Matchday 26 Results and Matchday 27 Predictions

Could this be the weekend that the status quo started to work its way back into a mental season. Routine wins for City and Chelsea, Man Utd doing what Man Utd do and an utterly mental afternoon occurred at the Emirates from which my voice still hasn't fully recovered. For an extended blog on my thoughts about the North London Derby, check back on Friday. To sum it up in 4 letters: GTFI!!!

Did Newcastle show signs of a wobble setting in? Have Stoke done some running repairs on the ramparts (oh yeah, alliteration) of Fortress Britannia? Why the b'jaysus won't a pundit call Gareth Bale a monkey-looking cheat? Is Kenny back as King now? All questions that won't be answered in this blog.

What will be discussed is how we all did at predicting this:

This week, 19 people played

Most popular predicted result: Man City WIN (as per usual) (19/19 or 100% concordance)

Most disputed result: Arsenal vs Spurs (7-7-5 split)

Longest odds: Sam Ruback 1970/1

Shortest odds: Me and my copycat brother 428/1

Average odds: 923/1

Best predictor: Euro Club Index (7/10)

Worst predictor: Ryan Wain & Doron Salomon (2/10)

Average Score: 4.58

Best predicted result: Man City WIN (19/19)

Worst predicted result: Newcastle vs Wolves DRAW & WBA WIN (2/19)

Villain of the week: Officially no-one (this rule is getting scrapped next year). Unofficially, I would choose Bale but 1) I blame Dean just as much and 2) I'm not gonna be cruel to an animal that's hurting.

One-off Hero of the Week: Giggsy. Ok, so he has a wayward moral compass, but living up north for all your life will do that to the most saintly of characters. What's not in doubt is that when he finally exchanges his Reeboks for slippers, he will be thought of as an all-time football great. 900+ games, all at the highest level is no mean feat and it's a testament to his professionalism and skill that he's been able to successfully reinvent himself as his physical attributes started to wane. Now for a shower to wash the dirty feeling off...

Everyone's scores below:

To the leaderboard, then. Not much movement this week, Nick and I shuffle up a few places and JT, Feneley & Will O'Doherty move down a few places. The "expert" Lawro is nestling somewhere in the middle, and for completeness and fairness, bisects the other professional predictors - WS.com & ECI. Obviously, the longer the season goes on, the less effect any single weekend has on the table, however with 12 games to play, a sustained run of good/bad form could see some major movements.

To this week's matches then:

Anfield sees a match that could turn the race for 4th into a 2 horse race, or keep it a 3 or 4 way contest. Ewood Park sees 2 of the sorriest clubs in the league lick their wounds and try and salvage some pride. St James' Park sees a generally apathetic derby... and Spurs roll over for their biannual belly tickling from Manchester's second side (OK...I'm looking for biters there...I seem to be getting more partisan this week)

My predictions are:

Liverpool vs Arsenal - ARSENAL

Man City vs Bolton - MAN CITY

QPR vs Everton EVERTON

Blackburn vs Aston Villa - DRAW

Stoke vs Norwich - DRAW

Wigan vs Swansea - WIGAN

WBA vs Chelsea - CHELSEA

Newcastle vs Sunderland - NEWCASTLE

Fulham vs Wolves - FULHAM

Spurs vs Man Utd - MAN UTD

Total Odds: 4399/1 (Paddypower)

Predictions in the comments as per usual, if you're interested in my take on the NLD then drop back tomorrow. Good luck!