S13M17: Top of the Tree

Festive period fixtures - officially started now? Weird kick off times, unusual days and an additionally coded fixture calculator to take into account travel & policing requests. Magical.

Congestion causes rotation, fatigue and injuries - so we often get some weird results this time of year. Like pretty (below) average beating Liverpool 1-0 on moral victories, until the ubiquitous PGMOL manacle was clamped to their collective ankle. 

Similarly - home banker for Brighton turned into dropped points against Burnley and Man Utd - well I'm not sure they have bankers, but being morally beaten 4-0 at home to Bournemouth is bad, even for them. Ten Had forever.

Sheffield United also won. What on earth went on last weekend? A rupture in some wormhole? Some football happened in the Midlands which nobody watched, Everton showed the power of an us against them mentality, winning for the 2nd time in a week against good expensively assembled opposition to vacate the relegation zone. With their 10 points back, they'd be 10th.

Fulham continue to be the Pride of West London, Luton did a Palace against Man City - it's the hope that kills you before Spurs ended their streak of turning leads into losses, thumping a Newcastle side that look to have lost their legs. Or their heads. #geopoliticaljoke.

I'd not planned to discuss referees, VAR or the PGMOL because I'm so so so bored of it, but I will mention the FA and the judgement yesterday against Mikel Arteta, where he was effectively found innocent or whatever the phrase is.

Well - not the FA. The Arsenal legal team who attempted in their submission to mitigate his words by saying English isn't his first language and Disgrace and Desgracia have different connotations in English/Spanish.

Mikel takes the stand and goes "yeah, nah, I knew that, I meant disgrace". Brilliant stuff. Who'd be a lawyer*....

*Me probably. Suits looked fun.

Let's get statty:

This week, 17 people played
Most popular predicted result: Brighton WIN (17/17)
Most disputed prediction: Everton v Chelsea (8-4-5 split)

Highest odds: Josh Daniels (845/1)
Lowest odds: AFM (385/1)
Average odds: 2133/1

Best predictor: NJSPTC (7/10)
Worst predictor: Joe Abbott & Josh Gaon (2/10)
Average score: 3.71/10

Best predicted results: Liverpool & Man City WINS (16/17)
Worst predicted results: Brighton vs Brentford DRAW & Bournemouth WIN (0/17)

Everyone's results:


Leaderboard (>2/3; 11/16)

This week's predos:

Good luck everyone