

Crystal Palace vs Chelsea - CHELSEA

Middlesborough vs Swansea - DRAW

Stoke vs Leicester - LEICESTER

Sunderland vs Watford - SUNDERLAND

West Ham vs Hull - WEST HAM

WBA vs Man Utd - MAN UTD

Bournemouth vs Southampton - BOURNEMOUTH

Man City vs Arsenal - DRAW

Spurs vs Burnley - SPURS

Everton vs Liverpool - DRAW

Total odds: 4377/1 (Paddypower)

Quick reminder for the FA Cup game starting in January - £5 entry as per usual so start saving those pennies...

Good luck guys - apologies for the inconvenience. Fingers crossed for normal service next week

S6M15: Sergio's not the Messiah

Regular readers will know I've got a thing for Aguero. He's one of my favourite players - everything from his running style (Oh Hi there, Jordan Henderson) to his variety to finishing to his butter-wouldn't-melt face. The last of these is difficult to square with the Aguero who launched himself at David Luiz. He was suitably phlegmatic about it afterwards (would be quite difficult to protest the red card decision in fairness) and it's easy to put it down to frustrations at his own game, the decision not to send off Luiz in the first half for a pretty blatant professional foul and then the game running away from City in the 2nd half. Easy, understandable - and yet....he's done this before. On Luiz. In similar circumstances.

So one could argue that the following is true:

• Aguero & Luiz aren't besties
• Aguero isn't happy at the minute - but clearly cares enough about City's form this season
• Aguero's one of THEM.

You see, as we all know, all the best* strikers have a little bit of the devil in them. Suarez, Shearer, and Bergkamp were all capable of acts of violence on the pitch whether premeditated or just rushes of adrenaline-saturated blood to the head. Pantomime villains like Drogba, van Nistelrooy & Costa are wind-up merchants extraordinaire - supremely gifted strikers willing to act the fool to unsettle opponents before capitalising when this tactic provided a chink. 

For me, it's a human element of the game that I love - without condoning acts of assault, that atavistic thrill that results from seeing these athletic giants with their impeccable technique revert to the mean. We all watch professionals do the basics and become desensitised - but how many of us could control the ball and pass with the same consistency in a 5 a side game? Then how many could do it if you increase the pace of the pass, decrease the space to work in and add in an 85kg muscular missiles hurtling towards you? And not to control the ball, but to then pass, move, and make the right decisions over and over for 45 minutes without respite. To have perfect spatial awareness and be both proactive & reactive - it's remarkable the level that these guys perform at - which is why they are professionals and I write a weekly blog predicting poorly what these guys will do.

However, every now and again, they descend from Olympus and show that for all the money, the boot deals, the training and the pressure - under all of that, deep down is a piece of you and me. For which of us hasn't got really frustrated with the clogger on your team at Powerleague, or with your chocolate-wristed keeper single handedly turning a win into defeat? Who hasn't sworn at some higher footballing power  (physical or metaphysical) for any perceived slight against you, or for that awful touch when through on goal.

We all know what it's like to crack, to want to thump the ball/player/dressing room wall and we've all seen players having a bad day and thought...I'm gonna go there...he's on tilt. That glimpse of the underlying amateur in the finest professionals is, for me, one of football's little delights, and makes up for seeing Chelsea win...again.

*best - my favourite. Lineker was boring. Messi moans more than needing to be evil, but is also actually not human so doesn't count.

In other news, Bradley's bright new dawn didn't last all that long at the hands of a revitalised Spurs, Palace won against a Southampton side who's focus might now have been entirely in South London, Sunderland are doing their utmost to make me look stupider, West Ham's karma for the Olympic stadium debacle comes home to roost with Alexis Sanchez having a blinder. PAY THIS MAN WHATEVER HE WANTS. Middlesborough look good against a Hull side in all kinds of trouble, and Fellaini fellaini'd it to drop yet more late points at Everton. A generous penalty I thought, but given that Rojo absolutely got away with one before....

Any other week, we'd talk more about Bournemouth vs Liverpool but I think I've written plenty and I've still not quite processed how 1-3 went south so quickly for Klopp's men. Momentum and mentality - 2 of the intangibles in professional sport - maybe a topic for another time. It'll be interesting to see how they respond to this - and whether Karius gets the chop 'cos frankly, he's not good enough for them right now.

Let's get statty:

Last week, 23 people played.

Most popular predicted result: Spurs WIN (22/23)

Most disputed result: Sunderland vs Leicester (5-5-13 split). I think. Man City vs Chelsea was 12-7-4 and my head can't work out whether that's a bigger or smaller split. The range is the same, and arguably the distribution is more even. This leads me to conclude that I really should have paid more attention in my maths classes at school. Answers on a postcard to the usual address..

Highest odds: My mother  (6439/1)

Lowest odds: Me (1343/1) 

Average odds: 3327/1

Best predictors: Lawro, WhoScored.com & Matt Abbott (7/10)

Worst predictors: Steven Daniels, Feneleys 1 & 2 & Will O'D (cracking up...) (3/10)

Average score: 4.96/10

Best predicted result: Spurs WIN (22/23)

Worst predicted result: Bournemouth WIN (0/23)

Everyone's scores:

To the leaderboard now (>2/3; 10/14)

A new leader & a new name at the bottom. Aron "Sunderland" Kleiman sees himself off the foot of the table for the first time this season, whilst Lawro's stealthy climb continues. In other very important news, I've also caught my father up. Not that I'm competitive like that. There are a few people who are a few good weeks of attendance away from joining the leaderboard, which could shake things up further, so make sure to play over the festive fixtures, as things could change very quickly.

To this week's fixtures:

Matchday 15

Watford vs Everton - DRAW

Arsenal vs Stoke - ARSENAL

Burnley vs Bournemouth - BOURNEMOUTH

Hull vs Crystal Palace - CRYSTAL PALACE

Swansea vs Sunderland - SUNDERLAND

Leicester vs Man City - MAN CITY

Chelsea vs WBA - CHELSEA

Man Utd vs Spurs - MAN UTD

Southampton vs Middlesborough - SOUTHAMPTON

Liverpool vs West Ham - LIVERPOOL

Total odds: 826/1 (Paddypower)

Matchday 16

Bournemouth vs Leicester - LEICESTER

Everton vs Arsenal - DRAW

Middlesborough vs Liverpool - LIVERPOOL 

Sunderland vs Chelsea - CHELSEA

West Ham vs Burnley - DRAW

Crystal Palace vs Man Utd - MAN UTD

Man City vs Watford - MAN CITY

Stoke vs Southampton - SOUTHAMPTON

Spurs vs Hull - SPURS

WBA vs Swansea - WBA

Good luck guys!

S6M14: Will OD's on fire, Menachem is terrified

Sometimes the headlines just write themselves. Albeit with a little bit of creative licence with regard to how it scans...

We'll do things slightly out of order this week:

An underdog story for the ages. The first man ever to score a 0 way way back in Season One, a man who's reliability issues have prevented him from appearing on a leaderboard so far this season. A man who's life journey has been a climb to this point.

Well you can forget your Griggs, your Vardy's and the bloke from the Goal! series of films. This is the stuff of legend.

Parachuting into top spot....

In the football, it got cold. Very cold.

That didn't bother Aguero who scored twice to give City victory from behind at Burnley. It didn't bother Costa who played a brilliant game in Chelsea's comeback victory to end the last unbeaten record in the PL (#diadelosinvincibles). I can't imagine the fans felt warmed by the fare at Hull in their draw, but the draw at Leicester seemed fun enough with a double Algerian penalty display (surely a first?) and a Negredo double too - I love Negredo and always felt a bit sorry for him after his single season at City - try saying that with a mouthful of Paella.

Sunday was also cold. Watford beat themselves at Hull, Gomes scoring yet another OG. He does this a lot right? Arsenal beat Bournemouth at home by a margin that was both deserved and undeserved at the same time. Lots of penalty drama left 2 managers very unhappy with the reffing display. Then in the last 2 games, we decided to get all the goals out the way in the first 20 minutes and then do nothing for the rest of the game, which was very kind as it meant I didn't miss anything when I went out later. 

Let's get statty:

This week, 26 people played

Most popular predicted results: Arsenal & Liverpool WINS (26/26)

Most disputed result: Swansea vs Crystal Palace (10-9-7 split)

Highest odds: AFM 4593/1

Lowest odds: Steven Daniels 609/1

Average odds: 1656/1

Best predictors: Will O'Doherty & Matt Abbott (7/10)

Worst predictor: RDM (3/10)

Average score: 4.81/10

Best predicted results: Arsenal & Liverpool WINS (26/26)

Worst predicted result: Stoke WIN (0/26) - special mention to Nick Jones who was the only one to predict a draw at Old Trafford

Everyone's results:

To this week's predos:

Man City vs Chelsea - MAN CITY

Crystal Palace vs Southampton - SOUTHAMPTON

Stoke vs Burnley - STOKE

Sunderland vs Leicester - DRAW

Spurs vs Swansea - SPURS

WBA vs Watford - DRAW

West Ham vs Arsenal - ARSENAL

Bournemouth vs Liverpool - LIVERPOOL

Everton vs Man Utd - MAN UTD

Middlesborough vs Hull - MIDDLESBOROUGH

Total odds: 1343/1 (PaddyPower)

Good luck guys!