Matchday 8: Back to the real stuff

I'm no great fan of international football. Given the choice of Arsenal winning the Charity Shield (or whatever it's known as these days) or England winning the World Cup, I'd probably plump for the former. In this post-Olympics patriotic glow, the word "probably" has been inserted. Prior to this summer, I'd have said, "definitely". The whole thing leaves me a little cold - and I enjoy watching the biennial footyfests from a sort of neutral perspective. My feeling is that I invest emotionally enough throughout the normal season - it's quite nice to relax for a week here and there. I did watch the San Marino game, and actually thought it was pretty professional - a word not usually associated with England. The Man Utd trio up top dovetailed well with the Ox and I thought Carrick was superb in providing a slow pressure from 35 yards out. His effort off the bar was also of such technical beauty it deserved to go in - things like that are what high-definition slow mo was designed for - see also Arteta's goal vs Man City last season, and Shearer's volley vs Everton a few years back. Joe Hart could have been replaced by Diana Ross circa June 1994 and the result would have been no different.

Anywho, Hodgson seems to know what he's doing, and his face isn't all twitchy and melting, so that's good enough for me.

The Premier League action all was rather predictable I thought (although not predictable enough to predict it correctly, obviously). The biggest shock was Liverpool failing to beat Stoke at home, but then, that was probably the most predictable shock. Everton's struggle against Wigan was also an unpopular choice. Overall, however, most people did pretty well this week.

To the stats:

This week, 15 people played
Most popular predicted result: Chelsea WIN (15/15)
Most disputed result: Southampton vs Fulham (6-5-4)

Longest odds: Doron Salomon 7365/1
Shortest odds: Me, 574/1
Average odds: 3092/1

Best predictors: Nick Collins, Feneley & Sam Ruback (7/10)
Worst predictors: Whoscored.com, Tarek Najm & Jonny Chernick (4/10)
Average Score: 6/10

Best predicted result: Chelsea WIN (15/15)
Worst predicted result: Wigan vs Everton DRAW & Swansea vs Reading DRAW (3/15)

Villain of the week: As with last season, villain of the week only comes into play when someone scores 8+ (or there is something so stonkingly terrible that I decide I'm going to rant about it). Therefore, no villain this week.

Everyone's results:

To the leaderboard, and the >2/3 of playable weeks qualification rule (try saying that with a mouthful of crunchy peanut butter) means that only those who've played 5/7 weeks are eligible. 

Statsman still has a dominant lead at the top, with a solid clustering around the 5 mark. Jonny Chernick and I have swopped places, and together with Tarek, we make up a feeble triumvirate scoring <4. Josh Gaon makes his first appearance on an Impossibilitee leaderboard, with a respectable 4.80.

To this week's predictions:

Spurs vs Chelsea - CHELSEA
Fulham vs Aston Villa - DRAW
Liverpool vs Reading - LIVERPOOL
Man Utd vs Stoke - MAN UTD
Swansea vs Wigan - DRAW
WBA vs Man City - MAN CITY
West Ham vs Southampton - DRAW
Norwich vs Arsenal - ARSENAL
Sunderland vs Newcastle - SUNDERLAND
QPR vs Everton - EVERTON

Total odds: 2997/1 with PaddyPower

Predictions in the comments as usual, good luck one and all. Until next time...