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!