Matchday 31: Frustration at the First

Last week was the 68th week of this game, and around 1000 "bets" have been made in that time. No-one has successfully predicted the result of an entire round of fixtures yet. It shouldn't matter which matches one gets wrong therefore, but it does. There is a gut-wrenching feeling when the first match of the weekend comes in wrong, and all the hard work* of planning, choosing and predicting goes to waste.

Of course, it may be worse to have got them all correct going in to the last match of the weekend, only for that to foil you but I haven't been in that position yet. Maybe this week, will be the week.

*gut feeling

Let's get statty:

This week, 19 people played
The most popular predictions were: Man Utd & Chelsea WINS (19/19)
The most disputed prediction was: Wigan vs Newcastle (6-6-7 SPLIT)

Highest odds: Me (5494/1)
Lowest odds: Feneley (1079/1)
Average odds: 3532/1

Best predictor: Yanik Joshi & Sam Ruback (6/10)
Worst predictor: Stan Collymore, Nick Collins, Josh Daniels, Tarek Najm, Menachem Grunewald & David Dinkin
Average score: 4/10

Best predicted result: Man Utd & Chelsea WINS (19/19)
Worst predicted result: Fulham WIN (0/19)

Everyone's scores:

To the leaderboard, and there is bugger all to see here. Nick maintains his slender lead, whilst at the bottom, the only position change is Doron leapfrogging Tarek. I, obviously, now consider myself above this petty squabbling and have my sights firmly set on (lower) mid-table. 

To this week's predictions:

Sunderland vs Man Utd - MAN UTD
Arsenal vs Reading - ARSENAL
Man City vs Newcastle - MAN CITY
Southampton vs Chelsea - CHELSEA
Swansea vs Tottenham - DRAW
West Ham vs  WBA - WEST HAM
Wigan vs Norwich - WIGAN
Everton vs Stoke - EVERTON
Aston Villa vs Liverpool - DRAW
Fulham vs QPR - FULHAM

Total odds: 818/1 (PaddyPower)

Good luck guys.

Matchday 30: This season's flying by

After a hiatus for the FA Cup, it's back to business in the game that all talk about. To clarify, I didn't post a blog last week because there were only 6 games played, and that's a significantly reduced number. As we get as a group, 40-50% right each week, I didn't want to include a week that most likely would massively skew the stats. That said, this is all about the democracy, so if you think that in future seasons, we should play regardless of number of games, then let me know in the comments with your predictions.

Anywho, let's look at the stats from Matchday 28:

This week, 19 people played.
The most popular predictions were: Everton & Man Utd WINS (18/19)
The most disputed prediction was: Spurs vs Arsenal (4-5-9 split)

Highest odds: Josh Daniels, 11,203/1
Lowest odds: Will O'Doherty 1204/1
Average odds: 4497/1

Best predictor: Richard Verber (8/10) - shaking off his rotten form in style
Worst predictor: Doron Salomon (2/10)
Average score: 5/10

Best predicted result: Everton & Man Utd WINS (18/19)
Worst predicted result: West Ham WIN (1/19 - Congrats Josh Daniels)

Everyone's scores:

A warm Impossibilitee welcome to David Dinkin, playing his first week. Hope to see you become a regular for the remainder of this season and into next.

To the leaderboard now, and as always, only those who have played >2/3 of available games (19/28) qualify. Big movement at the top, where if Nick had only waited one more week for plaudits, he could have had them for a real reason...as it is, I feel that too much praise leads to complacency, so we'll gloss over the new leader and look to the foot of the table, where Doron sinks to a season low position, just off the bottom. Verber's excellent score sees him leapfrog Yanik midtable too.

Nick's lead is a fragile one however, and there looks to be a real battle for first place this season, in contrast to last years runaway winner. Long may it continue.

To this week's predictions:

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

Total odds: 5494/1 (PaddyPower)

Predictions in the comments as per usual. Good luck guys

FA Cup Quarter Finals - Round 3

After a bit of a disorganised schedule (mainly Chelsea's fault), all the fixtures for the 4th Round & 5th Round have now been completed. I thought I'd update you all on the state of play as it stands. For those of you who don't play in the PL game, I normally do some very basic stats and a graph of results, so I'll try to do the same here, although it's not quite the same.

4th Round:

As we know, 15 people played.
The most popular results were Arsenal, Middlesborough, Norwich, Man Utd, Chelsea & Liverpool WINS (15/15)
The most disputed was Derby vs Blackburn - a 9-6 split.

The best predictor was Josh Gaon with 10/16
The worst was Doron Salomon with 5/16

The best predicted results were the Arsenal, Middlesborough, Man Utd & Chelsea WINS (15/15)
The worst predicted were the Luton & Oldham WINS (0/15)

Everyone's scores:

5th Round


15 people played.
The most popular results were Arsenal & Chelsea WINS (15/15)
The most disputed were Luton vs Millwall & MK Dons vs Barnsley - a 5-10 & 10-5 split respectively.

The best predictors were Me & Gaj Thiru with 7/8
The worst were Tarek Najm, Josh Daniels & Sam Ruback with 4/8

The best predicted result was the Chelsea WIN (15/15)
The worst predicted was the Blackburn WIN (0/15)

Everyone's scores:

So now to the overall standings, after 2 rounds. Remember, the rounds were weighted to reflect the number of games involved in each round (and slightly biased with respect to Round 4 as the draw was already known). Round 4 is weighted to 40% of the overall mark, and Round 5 weighted to 32%.

Therefore, the standings look as follows:

Still around 30% of the points still to play for, so by no means over just yet.

Now to Round 6 (the Quarter Finals):

My predictions for the winner of each tie are as follows:

Everton vs Wigan - EVERTON

Man City vs Barnsley - MAN CITY

Millwall vs Blackburn - MILLWALL

Man Utd vs Chelsea - MAN UTD

 

No PL games this week for those who were wondering, only 6 games being played and it's too complex to factor in the caught up games, as well as being unfair due to changes in fitness & form between the prediction and the match itself.

 

Good luck guys, and can the 3 who have yet to pay please do so ASAP - send me a message and we'll sort something out