S9M16: The Jester is Dead, Long Live the Jester

The winter period starts with the intensive fixture runs that can lead to all sorts of unexpected results. Obviously not on day 1, but this is often the time where fatigue and rotation throw up the occasional shock - although obviously these days, what is shock? Pipe down Feneley, nobody wants the physiological definition...

Where to start but at the beginning, with an early shock to disprove the above paragraph. A late Jonjo Shelvey equaliser meant City fell ever further behind after Liverpool beat Brighton. Southampton beat woeful Watford whilst Mou made it 3 from 3 to reverse the downwards momentum at Spurs. Away wins for Palace at Burnley and West Ham at Stamford Bridge however fall into the shock column.

Less shocking were results from the Sunday fixtures. Man Utd dropped points against Villa. Leicester beat a poor Everton about to sack their manager whilst Arsenal showed that ridding yourself of a managerial anchor is no panacea, drawing with Norwich. The final draw was at Molineux, in a very lowkey fixture that continued the great start to the season for the Blades.

Then the midweek games, and the first streamed on Amazon. Let's start with that. It was fine. *shrugs*

What it means for the consumer to need yet another subscription is a different story but as all 7 billion people in the world already have Amazon Prime, it's certainly less of an issue than with most new entrants to the football TV rights world.

Palace made it 2 wins in a week with victory over Bournemouth, even after being down to 10 men for much of the game. Burnley likewise repeated their weekend result, with a home defeat against a defiant Man City. Rodri's goal especially wooshy.

John Terry's return to Stamford Bridge was an unhappy one, and I think we can all get behind that, however transiently. Leicester & Southampton both also won as did Wolves against a yo-yoing West Ham. Liverpool won the most one-sided Merseyside derby in 85 years 5-2 and they're looking pretty good to go the season unbeaten at this rate, especially if teams continue to play a high line against their attack. How much data would you like at this point to suggest you play a different tactic?

ARSENAL BRIGHTON
SHEFF UTD NEWC

Let's get statty:

Matchday 14:
22 people played
Most popular predicted result: Chelsea, Liverpool vs Leicester WINS (22/22)
Most disputed prediction: Norwich vs Arsenal (4-6-12 split respectively)

Highest odds: Aron Kleiman (947/1)
Lowest odds: Doron Salomon (127/1)
Average odds: 400/1

Best predictor: Joe Machta (6/10)
Worst predictor: 4 of you (3/10)
Average score: 4.27/10

Best predicted result: Liverpool & Leicester WINS (22/22)
Worst predicted result: Newcastle vs Man City DRAW and West Ham WIN (0/22)

Matchday 15:
20 people played
Most popular predicted result: Liverpool, Leicester, Chelsea & Arsenal WINS (20/20)
Most disputed prediction: Man Utd vs Spurs (5-6-8 split respectively)

Highest odds: Feneley 576/1
Lowest odds: Steven Daniels 320/1
Average odds: 438/1

Best predictors: ECI & Nick Taylor-Collins
Worst predictors: AFM, Gaj & Joseph Machta (4/10)
Average score: 5.84/10

Best predicted result: Chelsea, Leicester & Liverpool WINS (20/20)
Worst predicted result: Brighton WIN (0/20)

Everyone's results:

Leaderboard (>2/3; 11/15)

To this weeks' predictions:

Good luck all