Season 8 M1: Smug as

Well hello again dear reader, and a huge welcome back to you all. An equally huge welcome to any new friends who've joined us for the latest edition of Impossibilitee.

I hope you've all had great summers without too much stress. It's flown by here at Impossibilitee Towers. A combination of work and play, with an added soupçon of newmanageritis for the first time in 22 years has condensed the summer big-time. Throw in a quite good World Cup (I cracked, more on that later) and frankly it's flown by. In fact, my other usual summer sporting pursuits have largely been ignored. Did they even have a Wimbledon this year? What is the cricket? Who actually likes Pimms? That's not a sporting question but equally important to answer. It's possibly the most underwhelming thing in the world and frankly I'd far rather have a cold beer, or a nice glass of wine or one of about a zillion other cocktails on a nice warm (scorching) day. That Aperol fella seems nice if he didn't sponsor Man Utd...

Welcome new readers to my ability to get sidetracked.

So the World Cup was quite good, wasn't it? Big teams had a shocker, Football Came Home, some great goals WITHOUT ANYONE MOANING ABOUT THE BALL BEING TOO ROUND and the best team winning. And obviously, a happy Giroud = a happy world. I don't care who pays his wages anymore, he's a gooner and I'm the captain of the Oli Giroud Fan Club (Impossibilitee edition). That Mbappe kid also looks quite good too and if he's interested in a glass of anything-but-Pimms, he's welcome to come round and have a drink/sign a 10 year deal for the Arsenal.

Oh, almost forgot...

The inaugral Impossibilitee World Cup tournament (7 leagues, 6 FA Cups and now 1 World Cup to date) and finally the first bit of silverware to grace my mantelpiece...

Now I'm a gracious winner but also it's important to note that I'm also the CHAMPION OF THE WORLD. Like Danny. There's no actually trophy 'cos I'm also not made of money but you can all feast upon this image and frankly it should be desktop/phone backgrounds for all of you, and maybe even a little framed effort in front of the wedding photo but *next to* the kids. I'm not a monster.

Those are really my arms by the way.

Of course, we should also pay tribute to our domestic champion, David Silverman who managed to go from bottom in Season 6 to victory in Season 7. There's a life lesson there for everyone, and as soon as I've done a few other things, I'll be writing a kids book about this inspirational tale. Should be out in time for Christmas and will make a great stocking filler for everyone you know. Heads up.

Here's David looking like a champ:

Those are really his arms by the way.

So to the season ahead, lots to look forward to...

• Can City improve on a frankly outrageous season?
• Will Liverpool fix their defence whilst maintaining the same output from Salah?
• How many weeks will Mourinho last before exploding?
• Spurs - new stadium, no money. Attendent problems. Could this be their last year to prove to Kane, Eriksen, Alli etc that their project is worth sticking around for? Looks like Alderweireld has already decided "no" - the first of many?
• Chelsea could be brilliant under Sarri or frankly could be a huge adjustment ending in chaos. Plus...what's going on with Abramovich's commitment?
• Emery
• Burnley have to compete on 2 fronts for a little longer - can their squad cope?
• Everton, Palace & Leicester - 5th to 18th on the cards for any of them..
• Newcastle - what are they?
• Which promoted club will have success?
• Will West Ham finally live up to their potential?

and I'm sure many more...

A quick recap of how it all works for any new players:

Each matchday, I'll post the fixtures here and you have to chose the result (not the score)

ie: Man City vs Chelsea - MAN CITY (win), Leicester vs Burnley - DRAW

The best (and easiest for me) way to give your scores is via the comments on the blog and each prediction has to be in before kick off in that game. Ie, If you post at 1300 on Saturday, then the early game will be ignored but the rest of the weekend will be valid. I do also accept predos by any other means (it's just a pain to keep track of) or even after the fact if a valid timestamp is there (ie a betting slip).

1 point per correct prediction. If there are <7 games on a matchday (ie FA Cup quarters/semis or League cup final), we don't play. If there are 7-9 games, the score is pro-rata'd out of 10. Results are published weekly, a league table using mean score is compiled after 3 matchdays for those who play >2/3 weeks (no 1 week high score and never play again stuff here) and that's it really...

I try to publish the blog 2 days before matchdays and use Facebook, Twitter, email and Whatsapp to send reminders. If you want to use any of those options, please let me know.

We started out as an accumulator accumulator so *if* you place a 10 match (or however many matches are in the matchday) accumulator bet, let me know your odds and I'll include them. It's entirely optional and only adds a layer of data to my database for statisticians to pour through in later years. 

The game is free to play and the more who play the better so if you have friends, family, colleagues, neighbours, pets or anyone else who'd like to play, get them involved and spread the word.

We'll do a cash game for the FA Cup as usual from January but more about that later in the year

I don't have much more to add, but feel free to be in touch with any questions. 

To the Matchday 1 predos:

Man Utd vs Leicester - MAN UTD

Newcastle vs Spurs - DRAW

Bournemouth vs Cardiff - BOURNEMOUTH

Fulham vs Crystal Palace - FULHAM

Huddersfield vs Chelsea - CHELSEA

Watford vs Brighton - BRIGHTON

Wolves vs Everton - EVERTON

Liverpool vs West Ham - LIVERPOOL

Southampton vs Burnley - DRAW

Arsenal vs Man City - DRAW

10 match acca odds: 3824/1

BONUS Predictions (no points, feel free to share, will praise/shame at end of season)

League Champions: Man City

2-3-4: Liverpool - Arsenal - Chelsea

Relegated: Wolves, Cardiff & Huddersfield

League Cup: Man City

FA Cup: Liverpool

1st manager to go: Hodgson (Gracia & Benitez soon after)

Best new signing: Jorginho (that Chelsea midfield *could* be delicious - Kante-Jorginho + 1 (Cesc, RLC etc)

Wadda-waste-of-money: Deulofeu (3 early highlights before nothing all season resulting in bugger all game time from Feb)

Top Scorer: Aubameyang

Golden Gloves: Ederson

Will Harry Kane score in August: Yes

Good luck guys!