S9M28 & FA Cup R5: March Madness

Normal PL service resumed at the weekend and wasn't it so delightful to get right back to it with a little bit of VAR. Definitely hasn't got boring writing that acronym every week.

In the early game, Mourinho's return to Stamford Bridge went pretty poorly, with a late own goal from Rudiger making the scoreline closer than it deserved to be. His record in the bigger games is poor these days so he's doing the usual patented Mou Deflection which, incredibly, Spurs fans seem to be buying. Yes, injuries suck, but nobody forces him to play dinosaur football when you have plenty of attacking talent you could unleash in a different mode of play. Of course, they should be shorn of one of those talents with Lo Celso escaping punishment in a novel screw up for VAR. I have no idea how on review he escaped red. I then have no idea how before the match had finished, they'd come back on themselves. I don't know why a retrospective ban can't be applied. It's just galling how we got her.

Burnley had another good result at home to Bournemouth whilst Palace did the usual and beat Newcastle. Who are Rubbish. Like actually Awful. Sheffield United drew with Brighton to lose ground in the currently important but lawyer dependent race for 5th.

Otherwise, it then all turned predictable with Man City winning at a Leicester team on a bit of a slide, Man Utd likewise comfortably holding off Watford and Wolves thumping Norwich. Arsenal made harder work of beating Everton - the surprise form team since Ancelotti took over and Liverpool unsurprisingly beat West Ham, but surprisingly did a good job of nearly not beating West Ham. Fabianski making sure of all 3 points there.

Let's get statty:

This week, 25 people played
Most popular predicted result: Liverpool WIN (25/25)
Most disputed prediction: Leicester vs Man City (5-7-13 split respectively)

Highest odds: Aron Kleiman (4367/1)
Lowest odds: Steven Daniels (795/1)
Average odds: 2306/1

Best predictors: Hillel Chemel & EuroClubIndex (9/10)
Worst predictor: Joseph Machta (4/10)
Average score: 6.84/10

Best predicted result: Liverpool WIN (25/25)
Worst predicted result: Sheff Utd vs Brighton DRAW(3/25)

Everyone's results:

Leaderboard (>2/3; 19/27)

This week's PL Predos:



Results to be pro-rata'd


FA Cup action too however, so read on if relevant. Actually, read on anyway. Midweek Round 5 which should be illegal.

Round 4 results however:

9 people played - 1 no show
Most popular predicted results: Arsenal, Liverpool, Man Utd, Man City, Chelsea & Newcastle WINS  (9/9)
Most disputed predictions: QPR vs Sheffield Wednesday & Southampton vs Spurs(5-4 splits)

Best predictor: AF/AFM (14/16)
Worst predictor: Sam Ruback (9/16)

Best predicted results: Arsenal, Liverpool, Man Utd, Man City, Chelsea & Newcastle WINS(9/9)
Worst predicted result: Norwich WIN (1/9 - Aron Kleiman with the correct prediction)

Everyone's results:

Round 5 predos:


Good luck all

S9M27: Blossoming

Right, so after all that, let me say I'm a huge fan of split matchweeks and as far as I'm concerned, this should be the new normal. Rather than football 7 days a week which is hard to keep a handle on, and is murderous for the blogging schedule, we should be looking at this bipartite system. Plus, 5 games is easy enough to pay attention to, I can catch up on some other aural treats and it halves the (blog) workload intensity of yours truly.

Storm Ciara of course ensured further elongation of the matchday but conveniently, meant we could still score out of 10 so yay Transatlantic Atmospheric Depression Affect. TADA!

So what happened? If we cast minds back, Everton continued their excellent series of results under Carlo Ancelotti, beating Palace 3-1. Watford are also enjoying their new manager, defeating a Brighton side looking slightly lost. Sheffield United continued their push for Champions League football next season - a realistic dream now Man City have been slapped on the wrist, buttock, cheek and everywhere else for being deceptive little cheaters. They beat West Ham though, so that's nice.

In the second round of games, Wolves and Leicester played to a draw in the Canine Derby. Burnley won down on the South Coast with 2 spectacular goals overcoming Southampton. Liverpool also won away but enough's been said about them. At Villa Park, Engels and Alderweireld decided to play a little 1-on-1 and were heading for a draw until Spurs cheated and threw on another player, surprising Engels who just let him run through and score the winner. Cheaters. Throw them in prison with Man City too. Arsenal had their best win since early-era Wengz against absolute Banter club Newcastle, who you'll recall from the previous statty blog, have been even worse than their abysmal results and position show. They are woeful and Alain Saint-Maximin has been added to my list of players who irritate me for being so bad when they should be so good. He also runs like a guy I used to train with in a Sunday league team in a moment of biomechanical deja vu. Finally, Chelsea lost to Man Utd for the third time this season which is Frankly a sackable offence. Geddit.

I missed out on that fun however, as the Impossibilibaby arrived so I was spared the VARgument again. It's more tedious than Brexit became by now.

Let's get statty:
This week, 22 people played
Most popular predicted results: Man City, Liverpool & Arsenal WINS (22/22)
Most disputed prediction: Brighton vs Watford (8-7-7 split respectively)

Highest odds: Doron Salomon (1133/1)
Lowest odds: Steven Daniels (245/1)
Average odds: 619/1

Best predictors: David Brickman & Gaj Thiru (8/10)
Worst predictors: Loads of you (5/10)
Average score: 6.32/10

Best predicted results: Man City, Liverpool & Arsenal WINS (22/22)
Worst predicted result: Burnley WIN (1/22 - well done Gaj Thiru)

Everyone's score:

Leaderboard (>2/3; 17/26)



On this note, I'd like to congratulate JMAC on trying to bribe his way up the leaderboard by cooking a delicious meal for yours truly and so am proud to aware him an extra 0.001 point in thanks. If you'd like extra points, I'm FIFA levels of corrupt, so please either send me food, gifts or cash and you will be rewarded with levels of generosity previously unknown on this planet....

To this week's predos:

Good luck all

S9M26: Splitsies

Impossibilifirst this matchday as the fixtures are split over 2 weekends to allow for some R&R for the weary legged athletes. I'll be honest, I'm very jealous of this concept and have floated with my bosses the idea that we only do half the work we should for a while to pack the team off on a warm weather team bonding/professional development trip. I'm still waiting for an answer, which I'm sure will be positive.

Anyway, a sad weekend for Arsenal fans, and a few others as results this weekend mathematically ruled out the title for us. It's the hope that kills you. A rampant Liverpool swatted aside their feeder club whilst Man City stumbled at Spurs for a lead so large than even they can't let this slip...

Letting things slip is the theme of this week, whether it be leads (Hello there Leicester/Chelsea West Ham/Brighton and hilariously, Watford) or the ball (Hello there Guaita) or the will to live (Hello there Manchester United/Wolves,  Newcastle/Norwich and anything to do with Boornley/Arsenal).

Fortunately, Bournemouth just had a nice comfortable win to end this most tenuous of threads. I went back and watched the highlights of that game to see how Lerma was sent off (ie could he have been punned into "slipping" into a tackle) but it didn't work. Grealish is quite good though. Also I loved that 2nd Rudiger header. This far too much like actual commentary.

#HotTakes

Let's get statty:

This week, 25 people played
Most popular predicted result: Liverpool WIN (25/25)
Most disputed prediction: Watford vs Everton (9-9-7 split)

Highest odds: Aron Kleiman (7907/1)
Lowest odds: AFM (1813/1)
Average odds: 4792/1

Best predictor: Will O'Doherty (welcome back - 7/10)
Worst predictors: Loads of you (1/10)
Average score: 2.88/10

Best predicted result: Liverpool WIN (25/25)
Worst predicted result: Newcastle vs Norwich DRAW (1/25)

Everyone's scores:

Leaderboard (>2/3; 17/25)



To this Matchday's predos - split over 2 weeks remember:

Good luck all