S7M22: I've got a LOT of stats to do...

Quicky 'cos it's NYE and I've already had half a bottle of gin (soz Dad)

Brighton vs Bournemouth - BOURNEMOUTH
Burnley vs Liverpool - LIVERPOOL
Leicester vs Huddersfield - LEICESTER
Stoke vs Newcastle- NEWCASTLE
Everton vs Man Utd - DRAW
Southampton  vs Crystal Palace - DRAW
Swansea vs Spurs - SPURS
West Ham vs WBA - WEST HAM
Man City vs Watford - MAN CITY
Arsenal vs Chelsea - DRAW

Good luck guys

S7M19, M20 & M21: Coupon Buster (Merry Xmas)

I love a week like this. Limited variance between predictions, all showing lots of group think. Then obviously, it doesn't go to plan.

In game one. Perfect. 25 accumulators ruined. Benteke back in favour.

These weekends throw up loads of high results - who didn't see Arsenal or Chelsea winning, but also then allows for the shocks - Huddersfield overturning some poor form to win away at a Watford side who really have struggled in recent weeks. Maybe a 24-1-0 split favoured them...

Liverpool, Man Utd & Everton all won, as did Man City, very convincingly against a Spurs side fortunate not to be down to 9 men and concede a further 3 or 4.  West Ham continued their renaissance whilst last spot on MOTD was reserved for the goal-less draw between Brighton & Burnley.

Let's get statty:

This week, 25 people played
Most popular predicted results: Arsenal, Chelsea & Everton WINS (25/25)
Most disputed results: Brighton vs Burnley (4-9-12 split)

Highest odds: Doron Salomon 885/1
Lowest odds: Me & Steven Daniels 326/1
Average odds: 595/1

Best predictor: David Brickman (8/10)
Worst predictors: Matt Abbott, Menachem Grunewald & Aron Kleiman (5/10)
Average score: 6.36/10

Best predicted results: Arsenal, Chelsea & Everton WINS (25/25)
Worst predicted results: Crystal Palace & Huddersfield WINS (0/25)

Everyone's results:

Leaderboard (>2/3; 13/18)

Festive predos:

M19:
Arsenal vs Liverpool - DRAW
Everton vs Chelsea - CHELSEA
Brighton vs Watford - DRAW
Man City vs Bournemouth - MAN CITY
Southampton vs Huddersfield - DRAW
Stoke vs WBA - DRAW
Swansea vs Crystal Palace - CRYSTAL PALACE
West Ham vs Newcastle - WEST HAM
Burnley vs Spurs - SPURS
Leicester vs Man Utd - MAN UTD


M20:
Spurs vs Southampton -SPURS
Bournemouth vs West Ham - WEST HAM
Chelsea vs Brighton - CHELSEA
Huddersfield vs Stoke - HUDDERSFIELD
Man Utd vs Burnley - MAN UTD
Watford vs Leicester - LEICESTER
WBA vs Everton - EVERTON
Liverpool vs Swansea - LIVERPOOL
Newcastle vs Man City - MAN CITY
Crystal Palace vs Arsenal - DRAW

M21:
Bournemouth vs Everton
Chelsea vs Stoke
Huddersfield vs Burnley
Liverpool vs Leicester
Newcastle vs Brighton
Watford vs Swansea
Man Utd vs Southampton
Crystal Palace vs Man City
WBA vs Arsenal


Good luck guys, and have a great time whatever you're up to over this time

S7M18: I need a new title

I was going to talk about the lack of "winter balls" and whether this was a regression of the rampant commercialisation in the game - a return to the nostalgic times of white balls unless it was snowing...

...unfortunately, I decided to check my facts before typing and apparently we've been using the winter ball for 6 weeks and I just 1) haven't noticed & 2) my stream was funny the other day...

So a new topic is in order...

Man City continued their march towards the title with a record breaking 15th straight wins. Loads of bitterness going round about their money, Pep, something about set pieces etc - frankly I don't care. Love watching them play and they are a special, once-in-a-decade team however you spin in.

And Mou can do one chatting about respect...

No time for that hypocrite.

Liverpool have lost momentum a little, as have Arsenal, although they arguably had none to begin with. Chelsea continue to veer between dominance and rickety whilst Spurs are also keeping pace without really looking like their old selves. Spanking Stoke away doens't count. 

Burnley & Leicester are the other form sides, along with an Everton team slightly revitalised under Big Sam, who has spent his hiatus from football with a cameo role in Blue Planet II (yes I'm late to that party...)

...and not a pint of wine in sight...

Newcastle fans are looking off the pitch for their seasonal cheer - reports today that they may have a new owner imminently. Lucky them. Watford have also started a tricky spell losing to a Palace side who really should have 2 wins from 2. Benteke's penalty shenanigans coming too late to make it onto Nick Hancock's Xmas Footy Bloopers DVD. Does that still exist?

Swansea and West Ham both picked up some points to potentially make the 2nd half of the season more interesting - was rubbish last year when we knew everyone who was going down way in advance.

Let's get statty:

Matchday 16

24 people played

Most popular predicted result: Spurs WIN (24/24)

Most disputed result: Swansea vs WBA (9-7-8 split)

Highest odds: AFM (3843/1)

Lowest odds: Feneley (902/1)

Average odds: 2188/1

Best predictors: Me & Aron Kleiman (7/10)

Worst predictors: Dinkin & Doron (1/10)

Average score: 3.63/10

Best predicted result: Spurs WIN (24/24)

Worst predicted result: West Ham WIN (0/24)

Matchday 17

20 people played

Most popular predicted results: Man City, Liverpool, Man Utd & Spurs WINS (20/20)

Most disputed result: Crystal Palace vs Watford (6-8-6 split)

Highest odds: Steven Daniels (281/1)

Lowest odds: Doron Salomon (246/1)

Average odds: 264/1

Best predictor: Steven Daniels (8/10)

Worst predictors: Loads of you (5/10)

Average score: 5.86/10

Best predicted result: Man City, Man Utd & Spurs WINS (20/20)

Worst predicted result: Liverpool vs WBA DRAW (0/20)

Everyone's results:

Leaderboard (>2/3; 12/17)

This week's predos:

Leicester vs Crystal Palace - LEICESTER

Arsenal vs Newcastle - ARSENAL

Brighton vs Burnley - BURNLEY

Chelsea vs Southampton - CHELSEA

Stoke vs West Ham - WEST HAM

Watford vs Huddersfield - WATFORD

Man City vs Spurs - MAN CITY

WBA vs Man Utd - MAN UTD

Bournemouth vs Liverpool - LIVERPOOL

Everton vs Swansea - EVERTON

Total odds: 326/1

Good luck guys

S7M17: Thick & Fast

I've already given my excuses this season re: 48 hr turn arounds.

Predos below:

Burnley vs Stoke - BURNLEY
Crystal Palace vs Watford - WATFORD
Huddersfield vs Chelsea - CHELSEA
Newcastle vs Everton - EVERTON
Southampton vs Leicester - LEICESTER
Swansea vs Man City - MAN CITY
Liverpool vs WBA - LIVERPOOL
Man Utd vs Bournemouth - MAN UTD
Spurs vs Brighton - SPURS
West Ham vs Arsenal - ARSENAL

Good luck guys

S7M16: Cracking

Goals galore this weekend, with some great games.

The Rafa return was not a happy one at Stamford Bridge, with Chelsea winning comfortably. The Newcastle bubble of a month or so ago seems to have truly burst and needs something to invigorate it, like a sale...

Liverpool also ran amok on the South coast, with their Keeganesque approach to life being ideal for good highlights packages, but less ideal for winning leagues. Special mention to Lewis Dunk too for his valiant attempt to score an own goal against every side in the league this year, The other side of Liverpool was also content with a solid 2-0 win over the promoted Huddersfield who also seem to have hit a bit of a wall of late. New manager bounce and all that...

Burnley lost which is a shock of sorts, although Leicester have been quietly effective under Puel. An early goal from Demarai Gray settled that one; he incidentally being a key figure in Iain MacIntosh's relatively successful FM17 challenge. Weird that. Stoke, who are rubbish, beat Swansea who are worse. Watford who are doing ok drew with Spurs who are not really doing ok by their recent standards. Sanchez saw red for them for an elbow that frankly might not be malicious, but is certainly indefensible, much as Spurs Twitter tries...

...speaking of which, let me start at the end of the Arsenal-Man Utd game, which was one for the ages. Pogba's tackle was filthy and dangerous and frankly I'm amazed Bellerin didn't sustain a nasty ligament injury. It's reckless, and a deserved red and this nonsense about Bellerin's leg being in the wrong place is just ridiculous. It's not on a defender to block the ball and then remove themself from potential harm's way. It's on the attacker to not go in studs showing and plant them into their opponent.

It's remeniscent of this:

To the game itself, it was very good of the rest of the Arsenal defence to preemptively show solidarity with Bellerin's injury and shoot themselves in the foot. We know how Mourinho sides set up away from home. We know they have a little burst early on and then drop deep. We know they struggle to score. Stay focused, keep it tight & ride out the storm. Don't give away a soft goal by giving the ball away and then all running after the ball like 5 year olds in the playground. Don't give away a soft second goal within 5 minutes by having a mindblank outside your own area. Special mention to a delicious assist from Martial. 2-0 down, more goals that Utd have scored away from home in big matches since the days of Matt Busby or some such statistic & a mountain to climb.

Let's not paint this as a Mou masterclass. He parked the bus but left all the windows open and the key in the ignition but a combination of average finishing and extraordinary goalkeeping saved Man Utd. The one from Lukaku's acrobatic og attempt was my favourite I think. The chutzpah of choosing Lingard as MotM...

Then, when it seemed that an equaliser was imminent, another stupid goal conceded on the counter. Pogba did brilliantly (he was so badly missed, and will be so badly missed now) making Koscielny look every one of his 32 years (75 in Achilles terms) and squaring for a tap in - infuriatingly after Xhaka tracked the run brilliantly, then decided to ignore the man he's just seen in open space in the box.

There is no capacity for face-palming in blogs but rest assured that I have done so in real life.

There was no real serious comeback after that - 2 good shouts for a penalty not given but that was that. A weird game where Man Utd obviously the happier, but Arsenal fans were pretty heartened given their performance in a big game - something that often goes awry. An xG of 5:1 Arsenal apparently at the end if that's your thing - all I know is you play that game 100 times and we win more times than we lose.

WBA & Palace played apparently. Very nice too. The Mouth Derby ended 1-1 with more penalty controversy on the Sunday. Do we believe that a ref apologised mid-game for missing a dive? I don't. Would critically undermine him for the rest of the game. Man City came from behind to win with yet another late goal to basically ensure their win streak goes on forever. Mark of Champions & all that. 13 in a row now, and if they win this weekend, they equal the record.

Let's get statty:

This week, 26 people played

Most popular predicted results: Chelsea & Man City WINS (26/26)

Most disputed result: Arsenal vs Man Utd (11-11-4 split)

Highest odds: AFM (8906/1)

Lowest odds: Josh Daniels (374/1)

Average odds: 2741/1

Best predictors: WhoScored.com & Joe Abbott (8/10)

Worst predictors: AFM & David Silverman (4/10)

Average score: 5.96 /10

Best predicted result: Chelsea & Man City WINS (26/26)

Worst predicted result: Man Utd WIN (4/26)

Everyone's scores:

Leaderboard (>2/3; 11/15)

This week's predictions:

West Ham vs Chelsea - CHELSEA
Burnley vs Watford - BURNLEY
Crystal Palace vs Bournemouth - DRAW
Huddersfield vs Brighton - HUDDERSFIELD
Swansea vs WBA - SWANSEA
Spurs vs Stoke - SPURS
Newcastle vs Leicester - LEICESTER
Southampton vs Arsenal - ARSENAL
Liverpool vs Everton - LIVERPOOL
Man Utd vs Man City - MAN CITY

Good luck guys

S7M15: Football should become an indoor sport

I've done my turn sitting in freezing stadia being "entertained" until I have no sensation in any digits, and it's part and parcel of the game. This week though was new for me.

I mean, it clearly wasn't. Cold is like pain. I've obviously experienced that sensation before but I can't remember feeling that miserable in detail. And I wasn't even watching - this was playing so I should have been able to get warm from running around. I swear I didn't warm up until halfway through the next morning - hot showers & duvets be damned.

I raise this issue to show not how hard/soft I am dependent on your perspective for venturing out/moaning about it, but to point out that this is further evidence that the likes of John Terry - short sleeves and gloveless in all climates are not human.

So 2 matchdays on and what have we learnt?

Man City look good still. Man Utd look a better attacking unit with Pogba. Chelsea are quietly rebuilding form. Arsenal are not as awful as we suspect, but not as good as they can appear. Liverpool are as per usual. Spurs are struggling with a smaller squad than others, but that's no-one's fault but their own. Read the same comment as Arsenal. Burnley are having a stormer of a season so far, but if that chip on their fans & their manager's shoulder gets any bigger, they might shatter. Some new managerial blood has arrived - although it looks suspiciously like old managerial blood who we all hope fail miserably.

At Goodison, Unsworth signed off in style with a Wazza hat-trick, ably assisted by Joe Hart for at least 2 of the 3. Nice when an old team-mate helps you out like that. Moyes' career must be done now though surely....4 years have aged him significantly and frankly his methodology doesn't seem to get results anymore. Clement also seems to have hit a brick wall in Swansea - his card must also be marked. Gotta feel Mark Hughes ain't much longer for this league either...

2 sets of results to get through so let's get statty:

M13:
24 people played
Most popular predicted results: Man Utd, Man City & Spurs WINS (24/24)
Most disputed result: Liverpool vs Chelsea (8-8-8 split)

Highest odds: Doron Salomon (1433/1)
Lowest odds: Josh Daniels (600/1)
Average odds: 1017/1

Best predictor: Doron (9/10)
Worst predictor: Loads of us (4/10)
Average score: 5.33/10

Best predicted results: Man Utd & Man City WINS (24/24)
Worst predicted result: Spurs vs WBA DRAW (0/24)

M14:
24 people played
Most popular predicted results: Arsenal, Man City & Chelsea WINS (24/24)
Most disputed results: WBA vs Newcastle & Everton vs West Ham (9-7-8 split)

Highest odds: AFM (723/1)
Lowest odds: Doron Salomon (271/1)
Average odds: 602/1

Best predictor: Nick Collins (9/10)
Worst predictors: Matt Abbott & Nick Jones (4/10)
Average score: 6.17/10

Best predicted results: Arsenal, Man City & Chelsea WINS (24/24)
Worst predicted result: Leicester WIN (2/24)

Everyone's results:

Leaderboard (>2/3; 10/14)

This week's predos:

Chelsea vs Newcastle - CHELSEA
Brighton vs Liverpool - LIVERPOOL
Everton vs Huddersfield - EVERTON
Leicester vs Burnley - DRAW
Stoke vs Swansea - STOKE
Watford vs Spurs - SPURS
WBA vs Crystal Palace - WBA
Arsenal vs Man Utd - DRAW
Bournemouth vs Southampton - BOURNEMOUTH
Man City vs West Ham - MAN CITY

Total odds: 776/1

Good luck guys

S7M14: Don't push your luck

I'm not bloody Amazon Prime. No chance of a 2 day turn around in these parts.

Weekday predos:

Brighton vs Crystal Palace - DRAW
Leicester vs Spurs - SPURS
Watford vs Man Utd - MAN UTD
WBA vs Newcastle - DRAW
Arsenal vs Huddersfield - ARSENAL
Bournemouth vs Burnley - BOURNEMOUTH
Chelsea vs Swansea - CHELSEA
Everton vs West Ham - EVERTON
Man City vs Southampton - MAN CITY
Stoke vs Liverpool - LIVERPOOL

Weekend predos & results to follow

S7M13: It's Happened Again (not that one)

The average odds for a 10 match accumulator in Season 1 of Impossibilitee were around 3000/1. With an average of 25 players per week, that's 950 bets a year. Except it's not 'cos often a gameweek isn't included but bear with me. We're 6 1/3 seasons in, so that's a little over 6000 opportunities, so we'd expect 2 maximums in this time period, which is exactly what we had - with 2 on the same week a few years ago (FT, ECI).

Well, we're now ahead of the curve. Sam Ruback's previous life highlight was arguably seeing Alex Song's Range Rover. Well no more amigos, time for a change to that twitter bio...

(I was tempted to use a gif of a certain German playmaker enjoying a brew but didn't want anyone to be upset by it...)

It makes me so proud watching y'all spread your wings and improve. Average weekly score of 6.84 with 25 players. Pretty damn good folks. Give yourselves all a round of applause (Nacho style).

The weekend kicked off with a cracker of a Derby at the Emirates. The footballing karma equalised itself at the earliest opportunity, with Arsenal deserving the win, but benefiting from a mistake from the officials. Callum Wilson showed his touch hadn't deserted him during his injury layoff, burying Huddersfield. Burnley & Man City continued their good form, as did Chelsea & Watford. Pogba inspired Man Utd on his return from injury, whilst Salah et al destroyed a blunt Southampton. Dodgy reffing reared its head on the South coast, denying Brighton a penalty in their draw with Stoke, whilst Everton also drew with Palace, Niasse getting both goals, along with a now confirmed history-making 2 match ban for diving. Stupid rule that, as previously discussed.

Let's get statty:

Matchday 11
24 people played
Most popular predicted result: Spurs WIN (24/24)
Most disputed result: Huddersfield vs WBA (11-6-7 split)

Highest odds: Josh Daniels (29,389/1)
Lowest odds: Feneley (4965/1)
Average odds: 11,476/1

Best predictor: 4 of yous (6/10)
Worst predictors: Nick Taylor-Collins (2/10)
Average score: 4.40/10

Best predicted result: Spurs WIN (24/24)
Worst predicted result: Bournemouth WIN (2/24)

Matchday 12
25 people played
Most popular predicted result: Man Utd WIN (25/25)
Most disputed result: Crystal Palace vs Everton (9-8-8 split)

Highest odds: Josh Daniels (5739/1)
Lowest odds: Doron (1412/1)
Average odds: 2915/1

Best predictor: Sam Ruback (10/10)
Worst predictors: Joe Abbott, Steven Daniels & Menachem Grunewald (5/10)
Average score: 6.84/10

Best predicted result: Man Utd WIN (25/25)
Worst predicted result: Brighton vs Stoke DRAW (6/25)

Everyone's results:

To the leaderboard (>2/3; 9/12)

To this week's predos - remember the Friday night game!:

West Ham vs Leicester - LEICESTER
Crystal Palace vs Stoke - CRYSTAL PALACE
Man Utd vs Brighton - MAN UTD
Newcastle vs Watford - NEWCASTLE
Swansea vs Bournemouth - BOURNEMOUTH
Spurs vs WBA  - SPURS
Liverpool vs Chelsea - CHELSEA
Southampton vs Everton - DRAW
Burnley vs Arsenal - ARSENAL
Huddersfield vs Man City - MAN CITY

Good luck guys

S7M12: Might need a scarf for this weekend

Unfortunately work's run away from me this week so haven't had a chance to do the stats from before the international break.

So just the predos for now...check back next week for the whole thang

Arsenal vs Spurs - DRAW
Bournemouth vs Huddersfield - BOURNEMOUTH
Burnley vs Swansea - BURNLEY
Crystal Palace vs Everton - DRAW
Leicester vs Man City - MAN CITY
Liverpool vs Southampton - LIVERPOOL
WBA vs Chelsea - CHELSEA
Man Utd vs Newcastle - MAN UTD
Watford vs West Ham - WATFORD
Brighton vs Stoke - BRIGHTON

S7M11: Pep Rally

The early game was the much-hyped near-top of the table clash between Mourinho's grizzled lot & the young Poch project, playing the role of Hollywood hero. Frankly, in these games, the script often doesn't go the way of the public hope. The public probably being anyone in North London, because whilst those of a white persuasion had the obvious investment, those on the red team were stuck between a rock and a hard place, only a much worse version.

Anyway, Veterans 1-0 Yoof.

Then to London. West Ham thought they'd relieved some pressure on Bilic...well...Joe Hart had relieved some pressure on Bilic but Antoniio dithered, Zaha didn't and Palace had their 4th goal and 4th point of the season.

Arsenal won their 13th game in a row at home - stadium record that, coming form behind to beat a Swansea side really struggling to get going this season. Liverpool won comfortably against Huddersfield, as did City against WBA to register the best start to a league season from any side. 2 late goals there didn't really reflect the game.

Tight away wins for Stoke at Watford & Chelsea at Bournemouth both come as welcome relief (not that there's ever a bad time to win away) whilst honours even on the south coast.

Everton's woes continued as new boss Puel won on debut for Leicester, and then Burnley won a tight game to best Newcastle and keep their great start to the season going.

Let's get statty:

This week, 25 people played
Most popular predicted results: Man City & Liverpool WINS (25/25)
Most disputed prediction: Burnley vs Newcastle (7-10-8 split respectively)

Highest odds:  Doron Salomon 1249/1
Lowest odds: Steven Daniels 601/1
Average odds: 829/1

Best predictors: David Brickman & Josh Gaon (9/10)
Lowest predictors: Me & Matt Abbott (4/10)
Average score: 6.28/10

Best predicted results: Man City & Liverpool WINS (25/25)
Worst predicted result: Stoke WIN (0/25)


Everyone's scores:

Leaderboard (>2/3; 7/10)

This week's predos:

Stoke vs Leicester - LEICESTER

Huddersfield vs WBA - HUDDERSFIELD

Newcastle vs Bournemouth - NEWCASTLE

Southampton vs Burnley - BURNLEY

Swansea vs Brighton - DRAW

West Ham vs Liverpool - LIVERPOOL

Spurs vs Crystal Palace - SPURS

Man City vs Arsenal - DRAW

Chelsea vs Man Utd - MAN UTD

Everton vs Watford - EVERTON

Good luck guys

S7M10: Kooey

Nearly a quarter of the way through the season and we're starting to see the usual stratification at the top. Man City are the only unbeaten side left and have opened a 5 point lead at the top after Man Utd stumbled, losing to Huddersfield. Must. Not. Laugh. Again.

Chelsea overcame Watford in a hard-fought game whilst North London battered Liverpool twice in 2 hours. On Friday night (grrrrr), Brighton got a great result, beating West Ham at the Taxpayer Arena, and their weekend got even better when Crystal Palace reverted to type, losing to Newcastle.

Leicester, Bournemouth & Southampton also won. Not much to add there.

Crystal Palace really are in trouble. The others  in the bottom few places all have mitigation, but I reckon Stoke are also in for a tough year.

Let's get statty:

This week, 25 people played
Most popular predicted result: Man City WIN (25/25)
Most disputed result: Newcastle vs Crystal Palace (16-6-3 split)

Highest odds: Doron Salomon (3204/1)
Lowest odds: Josh Daniels (317/1)
Average odds: 1101/1

Best predictor: Joni Kleiman (7/10)
Worst predictor: Matt Abbott (3/10)
Average score: 4.72/10

Best predicted result: Man City WIN (25/25)
Worst predicted results: Brighton & Huddersfield WINS (0/25)

Everyone's scores:

Leaderboard (>2/3 weeks; 7/9)

Matchday 10 predos:

Man Utd vs Spurs - DRAW

Arsenal vs Swansea - ARSENAL

Crystal Palace vs West Ham - WEST HAM

Liverpool vs Huddersfield - LIVERPOOL

Watford vs Stoke - WATFORD

WBA vs Man City - MAN CITY

Bournemouth vs Chelsea - CHELSEA

Brighton vs Southampton - BRIGHTON

Leicester vs Everton - DRAW

Burnley vs Newcastle - NEWCASTLE

Good luck guys!

S7M9: The ghost of George Past

I'm gonna start with something blindingly obvious. Man City are a bloody good football team. Guardiola is a bloody good coach. I love watching them play and given the utter disaster that is football in N5, I hope they win the league. Interesting fact: Arsenal's stadium is in N7, but the head office, literally 150m over the bridge is in N5. And you lot think I don't research the drivel that I put out...oh no...this is me prepared...

Anyway, Kevin de Bruyne makes me do funny things. In a not-at-all-clunky-segue, Klopp does funny things too. His Liverpool side were the better team against the most-predictable Mourinho performance of all time. So awfully negative so frequently, and it's barely defensible when it works. It's indefensible when you spend that much and it doesn't. Boo urns.

The Claret & blue derby ended all square as did the some sort of Midlands derby on the Monday & the longest geographical range match between Southampton & Newcastle. Fun fact guys: I ALWAYS go for a home win in this fixture (and it's inverse) because I figure the major travel cooped up in a coach the day before will impact on performance. I refuse to change this view knowing full well that they fly down in an hour or so of comparative luxury. To my detriment however...

Swansea won convincingly against a Huddersfield side regressing after a great start, Spurs won at Wembley which is a shame as that albatross would have been nice to have continued indefinitely. Crystal Palace finally recorded a goal, but it wasn't theirs, so they decided to double up, beating a Chelsea side who are looking a little lost this season. Maybe John Terry went all Bela Gutmann and cursed them when he left...

Brighton & Everton also drew. I have nothing else to add.

Finally to Arsenal arsenaling it up. Let's be clear. Watford deserved as little as we did. They were woeful for the vast majority of the game, and it all hinged on 90 seconds where Ozil missed a sitter and then Richarlison dived and won a penalty. The reaction on the pitch was indefensible and no qualms about that.

I am qualmful however about the ridiculous retrospective panel. It's a farce even if it did work, which it doesn't. How does a retrospective ban undo a huge in game swing? What if it was a last minute of the cup final situation?

Only one answer to this scenario - learn from every other bloody sport and use in-game video replay. Italy manage to use it in Serie A to great effect in the Juve-Lazio game on the same weekend and nobody complained. Get these decisions right at the time for the love of Dennis.

Let's get statty:

This week, 24 people played
Most popular predicted results: Chelsea, Man City & Spurs WINS (24/24)
Most disputed result: Brighton vs Everton (8-7-9 split)

Highest odds: Steven Daniels 8478/1
Lowest odds: Josh Daniels 795/1
Average odds: 2891/1

Best predictors: Loads of yous (6/10)
Worst predictors: Me & Tarek (2/10)
Average score: 4.08/10

Best predicted results: Man City & Spurs WINS (24/24)
Worst predicted result: Palace WIN (0/24)

Everyone's result:

Leaderboard (>2/3 weeks; 6/8)

Matchday 9 predictions:

West Ham vs Brighton - WEST HAM

Chelsea vs Watford - DRAW

Huddersfield vs Man Utd - MAN UTD

Man City vs Burnley - MAN CITY

Newcastle vs Crystal Palace - NEWCASTLE

Stoke vs Bournemouth - STOKE

Swansea vs Leicester - SWANSEA

Southampton vs WBA - SOUTHAMPTON

Everton vs Arsenal - ARSENAL

Spurs vs Liverpool - SPURS

Good luck guys!

S7M8: and it was all orange

Seasons haven't really been a thing this year. The summer was pretty meh, and so far September and October have continued the meh. Dry meh, which is good, but wet meh isn't really meh. It's a whole other sound.

However, I've noticed that the leaves are changing now, and the evenings are shorter and this means I might have to break out a coat soon. This is all very interesting to everyone I'm sure, but the thing is that I haven't watched a minute of international football and couldn't really tell you what's happened over the last week. Obviously some teams have qualified for the World Cup in Russia next summer (which will probably be colder) but I'm basically ignoring that tournament as much as possible, along with the Qatar effort 5 years hence. It's all I can do as a fan to register my disgust at how the whole episode has been conducted.

This is a crying shame as one of my earliest football memories is the USA World Cup in 1994, with a Gary Lineker wall chart - I've mentioned this before elsewhere. Now the Impossibilibaby is here, he needs brainwashing in all things football. Courtesy of his aunt, he's got his first kit (loves the Iwobes) and there's no doubt he'll be immersed in the Gooner world should the world continue to exist (both Gooner and literal Planet Earth), but the World Cup in 2022 would be perfect for a nearly 5 year old to start getting stuck in via the modern iteration of a Gary Lineker wall chart. And because of the sheer arseholery of FIFA, and in fairness, the world in general in putting mammon ahead of all else, I've been robbed of that, and whilst he doesn't know it yet, so has he.

As John Betjeman might now write, "Come friendly bombs, fall on Qatar..."

Come for the predictions, stay for the depressing blog...

Not going to recap the results from the last PL weekend.

Let's get statty:

24 people played
Most popular predicted results: Man Utd & Arsenal WINS (24/24)
Most disputed result: WBA vs Watford & Chelsea vs Man City (5-9-10 & 10-9-5 split respectively)

Highest odds: AFM 15,300/1
Lowest odds: Doron Salomon 1165/1
Average odds: 5185/1

Best predictors: Matt Abbott, AFM & Ben Knight (7/10)
Worst predictors: Loads, (4/10)
Average score: 5.38/10

Best predicted results: Man Utd & Arsenal WINS (24/24)
Worst predicted result: Burnley WIN (1/24 - AFM gets the gold star)

Everyone's results:

Leaderboard (>2/3 weeks; 5/7)

To this week's predictions:

Liverpool vs Man Utd - MAN UTD
Burnley vs West Ham - BURNLEY
Crystal Palace vs Cheslea - CHELSEA
Man City vs Stoke - MAN CITY
Swansea vs Huddersfield - DRAW
Spurs vs Bournemouth - SPURS
Watford vs Arsenal - ARSENAL
Brighton vs Everton - BRIGHTON
Southampton vs Newcastle - NEWCASTLE
Leicester vs WBA - LEICESTER

Total odds: 1831/1

Good luck guys

S7M7: Brasso orders spike in Cheshire

Apologies for last week folks. That placeholder stayed there all alone, munching on a breadstick, refreshing a glass of tapwater whilst fending off progressively more pitying enquiries from wait staff as to whether they wanted to place their order.

Sorry babe. Something came up at work. Let's reschedule yeah? x

Er yeah. Great metaphors aside, it's all getting a bit tasty oop north. Guardiola has found his feet - they were being hidden by average full backs, but now unleashed, his City side are storming. Surprisingly enough, the other big spenders in the league & the city are also flying - Lukaku hasn't missed a beat stepping up whilst many of last year's cast have improved. A difficult performance at bogey team Southampton appears ominously like the cliched 'mark of Champions'. Liverpool managed to win, just about in a classic Liverpool performance at Leicester, where Vardy's rubbish penalty technique has finally been sussed. Everton also recovered somewhat to beat a Bournemouth side in real trouble at home. Burnley & Huddersfield did some War of the Roses reenactment or something 'cos they weren't playing elite level football amiright...

Wandering down south (I feel like a weatherman), to the taxpayer stadium, Spurs gave their annual charity to an awful side - hope of a comeback with 2 late goals and a red card for Aurier. The game also saw a significant milestone - Eriksen overtook Lord Bendtner as the all time top scoring Dane in the Premier League. Poor form from the Danish peon. Chelsea hammered a Stoke side who seem to have lost their identity - Morata sticking 3 fingers up at his critics. Watford will be happy with a late smash'n'grab from Wales with the Boy from Brazil grabbing the winner.

Late weekend games saw Brighton puncturing the Newcastle resurgence with a lovely goal from Hemed, who then decided to book a nice family break for a few weeks to celebrate, but work wouldn't give him the time off so what's a guy to do?

Arsenal beat WBA quite comfortably but admittedly some of that comfort comes from Tony Pulis' fury at the failure to award a penalty when Mustafi absolutely took Rodriguez out at 0-0. Oh well.

For what it's worth TP, there were at least 2 Arsenal pens not given and a red for Dawson that seemed to be ignored in your post-match interview, so yeah...gums be hushed son...

Let's get statty:

Matchday 5

This week 24 people played
Most popular predicted result: Man Utd, Man City, Liverpool & Spurs WINS (24/24)
Most disputed result: Crystal Palace vs Southampton (12-6-6 split)

Highest odds: Doron 3249/1
Lowest odds: Steven D 1261/1
Average odds: 2283/1

Best predictor: Tarek Najm 8/10
Worst predictor: Whoscored.com, Josh Daniels, Steven Daniels & Joni Kleiman (2/10)
Average score: 4/10

Best predicted result: Man Utd & Man City WINS (24/24)
Worst predicted result: Liverpool vs Burnley DRAW & Spurs vs  Swansea DRAW (0/24)


Matchday 6

This week 22 people played
Most popular predicted result: Arsenal & Man City WINS (22/22)
Most disputed result: Swansea vs Watford (10-6-6 split)

Highest odds: Josh Daniels (840/1)
Lowest odds: Steven Daniels (376/1)
Average odds: 659/1

Best predictor: David Silverman & Aron Kleiman (9/10) - Tomer Hemed did for them both
Worst predictor: 4 of yous (5/10)
Average score: 7/10

Best predicted result: Arsenal & Man City WINS (22/22)
Worst predicted result: Burnley vs Huddersfield DRAW (4/22)

Everyone's results:

To the leaderboard (>2/3 weeks; 5/6)

 Storming from 2 players who don't routinely challenge at the top of the table.

This week's predos:

Huddersfield vs Spurs  - SPURS
Bournemouth vs Leicester - LEICESTER
Man Utd vs Crystal Palace - MAN UTD
Stoke vs Southampton - DRAW
WBA vs Watford - WATFORD
West Ham vs Swansea - SWANSEA
Chelsea vs Man City - MAN CITY
Arsenal vs Brighton - ARSENAL
Everton vs Burnley - EVERTON
Newcastle vs Liverpool - LIVERPOOL

Good luck guys

S7M6: Just a quickie

Just gonna leave a placeholder blog here for now.

Resutls & Blurb to follow

Matchday 6 predos:

West Ham vs Spurs - SPURS
Burnley vs Huddersfield - BURNLEY
Everton vs Bournemouth - EVERTON
Man City vs Crystal Palace - MAN CITY
Southampton vs Man Utd - MAN UTD
Swansea vs Watford - SWANSEA
Stoke vs Chelsea - CHELSEA
Leicester vs Liverpool - LIVERPOOL
Brighton vs Newcastle - NEWCASTLE
Arsenal vs WBA - ARSENAL

Good luck guys

S7M5: The game's gone forwards

The attacking greats tend to take more of the plaudits - Pele, Maradonna, Cruijff et al certainly gain widespread plaudits - Maldini, Beckenbauer etc less so. (Plug here for Daniel Storey's Portrait of an Icon book with beautiful essays about loads of legends...£10 from each book goes to the Sir Bobby Robson Foundation - available here )

It's obvious why - goals are the currency of the game. They're emotive in a way that a great tackle or big defensive header aren't. As Maldini said, the best defenders don't even do things that get noticed. Defensive skillsets are a connoisseur's pleasure - whilst brilliant attacking play is a much more visceral thrill.

Recently, we've had MSN, BBC and now we've got NCM a Paris and the joy of whatever you want to call Man City's attacking unit. Jesus - both exclamatory and descriptive - Aguero, Silva, de Bruyne,  Sane, Sterling...it's a multi-talented multipronged approach to unpicking any team's defensive lock.

Liverpool, in fairness, were the perfect houseguests and decided not to even close their bedroom door. I think this metaphor is done. Like Liverpool were when Mane got revenge for Patrick Battiston

If you don't think that was a straight red, no questions asked, then you need you head examined. Was Mane entitled to go for the ball - yep. Was it reckless and dangerous - yep. Not mutually exclusive. 

Brighton, Newcastle and West Ham will be happy with their first wins. Watford's good form continued, whilst Chelsea & Spurs did as expected. Man Utd weren't quite there against Stoke whilst Palace & Bournemouth's struggles continued - Frank de Boer paying with his job already, which is frankly ridiculous. Surely after only 4 games where you've hardly backed the man's methods, you have to go all in and give the guy a chance?

Anyway, that's enough chat for 1 blog...let's get statty:

This week, 24 people played

Most popular predicted result: Arsenal WIN (23/24)

Most disputed result: Brighton vs WBA (5-8-11 respectively)

Highest odds: Doron Salomon (6563/1) 

Lowest odds: Steven Daniels (2273/1)

Average odds: 4343/1

 

Best predictor: Fink Tank (8/10)

Worst predictors: Loads of you (3/10)

Average score: 4.63/10

Best predicted result: Arsenal WIN (23/24)

Worst predicted result: Stoke vs Man UTD DRAW (1/24) - well done WSC

Everyone's results:

 

To the leaderboard (>2/3 games played; this week: 3/4)

To this week's predos:

Bournemouth vs Brighton - BRIGHTON

Crystal Palace vs Southampton - CRYSTAL PALACE

Huddersfield vs Leicester - DRAW

Liverpool vs Burnley - LIVERPOOL

Newcastle vs Stoke - NEWCASTLE

Watford vs Man City - MAN CITY

WBA vs West Ham - WEST HAM

Spurs vs Swansea - SPURS

Chelsea vs Arsenal - DRAW*

Man Utd vs Everton - MAN UTD

Good luck guys

S7M4: Shankly was wrong

So I was super organised this week. Utilising the international break, I'd done all the stats in advance - which isn't something I normally do.

Prescient because earlier this week, the Impossibilibaby arrived weighing in at a decent 7.2 average footballs, making me the Impossibilidad. Which, I am reliably informed, is Spanish for Impossibilitee - ¡que bueno!

This means I'd have had no time to have done the stats, and so would have set a new record for being in arrears during the season.

No bueno.

Anyway, I'm vaguely aware of some international football having happened, and conveniently, don't need to talk about the Premier League football from 2 weeks ago as it's 1) ages ago, 2) I can't remember much outside of humiliation and 3) talked to death. As has TDD.

So it's a results only post, with predos to follow:

Matchday 3

25 people played
Most popular predicted results: Man City & Man Utd WINS (25/25)
Most disputed result: Huddersfield vs Southampton (8-10-7 split)

Highest odds: AFM 2856/1
Lowest odds: Steven Daniels 532/1
Average odds: 1413/1

Best predictors: WhoScored.Com, Matt Abbott, Josh Gaon & Aron Kleiman (6/10)
Worst predictor: Loads. (3/10)
Average score: 4.32/10

Best predicted results: Man City & Man Utd WINS (25/25)
Worst predicted results: Swansea WIN, Watford vs Brighton & Spurs vs Burnley DRAW (1/25 - WSC, Tarek Najm & Josh Gaon respectively)

Everyone's scores:

The first leaderboard of the new season - to qualify you have to have played in >2/3 of available games (ie 3/3 so far)

Very early door yet, so no need for complacency or depression

This week's predos:

Man City vs Liverpool - MAN CITY

Arsenal vs Bournemouth - ARSENAL

Brighton vs WBA - WBA

Everton vs Spurs - SPURS

Leicester vs Chelsea - CHELSEA

Southampton vs Watford - WATFORD

Stoke vs Man Utd - MAN UTD

Burnley vs Crystal Palace - BURNLEY

Swansea vs Newcastle - SWANSEA

West Ham vs Huddersfield - DRAW

Good luck guys!

S7M3: Please check around you for your nearest exit

The problem* with drugs, kids, is the comedown.

The build up is great, excitement, anticipation. The high is well...a high. But then it all comes crashing down around you. These are of course abstract musings, and have nothing whatsoever to do with the natural trajectory of being an Arsenal fan.

No Siree...

So what happened this week?

Well Jose's 2nd season thing is going well. If he keeps this up, without Joseploding, then they will win the league with 114 points and 152 goals scored, against 0 goals conceded. That would be very impressive. For anyone who's interested, I'll offer very good odds against that so form an orderly queue...

Bournemouth are having a tough 2nd season. The backline is porous, the offence misfiring. It doesn't equate to a happy ending, so Howe needs to find some solutions before the pressure starts building. Tony Pulis maintains his 100% record and is now 15% of the way to shutting down for the season.

Leicester are doing well - they've seemingly weathered the Mahrez storm - well really it was more of a tempest. Not in any way sorry for that. Whilst West Ham continue their woeful start - they've had to be away from East London due to the the terms of their lease on OUR Olympic Stadium that they've thieved from future generations so boo ho to them.

Huddersfield are the promoted club most enjoying life in the Premier League - the only team to win all of their PL games in history. Klopplite is getting quite the fanclub up in Yorkshire. Newcastle & Brighton - struggling so far, although one fan base are taking it better than another.

Spurs' first "home" game at Wembley was a cracker, with 90s children's TV star, Zack Morris scoring 2 great goals to make Spurs feel truly at home in their new surroundings. Posts were struck, Morata & Batshuyi brought potted plants or something, but Conte's uomini took home all 3 points.

Marcus Alonso in his High School Yearbook

Another piece of nostalgia came in Manchester where Wazza continued his Roy of the Rovers return to Everton, scoring again at City. He then celebrated in the same spot where he had famously done so all those years ago...spawning excellent crowd analysis images on Twitter where we can see the evolution of the City fans in the same seats. I enjoyed that, long may it continue.

*There may be other problems. I dunno. Ask a doctor.

Let's get statty:

This week, 26 people played
Most popular predicted results: Leicester & Man City WINS (26/26)
Most disputed result: Huddersfield vs Newcastle (12-6-8 split)

Highest odds: Feneley 3517/1
Lowest odds: Doron Salomon 614/1
Average odds: 1795/1

Best predictor: Steven Daniels 6/10
Worst predictor: JT 2/10
Average score: 4.35/10

Best predicted result: Leicester WIN (26/26)
Worst predicted result: Stoke WIN & Man City vs Everton DRAW (0/26)

Everyone's results:

Matchday 3 predos:

Bournemouth vs Man City - MAN CITY

Crystal Palace vs Swansea - CRYSTAL PALACE

Huddersfield vs Southampton - DRAW

Newcastle vs West Ham - WEST HAM

Watford vs Brighton - WATFORD

Man Utd vs Leicester - MAN UTD

Chelsea vs Everton - CHELSEA

WBA vs Stoke - WBA

Liverpool vs Arsenal - DRAW

Spurs vs Burnley - SPURS

Good luck guys

S7M2: The only way is...

Damn did I miss that.

Absence makes the heart grow fonder and all the other cliches, but there is no feeling quite like the countdown to the first whistle being blown in a season. Pristine grass, stadium bursting physically and spiritually, new players, managers and kits, and for most....hope.

This season, for the first time, the season kicked off under floodlights and took a record-equalling 94 seconds to get going. The breathless pace continued through to a late win for the Arsenal, keeping the rebellion under wraps for another week at least.

Liverpool were next up and showed that defending was low on the priorities list for teams during preseason. Anfielditis - the disease that only allows you to move forwards.

Chelsea then took the baton and promptly used it to bludgeon themselves in the face, or more accurately bludgeon Burnley players in the legs. Twice. Huddersfield ruined F. de Boer's arrival on these shores to go top of the league, and the Wazza fairytale was completed, scoring the winner on debut again at Goodison Park. I have nothing to say about the Southampton-Swansea game.

Things reverted back to a more normal place after that - a Pulis team scored off a set piece, a plucky promoted side played above themselves for 70 minutes before eventually being swatted away by the City juggernaut and Man Utd & Spurs won comfortably.

According to twitter, Man Utd will now win the league. They did look good, but it's fair to say that West Ham are not the most testing of sides, especially once you get in front. Let's see how things play out in the next few weeks.

So, for the first time this season, let's get statty:

This week 27 people played
Number of people screwed by Friday night games: 1 (FT)
Most popular predicted results: Chelsea & Man City WINS (27/27)
Most disputed result: WBA vs Bournemouth (13-9-5 split)

Highest odds: Andrew Feneley's Mum (711/1)
Lowest odds: Steven Daniels (84/1)
Average odds: 368/1 - very low scoring week

Best predictor: David Silverman (8/10)
Worst predictors: Loads of you (4/10)

Best predicted result: Man City WIN (27/27)
Worst predicted result: Burnley WIN (0/27)

Everyone's scores:

No leaderboard until Matchday 3 remember guys #oldskl

To this week's predos:

Swansea vs Man Utd - MAN UTD
Bournemouth vs Watford - BOURNEMOUTH
Burnley vs WBA - BURNLEY
Leicester vs Brighton - LEICESTER
Liverpool vs Crystal Palace - LIVERPOOL
Southampton vs West Ham - DRAW
Stoke vs Arsenal - ARSENAL
Huddersfield vs Newcastle - HUDDERSFIELD
Spurs vs Chelsea - SPURS
Man City vs Everton - MAN CITY

Good luck guys, keep publicising the blog - had a few new players joining this week!

S7M1: Time to start wearing

So here we go again folks.

The pre-season friendlies are done and dusted. Season previews abound wherever you care to watch. New shirts have been bought, with a big-money new signing (unless you're Spurs...) printed on the back. Sky, BT & season ticket subscriptions are paid for.

Season 7 starts, with 3 wins for real players and 3 wins for the algorithm-driven stuff. Will be see a title defended and a trend bucked? Who amongst us is going to classically overrate one the othe big sides, who have a shocker all season long, and which smaller side is going to overcome the odds and shine?

For what it's worth, I'm backing City for the league. More recruitment, more Pep time. Chelsea in a tizzy, Man Utd still strike me as too defensive and not inspiring enough and Liverpool, Spurs and Arsenal are all massively flawed. Everton might enter the Top 4 mix, but won't have the legs for a full challenge.

Relegation - it's hard to look past Huddersfield and Brighton. Steep learning curves lie ahead. Bizarre saying that - steep is a vertical adjective, and curve is a horizontal one, Unless you're doing a loop-the-loop, but then I don't think I'd describe that as a curve. My final tip to go down: Burnley. No real season there. Could be Swansea or Watford. West Ham would be funny too. But I just think Burnley have very little redeeming quality, and losing Keane will be a big blow.

So, if you're a returner, thanks for playing once again. If you have friends or family who'd be interested in joining in - point them this way. Let's see if we can get 30 regular players every week this year.

If you're new for this season, hello! I'll recap the rules below:

• Fixtures get released 48h in advance of the matchday bundle (ie the 1st game in the set) - or at least I try too
• Choose a Win-Draw-Win result - no need to give actual scores
• Let me know your predictions before the kick off of the 1st game. Late predictions score a 0 for any game to have kicked off, so even if you miss the Friday night game, you can still partake in the other 9 games.
• You can let me know however you want. My preference - comments below the blog, but you can email, text, tweet (@imposaccyaccy) or use any other means of communication.
• 1 point per correct result
• Reminder services are available via Facebook, Twitter and Whatsapp. If you want to be included in one/all of these, let me know
• If you place a 10 match accumulator bet, let me have the odds. This is purely for the LOLZ.

It's really that simple. Free to play, set a reminder on your phone along with signing up to an "official" reminder and you're laughing.

Leaderboard comes out after 3 games, we only do a matchday if there are 7/10 games, trophy to be won for the winner of the leaderboard (eligibility criteria: Play >2/3 of matchdays).

Any questions - be in touch, or look at the tabs above.

So, to the 1st Matchday's predictions:

Arsenal vs Leicester - ARSENAL

Watford vs Liverpool - LIVERPOOL

Chelsea vs Burnley - CHELSEA

Crystal Palace vs Huddersfield - CRYSTAL PALACE

Everton vs Stoke - EVERTON

Southampton vs Swansea - DRAW

WBA vs Bournemouth - WBA

Brighton vs Man City - MAN CITY

Newcastle vs Spurs - SPURS

West Ham vs Man Utd - MAN UTD

Good luck guys. See you next week for a real 1st blog

FA Cup 2017 Results

Just a quick blog to give the final tallies:

1st Place: Tarek Najm

Joint 2nd place: Me & Josh Daniels

4th place: Feneley Dream Team

Monies to be dispatched accordingly

Full results below & new season to start from Monday!

TN  46

RD  45

JD  45

AF/AFM 44

JA 39

DS 38 

BA  35

SD 34

AK 33

DW 30

SR  23

S6: The End + FA Cup 2017: The Final

And just like that, we're done.

All the blissful optimism of last summer that was crushed underfoot by the relentless disappointment of reality (unless you're a Chelsea, or maybe a Spurs fan, or a dishonest United fan who's moved their goalposts somewhat during the season) now starts to poke it's little head above ground once more, watered by the naivety that is inculcated in each of us from when football first bites; watered by the fetid stream of nonsense that comes out of the football media, that you know is utter tosh but your primal brain, addicted to optimism chooses to believe.

Of course we're gonna sign Griezmann/Mbappe/Aubemayang.

We just need a couple to compete.

No way [insert rival] can repeat their season with European football burden

Dreamers, all of us.

Very few shocks this weekend. Chelsea came from behind to end the season in style, thrashing a poor Sunderland who's only real contribution was to collude in an act of spotfixing that no-one seems particularly upset about. John Terry has shown his usual level of self-awareness, telling the media that he couldn't care less about the stir caused. Class act right to the end. The only silver lining was that the whole palaver took so long that he was actually subbed off in the 28th minute. ROFL.

Man City also handed out a spanking against lacklustre Watford, as did a Spurs side led by a Golden-boot chasing Kane who embarrassed Hull. Liverpool completed the top 4, with a comfortable win against Middlesborough. That meant no space for Arsenal in the top 4, for the 1st time since 1886 or something. Personally, not that unhappy about that - I've long held  candle for the UEFA (Europa) Cup - well since the 2000 run to be honest, and a shake up was needed. I'm frankly more upset about losing 2 centre backs for the cup final.

Man Utd finished 6th - and Mourinho pointed out that he had no other alternative. I've covered this before, so won't waste any more time on his nonsense.

Swansea finished strongly against a WBA side who long ago gave in. That graph showing Pulis' results after reaching 40 points in his PL career was very illuminating. Southampton also meandered to a defeat to Stoke, whilst West Ham can be reasonably happy with their 2nd half to the season, winning at "Fortress" Turf Moor. Bournemouth & Leicester played out a score draw to end in mid table.

Let's get statty:
This week, 22 people played
Most popular predicted results: Arsenal, Chelsea & Spurs WINS (22/22)
Most disputed result: Leicester vs Bournemouth (11-5-6 split)

Highest odds:  AFM 2100/1
Lowest odds: Josh Daniels 344/1
Average odds: 10971/1

Best predictors: Loads of 8/10
Worst predictors: Loads of 6/10 - very narrow range this week
Average score: 6.95/10

Best predicted results: Arsenal, Chelsea & Spurs WINS (22/22)
Worst predicted result: Stoke WIN (1/10 - Lawro)

Everyone's scores:

So to the leaderboard - for those who've played >2/3 of available matches:

EuroClub Index wins their 2nd Impossibilitee title, and also become the 1st player to average >6 for the season. They held the previous record which was 5.76, so a huge win. Last season, Dagmar won with 4.74 - enough for last place this season, so a massive change. Obviously, given the state of the real table, this is as much to do with the predictability of much of the league,

Will O'Doherty wins the best human award. Well, best human player in this game in any case. I'm sure he has a claim to be the best human too, but I'm too lazy to research the other 7 billion. Well done to Will.

A big gap at the bottom of the table sees Silverman wedged at the bottom. He'll be disappointed with that, and fans at Casa Silverman are already looking to ring the changes for next year.

A select table of those who played, but not enough:

Boo to Eli Daniels, Josh Gaon & Brad Allix who all fell out the leaderboard reasonably late into the season. Must try harder. Inaugural champ Joe Miller showing that was really just a massive fluke...Sophie & Jono Gaon showed brief promise before giving up - what could have been....

This year, behind the scenes, I've been looking at alternate scoring methods - as much for fun as anything else. Yes, I need better hobbies. The following is the simplest of these - a cumulative score table. Obviously this benefits regular play. 

Doron the big winner in terms of change from leaderboard position - FT & Will are the big losers. Will has only himself to blame, but the FinkTank might be slightly higher if they could predict for Friday & midweek games, and if I didn't occasionally forget to look for them

So congrats one and all, and looks like we'll have to look to 2019 before the next human champ gets their name on the famous trophy.

FA Cup Time:

Basically, no-one cares about the blurb. Let's catch up on the stats:

R6 (QF)

9/11 played

Most popular prediction: Arsenal WIN 9/9

Most disputed: Chelsea vs Man Utd (7-2 split)

Best predictor: Loads 4/4

Worst predictor: Steven Daniels 1/4

Best predicted result: Arsenal WIN 9/9
Worst predicted result: Chelsea WIN 7/9

SF

7/11 played

Most popular prediction: Spurs WIN 5/7

Most disputed: Arsenal vs Man City (4-3 split)

Best predictor: Loads 1/2

Worst predictor: The rest. 0/2

Best predicted result: Arsenal WIN 4/7
Worst predicted result: Chelsea WIN 2/7

Everyone's stats:

So Tarek on 45, Me, Josh & the  Feneleys on 44. All Gooners. All with a decision to go with - the heart or the heard.

Final:

Arsenal vs Chelsea

If you want to, comment below
If you want to keep your prediction secret for tactical reasons, then make sure I have it by 1730 on Saturday. Usual methods apply.

Finally, if you haven't yet paid - there are a couple, please do so. Contact me if you need my details. £5 - it's an extra thing for me to chase so help me out.

Good luck all, and thanks to everyone - PL & FA Cup for playing again this season.

COYG....WHAT DID SHE WEAR

S6M38: It's happened again

Ladies & Gentleman, boys & girls. Records have tumbled.

It's happened finally - a weekend of relatively predictable fixtures, no major shocks and we've set a new record high score as a weekly average. Bad times for all those who didn't participate.

Chelsea got the win needed to guarantee the title would return to Stamford Bridge, whilst Everton got the win to ensure Watford expedited their annual manager sacking. Man City, Arsenal & Liverpool all won comfortably - in City's case, a double touch penalty made them sweat momentarily, whilst "Lads, it's Tottenham" signed off the Lane with a thumping 2-1 win - as they go - against a poor United side with all of their gallian ova in one wicker receptacle.

Consider me your word of the day calendar.

Bournemouth & Southampton also had nice wins against disinterested sides in Burnley & Middlesborough, who have hopefully woken up for this weekend...

Allardici did the needful and consigned Hull to the drop - compounded by Swansea's win away at Sunderland and it's basically all done. City are more or less nailed on for CL football, and the 4th spot is likely to be Liverpool's - the only table movement of any note could be Arsenal pipping them. It's unlikely, and frankly, a little unwelcome too. A good kick in the derriere isn't the worst thing in the world now & then.

Let's get statty:
This week, 21 people played - although the FT was screwed by TWO games on Friday night!
Most popular predicted result: Arsenal WIN (20/21)
Most disputed result: Middlesborough vs Southampton & West Ham vs Liverpool (3-7-11 splits)

Highest odds: AFM (67,925/1)
2nd Highest odds: Josh Daniels (4891/1)
Lowest odds: Doron Salomon (537/1)

Best predictors: Joe Abbott, Euroclub Index & WhoScored.com - 10/10!!!!! TENS GALORE!!!!! 

Euro Club Index get their 2nd 10, Who Scored.com & Joe Abbott get their 1st - and Joe is the 1st human player to get a 10! Sam Ruback scoring 9 - desperately unlucky with the Hull train just running out of steam to scupper his maximum. FinkTank scored 8/8 for them - the Friday night games really do handicap them.

Congrats to them all - especially to Joe! There's no human player 10 trophy (yet), but I'll look into a commemorative T shirt or something. Feel free to contact me with sponsorship opportunities....

Worst predictor: AFM (5/10 even with the ridiculous outlier odds)
Average score: 7.52/10 - a new Impossibilitee record!

Best predicted result: Arsenal WIN (20/21)
Worst predicted result: Liverpool & Southampton WIN (11/21)
All the most predicted results came in

Everyone's scores:

To the leaderboard (>2/3; 24/35*)

ECI pretty much wraps it up - they need only 2 correct results this weekend to secure their second Impossibilitee title - the first multiple winner. They have only failed to do this on 1 occasion this season. 

Will O'Doherty is also likely to end the season as the top human player, although in fairness, he may just be a Twitbot for all I know. Joe Abbott could overtake with consecutive 10s though...he's now overtaken Dagmar for office bragging rights...

Down the bottom of the table & Silverman's absence last week has really cost him, as a big gap has now opened up to Aron Kleiman. It's not quite official yet....

To this week's predos, for the final time this season:

Arsenal vs Everton - ARSENAL

Burnley vs West Ham - WEST HAM

Chelsea vs Sunderland - CHELSEA

Hull vs Spurs - SPURS

Leicester vs Bournemouth - BOURNEMOUTH

Liverpool vs Middlesborough - LIVERPOOL

Man Utd vs Crystal Palace - DRAW

Southampton vs Stoke - SOUTHAMPTON

Swansea vs WBA - SWANSEA
Watford vs Man City - MAN CITY

Good luck guys!