S9M3: Commitment

This week I've found myself in the Big Apple, and so had a taste of the life that some of my favourite football amateur "pundits" have with regard to timings. Arsenal played the early kick off this week - a 7.30am start for me. It's one thing as a one off to do this, but I'm pretty sure that if the gods had intervened and I'd been transported across the Atlantic when I was say, 14 (i.e. hooked already), I reckon I'd have turned into a casual fan. So basically, massive kudos to all those football fans who do stupid things for their regular lives in order to remain up to date with goings on many miles away.

In truth, I've not spent my holiday keeping massively up to date with the other games - cursory glance at the results and a look at weekly VAR controversy which I don't think needs relitigating. Newcastle and Watford continued their poor starts with away defeats to Norwich and Everton respectively. Liverpool held on for a win at Southampton where the curse of the ex nearly came back to haunt them. Villa also lost their home return to a Bournemouth side who seem more invigorated this season. Brighton & West Ham played out a score draw, as did Man City & Spurs in a statistical quirk of a game. Sheffield United got a good result against a Palace side struggling to find their mojo, whilst Leicester eventually turned up to spoil the Lamps Homecoming. The weekend was completed by an absolute TekABoo of a goal from Neves to rescue a point for Wolves against Man Utd.

Let's get statty:

This week, 29 people played

Most popular predicted result: Arsenal WIN (29/29)

Most disputed prediction: Norwich vs Newcastle (11-12-6 split respectively)

Highest odds: Ryan Wain (9788/1)

Lowest odds: Josh Daniels (567/1)

Average odds: 2670/1

Best predictor: Loads of you (6/10)

Worst predictor: Loads of you (3/10)

Average score: 4.45/10

Best predicted result: Arsenal WIN (29/29)

Worst predicted result: Bournemouth WIN (1/29) - well done Josh Gaon

Everyone's scores:

Leaderboard will be released after this week's fixtures

This week's fixtures:

Good luck all - and remember to bring in your friends, family, colleagues etc. It's still early enough that they'll be a full part of the season!