S6M35: So, I thought I had nothing to say...

Hello all, and welcome back after a brief absence for, well, other things.

Thanks to all those who messaged me re: the midweek games, terrifying me that I'd forgotten something. There were only 5 games, so it fell below the threshold for a "matchday", so I'd not explained myself, but well done for the presence of mind.

We can chat about the missed games however - let's start at the bottom. Sunderland are on the precipice of being mathematically down. Swansea & Hull have kept the pressure on, and after 'Boro won the North-East derby midweek, the proverbial warbler is going through her warm ups....

It's difficult to know who is still in danger. Boro are still adrift & will need a miracle to survive. Hull & Swansea are 3 & 5 points behind respectively, but are in better form than Burnley and a Leicester side who might find it difficult to have to motivate themselves yet again this season after thinking they are likely safe.

West Ham, Bournemouth & Crystal Palace are all within touching distance of 40 points, and should be confident of there being 2 worse teams below them (damning with faint praise if there ever was any), but certainly the 2 former clubs ain't in great shape. Allardyce has reinvigorated the South London lot, who are the most likely to kick on and maybe slip into the top half.

To the top half, and I think (if my maths is right) that Chelsea to Arsenal are now guaranteed European football of one sort or another, and Everton could join that group with 1 point (based on a massively superior goal difference to WBA) - obviously the who qualifying for what bit is reliant on results & how Man Utd do in the Europa League, but it's fair to say Chelsea & Spurs would require the meltdown to end all meltdowns to end up in the Europa League next season....

Everton realistically are going to end up with the Europa League, but both Manchester clubs, Liverpool and Arsenal will all still have hopes of qualifying for the Champions League. Liverpool's annual defeat to Crystal Palace combined with Arsenal's "resurgence" has just about kept things interesting, and with the Manchester derby kicking off as I type, it's all to play for.

One final point to make before we go to predos - Joey Barton's ban for gambling, A journo I follow on Twitter pointed out the severity of the ban when compared to bans for racism (Terry), violence (Suarez) and drugs (tests being missed - Ferdinand).

There's a point in there somewhere, but for me, it's a bigger issue than racism/violence/drugs and deserves a huge ban - effectively career ending for a player his age. That's not to downplay in any way the abhorrence of any of the other offences, but I think the issue is them getting off too lightly.

I shall expand.

Racism - let's not minimise this. It's a huge issue still in football, regardless of the improvements made since the bad old days. It's still a minority, often the same culprits using the same targets. There's a clear institutional issue when you look at minority representation off the pitch but I think everyone's on the same page on this. The big issue was the who (England captain, with previous) and the punishment - pretty damn light. For what it's worth, Suarez's slight on Evra was dealt with equally poorly, let alone the longstanding UEFA policy on racist abuse from Eastern European crowds - Russia, Serbia etc. The thing is, that these are individual "sins" - they reflect badly on the individual, or the club, or even on the administrators, but you can't claim that football at large is at risk because of isolated racist attacks.

Violence - the same over-riding argument. It's not great (well, I mean it's occasionally great) but it's an individual, or at worse, a club level issue. It's codified in the laws of the game, and physicality is what makes sport thrilling. Who genuinely likes watching basketball? The issue again comes with the length of the punishment, and with moronic justifications from ex-pros and journo hacks unable to appreciate the changes in their sport over 30 years. A well timed slide tackle is still exhilarating, whilst seeing a Yaya Toure shrug off other elite pros like school children as he winds up on a storming run is one of the joys of the game. The laws talk about "reckless" tackles, with no mention of intent, and that's that. What we should see is longer bans for bad tackles and snide, off-the-ball violence, looked at retrospectively regardless of a referee's action on the pitch - something like the citation system in Rugby. And for the love of all that is pure, lose the nonsense surrounding a little bit of handbags - "you can't raise your hands" and all that jazz. Give them a yellow for being eejits and get on with it. Save the violent conduct charges for actual violence

Drugs - This one's slightly trickier. I agree with the premise of a missed test being treated as a positive test. You have to to keep the deterrent. That said, it's hard to suggest that drug cheats are endemic in football. So either you have individual idiots, or again, at worst A club or A national side who have questionable practices. It could, theoretically, call into practice the integrity of the sport, but I think we're a long way from that scenario. It's a lot tougher to dope significantly in team sports anyway, especially those as complex as football.

Gambling - Ostensibly the most harmless - the entire premise of this blog 6 years ago was built on people liking to have a little flutter, but the issue here is that 1 corrupt player can ruin a match, or a season, or a club. Even positive betting - Barton had a flutter on him being first scorer in one match - lends itself to potential gamechanging decisions - do you shoot when a team-mate is screaming for a tap in? It's the thread in your woolly jumper you just don't want to pull on. Was that a dodgy shot or a dodgy player? Is he really a poor penalty taker? Was the goalie truly flat-footed? Is the ref genuinely on the take and not just the target of frustration from the fans?

For me, this has to be zero tolerance. No betting on football if you're involved in football. Simple as. It's the only way to ensure that this is not an issue. Yes, addicts need support - Tony Adams famously does fantastic work here (more fantastic than his coaching career). Yes, the administrators - especially FIFA & UEFA are corrupt as anything and need serious root & branch reform and there's a serious discussion to be had about the prevalence of gambling companies sponsoring football teams, advertising pre-, mid- & post-match but those are less integral to the purity of the soul of football - 11 v 11, 1 ball, 2 goals etc

So, when I become king (and I'm working on it), then Barton doesn't get off "lightly". Neither do any of the other offenders, but I'd like to see a more draconian system - and don't get me started on refereeing - and after a bit of tough love in a teething period, I'm convinced that the game would be better for the whole.

That'll do for this week...

My (bonus) predictions:
Chelsea --> Spurs --> Manchester United --> Liverpool --> Manchester City --> Arsenal

Swansea --> Middlesborough -->Sunderland

I'd love to hear your thoughts in comments below...

Results from the last PL week were posted in the last blog, so it's just this week's predos now:

Southampton vs Hull - HULL
Stoke vs West Ham - DRAW
Sunderland vs Bournemouth - BOURNEMOUTH
WBA vs Leicester - WBA
Crystal Palace vs Burnley - CRYSTAL PALACE
Man Utd vs Swansea - MAN UTD
Everton vs Chelsea - DRAW
Middlesborough vs Man City - MAN CITY
Spurs vs Arsenal - DRAW
Watford vs Liverpool - LIVERPOOL

Good luck guys