S14M22: Dr Bob says Smile

Double bubble as they say.

Don't know why people get all grouchy about the festive fixture pileup, Jan is much worse. Work is relentless, games every 5 minutes and some weirdo has decided to compound that with the imminent arrival of a small child. So yes, the M20 results blog could have been sorted pre-FA Cup weekend but frankly, I was having a little breather (and was working nights).

Anyway - suffice it to say there's been some movement. Not so much at the top - Liverpool are still way out in front but bubbling along beneath them, Firest are still maintaining pace, as are Arsenal, who are publicly on a recruitment drive for *checks notes* "anyone with a pulse" it says here. If you have boots and 90 mins free every 3 days, please slide into Mikel's DMs on Insta.

Chelsea have gone a little wobbly whilst Newcastle have gone hot, led by Isak and Gordon looking superb. The former especially is on the purplest of purple patches. Just below the surface, lies the recuperating corpus of Man City - haemoragghing blood into the ocean but still with a fearsome set of teeth - snapping away grouchily whilst they wait for their shark croc dunno where this is going clotting physiology to kick in in the guise of £120m of reinforcements from Brazil, Egypt & Uzbekistan. 116 charges you say now?

Villa continue to look dangerous but inconsistent, which is in fairness the entirety of the mid-table grouping - Brighton, Brentford and maybe Fulham. Then you have the eye-bleeding dross. of Man Utd, West Ham and Spurs - I've had several discussions with Spurs fans in recent weeks as to why they aren't rioting to et rid of Postecoglu and the general answer is shrug. What's better? 

As a not neutral on this, literally anything. Apathy kills.

Anyway, then we have Palace and Wolves who are bad but inconsistent with sparks of magic, and then just bad in Everton (who have been trying to be relegated for years - could this be their lucky year?), Leicester and Southampton. Special mention for Ipswich who, whilst bad, are also raw at this level, a mitigation not on offer to the other clubs.

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Let's get statty:

Matchday 20 This week, 20 people played

Most popular predicted result: Man City & Liverpool WINS (20/20)
Most disputed predicted result: Wolves vs Nott(s) Forest (3-3-14 split)

Highest odds: Geoffrey Skolnick (736/1)
Lowest odds: Hannah Daniels (253/1)
Average odds: 414/1

Best predictor: Chris Sutton (7/10)
Worst predictor: NJSPTC (3/10)
Average score: 5.3/10

Best predicted result: Man City WIN (20/20)
Worst predicted result: Liverpool vs Man Utd DRAW (0/20)

Matchday 21 This week, 23 people played

Most popular predicted result: Man Utd & Newcastle WINS (22/22)
Most disputed predicted result: Leicester vs Crystal Palace (6-5-11 split)

Highest odds: AFM (3828/1)
Lowest odds: Feneley (409/1)
Average odds: 1276/1

Best predictor: Chris Sutton (8/10)
Worst predictor: WhoScored.com (3/10)
Average score: 5.64/10

Best predicted result: Man Utd & Newcastle WINS (22/22)
Worst predicted result: Brentford vs Man City & Chelsea vs Bournemouth DRAW (2/22)

Everyone's scores:

Leaderboard (>2/3; 15/21)

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To this week's predos:

Good luck all

S14M20: It's Very Cold

No blurb. Too much to catch up on.

Happy New Year!

S14M17, 18 & 19: Good Tidings

Firstly, thanks for the lovely comments from last week's blog. Much appreciated.

Weird weekend. Very low odds all round - but plenty of surprise results saw a poor score for many. 3/10 games scored 0. Unusual! Huge pet peeve is the first match of the weekend going all Pete Tong. My brain cannot accept this. So a flat Arsenal performance at home versus a very organised Everton broke us all, and especially me. I was having a lovely lunch with a fellow Arsenal fan & former Impossibilitee player and frankly we forgot all about our woes until we saw the score. Woeful and Woefull. Liverpool dropped points at Fulham, but given the circumstances, will probably think it was a point gained rather than 2 dropped. Newcastle are in a boom phase at present as is the Geordie tradition - it will not last because that's also a Geordie tradition. Big, late away win for Ipswich saw the end of Gary O'Neill at Molineux, and and equally late winner for Forest has seen a few more moans around Emery grow. Forest are having a good season though to be fair. Palace got a good away win in the weirdest derby in football, whilst yet more late derby drama at the Etihad saw City hilariously throw away a win and keep piling the pressure on Pep. Chelsea continue to be pretty good without being good and then Spurs THUMPED Southampton, who too have dispensed with the services of their manager. Lastly, another lovely late goal saw Bournemouth rescue a point with a wonderful free kick from some bloke I'd definitely heard of beforehand. Promise.

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Let's get statty:

This week, 22 people played
Most popular predicted result: Arsenal, Liverpool & Chelsea WINS (22/22)
Most disputed predicted result: Forest vs Villa (9-7-6 split)

Highest odds: Josh Daniels (653/1)
Lowest odds: Feneley (183/1)
Average odds: 335/1

Best predictor: Josh Daniels (5/10)
Worst predictor: David Graniewitz (1/10)
Average score: 3.36/10

Best predicted result: Chelsea WIN (22/22)
Worst predicted result: Arsenal vs Everton DRAW, Fulham vs Liverpool DRAW & Ipswich WIN (0/22)

Everyone's score:

Leaderboard (>2/3; 11/16)

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To this week's predos:

Matchday 17

Matchday 18

Matchday 19

Good luck all & wishing you all well over the festive season!

S14M16: 1946 and All That

 A slightly different blog from me this week. Forgive me, but it's my canvas...

This week, my grandfather passed away. He'd had a long, fulfilling life full of excitement and adventure. Equally importantly, he also had a good death - peaceful and comfortable, surrounded by his loved ones, with just enough time for everyone to say goodbye, but not so much time that he was suffering.

My grandfather was very keen on sports. He would regularly tell us of when he boxed at school (complete with shadowboxing a left jab uncomfortably close to your face), and is responsible for the golfing spark in several of his grandchildren. Later on in life, he took up bowls and competed at a relatively high level, including internationally. He loved "rugger" and I have very vivid memories of watching Grandstand on a Saturday afternoon when we were at my grandparents' house growing up. In fact, that TV often had some sort of sports on - I also remember watching Freddie Flintoff smash South Africa all around the park in the 2003 test at Lords, including this moment where his bat just gave up on him. One smash too far.

Strangely though, he never really had an interest in football. He was nominally a Derby County fan - a boy who'd grown up in North London, spent part of the war evacuated in Berkshire and latterly ended up in Hertfordshire professed allegiance to the 1946 FA Cup winners in his early adolescence and never really shifted. As reasons go.....

Of course, he knew nothing about Derby. He could tell you their strikeforce in 1946, but knew nothing of the Jim Smith revival, the Paolo Wanchope-inspired massacre at Old Trafford or the infamous trivia answer that was the 2007-2008 season. I told him this week's result - a 0-0 draw away at Burnley when I saw him this week - a great result breaking a streak of 3 defeats, and I got nothing back. Admittedly, he was on some lovely medication to keep him comfortable, but the truth is I could have had the exact same response to a Derby result 5 years earlier. I never really understood why he kept up the charade - in a family full of passionate football fans (~70% Arsenal, 30% Spurs - how North London...) maybe he just wanted to be a part of the conversation. 

Anyway, I'll never find out now. But you can be sure I'll be following the Rams for the rest of the season, hoping for a mid-season revival and a play-off charge. And when they bounce back up, I'll have a little toast (of cloudy lemonade) in his honour. 

💗

S14M15: The Jonny May Fixture Schedule

I do like a double fixture week. I especially like a double fixture week with 2 wins obviously, but a bit of frenetic Barclays to shake the tree is exactly what Christmas is all about. None of this tinsel stuff.

I often feel teams start playing 4D chess here, trying to protect their squads and this can lead to stuff happening. Goals, chaotic defending, some rust in squad players and we're not close enough to Xmas itself where the tactical red to spend the holidays at home with the family comes into play. Allegedly.

So - Weekend games were fun. Goals galore and the most one-sided Man City-Liverpool game for a while. When was the last time Man City were this flat for this long?

This then continued through into the midweek matches. Everton got their first win for ages, as did City. Carnage on the Toon and feasting on the Solent. Set Piece FC did their thing to hand Amorim his first taste of defeat in the Manchester gig, but sadly, he appears to be the first real coach Man Utd have had since Ferguson. Party time may be over after a decade...

What else? Spurs followed up thumping City away by drawing to 10 man Fulham and losing to Bournemouth. Brentford went Jekyll & Hyde as they and Villa got a win and a loss each. 

Lovely.

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Let's get statty:

Matchday 13

This week, 23 people played
Most popular predicted result: Brighton WIN (23/23)
Most disputed predicted result: Wolves vs Bournemouth (14-5-4 split)

Highest odds: AFM (2043/1)
Lowest odds: Fenely (854/1)
Average odds: 1493/1

Best predictor: Loads of us (7/10)
Worst predictor: Loads of you (4/10)
Average score: 5.70/10

Best predicted result: Arsenal WIN (22/23)
Worst predicted result: Brighton vs Southampton DRAW (0/23)

Matchday 14

This week, 24 people played
Most popular predicted results: Arsenal & Chelsea WINS (23/24)
Most disputed predicted result: Ipswich vs Palace (7-10-7 split)

Highest odds: AFM (16,277/1)
Lowest odds: Geoffrey Skolnick (1786/1)
Average odds: 6325/1

Best predictor: Massey Ratings (8/10)
Worst predictor: Loads of us (4/10)
Average score: 5.17/10

Best predicted results: Arsenal & Chelsea WINS (23/24)
Worst predicted result: Newcastle vs Liverpool DRAW (2/24)

Everyone's score:

Leaderboard (>2/3; /)

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To this week's predos:

Good luck all

S14M13-14: Advent Football

Gosh you lot.

Can't a man cook a lovely steak'n'ale pie without being harangued.

What happened last week? Wonderful stuff all round.

Maresca got his revenge at New Filbert St. Maresca's Revenge - sounds like something you'd get after eating some dogy food at a trattoria in Naples. Brighton won the South Coast battle - registering yet again my immense love for Joao Pedro on this medium. Superb player, would love to see him in the Arsenal squad from Jan.

Speaking of Arsenal, an excellent win, driven by Odegaard vs a Forest team who were unexpectedly poor given their great start to the season. Draws at Goodison & Villa Park will be swept over whilst the shock result of the weekend was a massive 4-1 win for Wolves at Fulham.

Why a bigger shock than at City you ask? 1) 5 in a row. Eeesh. 2) Spurs are the hoodoo team. Bizarrely. But that was big. Do Feyenoord come back from 3-0 down without the hit to the aura? Dunno

Amorim got his first win vs Ipswich in a comfortable game. Oh. no. Never write your headline before fulltime.

Southampton did their bit to gift Liverpool 3 points over and over. That Mane money still sitting pretty. Finally, big win for West Ham up at Newcastle. They were looking to be in a little trouble early on so need to create some distance.

S14M12: Four Month Run

Oh yeah, it's back. And no stupid breaks now for ages. Just 2 games a week for eternity* now.

In time honoured tradition, I wont rehash the fixtures of 2 weeks yore, mainly because I can't really remember them. Let's look forward to this wekeend though.

The real story, is at Old Trafford (game to be played at Portman Road). I have a mate, Will. Will looks a bit like Bruno Fernandes. I've pointed this out to him over the years. But now I'm stuck. Because I'm now not sure if he looks more like Bruno Fernandes or Ruben Amorim, who takes the reins after a bit of a wait. Nice easy fixture, nobody could lose to Ipswich this season....

Few other matches of note.

Maresca returns to New Filbert St, Man City look to arrest their mini-slump against their bogey team, Spurs and VVD comes back to St Marys. Elsewhere, there's a South Coast derby, Arsenal play Forest, Villa could finish off Glasner. Let's see....

*We'll worry about that in the future.

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Let's get statty:

This week, 24 people played
Most popular predicted result: Spurs WIN (24/24)
Most disputed predicted result: Crystal Palace vs Fulham and Chelsea vs Arsenal (7-6-11 splits)

Highest odds: AFM (2773/1)
Lowest odds: Feneley (659/1)
Average odds: 1694/1

Best predictors: DSIL, JA & Opta (6/10)
Worst predictor: JMAC (2/10)
Average score: 4.46/10

Best predicted result: Liverpool WIN (23/24)
Worst predicted result: Ipswich WIN (0/24 - can't smile without you)

Everyone's score:

Leaderboard (>2/3; 8/11)

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To this week's predos:

Good luck all