S6M37: Let's make this official

Boro Down.

Will it be Swansea or Hull to join them? In a wonderful twist of fate, the bottom 4 clubs all play each other this weekend, after Sunderland did the classic win when the pressure's off thing, and Swansea took advantage of an Everton side on the beach.

Boro joined Sunderland in the Championship after being swatted away by a relentless Chelsea who smelt blood after West Ham's "shock" win over Spurs on the Friday night. I use the quotation marks because my colleague, who supports Spurs was adamant that they would lose because "West Ham always beat us".

Now we know that's not true, and we also know that the Olympic stadium hasn't been the kindest home to West Ham, which is fair enough because they should have to pay some sort of tax on being subsidised by the public so spectacularly, but you can't help but enjoy the protests from the Edmonton massive.

"only team to make Chelsea sweat..."
"...won 9 in a row..."
"if we're bottlers, what does that make everyone else?"

The facht is that you had a chance to extend the title "race" and you dropped it. You're absolutely right that you have done 2nd best. You're right that Chelsea were likely to win regardless. But you see, 1) you've been banging on about how you need to play first to close the gap & put pressure on Chelsea for a while....opportunity well and truly fumbled and 2) football is not a rational, logical pursuit. It's a tribal, schadenfreude-laden contest where most clubs will "lose" and so joy has to be taken where it comes.

And it comes from things being Spursy.

Liverpool fans though should maybe keep a little quiet given that they've basically Spurs'd up their season yet again, without any real reason other than Mane's absence. Again, squad management is part & parcel and y'all been lacking. Should still finish top 4, but it's much nervier than need be.

City & Leicester won handsomely against teams who are really not at the races anymore - both centre-backs scoring for City in a pleasing fashion. Bournemouth & Burnley drew with Stoke & WBA respectively. Dunno what happened there.

Finally to the Emirates and a first league win for Wenger over Mourinho who of course didn't care at all...*whistles*

I was working, so didn't watch the game, but from the highlights, it looked like we had a few more chances and that Rooney loves a shot over the bar. Maybe a new career as Quins scrum half now Evans has retired #banter

I'm also bored of the Man Utd excuses. No one forced Mourinho to compile/manage his squad the way he has. No one could have predicted that a club amongst preseason favourites for a few trophies would...ya know....play a lot of games. It's disingenous from the master of deflection, and we should call him out on it every single time instead of fawning over his nonsense. Injuries are bad luck - as an Arsenal fan, we should know - but it's never really the only reason why things fall apart.

Anyway, the end of a tiresome unbeaten run and we can now focus on how Mourinho can't win away from home against decent clubs. Except at Spurs this weekend.....

Let's get statty:

This week, 22 people played (except for Friday night games which caught a few out)
Most popular predicted results: Man City & Chelsea WINS (22/22)
Most disputed result: Arsenal vs Man Utd (12-5-5 split respectively)

Highest odds: Josh Daniels 4930/1
Lowest odds: Steven Daniel 240/1
Average odds: 1852/1

Best predictors: 5 of you (6/10)
Worst predictor: RDM (2/10)
Average score: 4.36/10

Best predicted results: Man City & Chelsea WINS (22/22)
Worst predicted results: West Ham WIN (Joe Abbott) & Sunderland WIN (Josh Daniels) 1/22

Everyone's results:

Leaderboard (>2/3; 23/34)

This weekend's predos - FRIDAY NIGHT GAMES

Everton vs Watford

WBA vs Chelsea

Man City vs Leicester

Bournemouth vs Burnley

Middlesborough vs Southampton

Sunderland vs Swansea

Stoke vs Arsenal

Crystal Palace vs Hull

West Ham vs Liverpool

Spurs vs Man Utd

Good luck guys!