S6M35: So, I thought I had nothing to say...

Hello all, and welcome back after a brief absence for, well, other things.

Thanks to all those who messaged me re: the midweek games, terrifying me that I'd forgotten something. There were only 5 games, so it fell below the threshold for a "matchday", so I'd not explained myself, but well done for the presence of mind.

We can chat about the missed games however - let's start at the bottom. Sunderland are on the precipice of being mathematically down. Swansea & Hull have kept the pressure on, and after 'Boro won the North-East derby midweek, the proverbial warbler is going through her warm ups....

It's difficult to know who is still in danger. Boro are still adrift & will need a miracle to survive. Hull & Swansea are 3 & 5 points behind respectively, but are in better form than Burnley and a Leicester side who might find it difficult to have to motivate themselves yet again this season after thinking they are likely safe.

West Ham, Bournemouth & Crystal Palace are all within touching distance of 40 points, and should be confident of there being 2 worse teams below them (damning with faint praise if there ever was any), but certainly the 2 former clubs ain't in great shape. Allardyce has reinvigorated the South London lot, who are the most likely to kick on and maybe slip into the top half.

To the top half, and I think (if my maths is right) that Chelsea to Arsenal are now guaranteed European football of one sort or another, and Everton could join that group with 1 point (based on a massively superior goal difference to WBA) - obviously the who qualifying for what bit is reliant on results & how Man Utd do in the Europa League, but it's fair to say Chelsea & Spurs would require the meltdown to end all meltdowns to end up in the Europa League next season....

Everton realistically are going to end up with the Europa League, but both Manchester clubs, Liverpool and Arsenal will all still have hopes of qualifying for the Champions League. Liverpool's annual defeat to Crystal Palace combined with Arsenal's "resurgence" has just about kept things interesting, and with the Manchester derby kicking off as I type, it's all to play for.

One final point to make before we go to predos - Joey Barton's ban for gambling, A journo I follow on Twitter pointed out the severity of the ban when compared to bans for racism (Terry), violence (Suarez) and drugs (tests being missed - Ferdinand).

There's a point in there somewhere, but for me, it's a bigger issue than racism/violence/drugs and deserves a huge ban - effectively career ending for a player his age. That's not to downplay in any way the abhorrence of any of the other offences, but I think the issue is them getting off too lightly.

I shall expand.

Racism - let's not minimise this. It's a huge issue still in football, regardless of the improvements made since the bad old days. It's still a minority, often the same culprits using the same targets. There's a clear institutional issue when you look at minority representation off the pitch but I think everyone's on the same page on this. The big issue was the who (England captain, with previous) and the punishment - pretty damn light. For what it's worth, Suarez's slight on Evra was dealt with equally poorly, let alone the longstanding UEFA policy on racist abuse from Eastern European crowds - Russia, Serbia etc. The thing is, that these are individual "sins" - they reflect badly on the individual, or the club, or even on the administrators, but you can't claim that football at large is at risk because of isolated racist attacks.

Violence - the same over-riding argument. It's not great (well, I mean it's occasionally great) but it's an individual, or at worse, a club level issue. It's codified in the laws of the game, and physicality is what makes sport thrilling. Who genuinely likes watching basketball? The issue again comes with the length of the punishment, and with moronic justifications from ex-pros and journo hacks unable to appreciate the changes in their sport over 30 years. A well timed slide tackle is still exhilarating, whilst seeing a Yaya Toure shrug off other elite pros like school children as he winds up on a storming run is one of the joys of the game. The laws talk about "reckless" tackles, with no mention of intent, and that's that. What we should see is longer bans for bad tackles and snide, off-the-ball violence, looked at retrospectively regardless of a referee's action on the pitch - something like the citation system in Rugby. And for the love of all that is pure, lose the nonsense surrounding a little bit of handbags - "you can't raise your hands" and all that jazz. Give them a yellow for being eejits and get on with it. Save the violent conduct charges for actual violence

Drugs - This one's slightly trickier. I agree with the premise of a missed test being treated as a positive test. You have to to keep the deterrent. That said, it's hard to suggest that drug cheats are endemic in football. So either you have individual idiots, or again, at worst A club or A national side who have questionable practices. It could, theoretically, call into practice the integrity of the sport, but I think we're a long way from that scenario. It's a lot tougher to dope significantly in team sports anyway, especially those as complex as football.

Gambling - Ostensibly the most harmless - the entire premise of this blog 6 years ago was built on people liking to have a little flutter, but the issue here is that 1 corrupt player can ruin a match, or a season, or a club. Even positive betting - Barton had a flutter on him being first scorer in one match - lends itself to potential gamechanging decisions - do you shoot when a team-mate is screaming for a tap in? It's the thread in your woolly jumper you just don't want to pull on. Was that a dodgy shot or a dodgy player? Is he really a poor penalty taker? Was the goalie truly flat-footed? Is the ref genuinely on the take and not just the target of frustration from the fans?

For me, this has to be zero tolerance. No betting on football if you're involved in football. Simple as. It's the only way to ensure that this is not an issue. Yes, addicts need support - Tony Adams famously does fantastic work here (more fantastic than his coaching career). Yes, the administrators - especially FIFA & UEFA are corrupt as anything and need serious root & branch reform and there's a serious discussion to be had about the prevalence of gambling companies sponsoring football teams, advertising pre-, mid- & post-match but those are less integral to the purity of the soul of football - 11 v 11, 1 ball, 2 goals etc

So, when I become king (and I'm working on it), then Barton doesn't get off "lightly". Neither do any of the other offenders, but I'd like to see a more draconian system - and don't get me started on refereeing - and after a bit of tough love in a teething period, I'm convinced that the game would be better for the whole.

That'll do for this week...

My (bonus) predictions:
Chelsea --> Spurs --> Manchester United --> Liverpool --> Manchester City --> Arsenal

Swansea --> Middlesborough -->Sunderland

I'd love to hear your thoughts in comments below...

Results from the last PL week were posted in the last blog, so it's just this week's predos now:

Southampton vs Hull - HULL
Stoke vs West Ham - DRAW
Sunderland vs Bournemouth - BOURNEMOUTH
WBA vs Leicester - WBA
Crystal Palace vs Burnley - CRYSTAL PALACE
Man Utd vs Swansea - MAN UTD
Everton vs Chelsea - DRAW
Middlesborough vs Man City - MAN CITY
Spurs vs Arsenal - DRAW
Watford vs Liverpool - LIVERPOOL

Good luck guys

FA Cup 5: SF

For those concerned about my mental health, you'll all be glad to know the world is a sunnier place this week. It's not all driven by Mesut Ozil's right foot, although I'm pretty sure that's a contributing factor. You just know that it's got to the time of year where the blossom's out and the birds are chirping and people play football in short sleeves and John Terry's finished.

I mean, properly finished. He'll go out with another winner's medal which will make him happy, but then he's basically done from my life. So that's all good.

What else? This week I had a pleasant surprise when my horribly expensive, disgusting looking biscuits were, in the words of Dangerous Dave, "quite nice actually"

Culinary Hero

Chelsea losing makes things "interesting" if you're interested in which horrific bunch of reprobates can lift a fundamentally vacuous totem in 6 weeks time. I'm not. Vastly more important is who can go out in the FA Cup Semi finals & fail to qualify for Europe next season. That's the real prizes worth winning. Ask Kierkegaard*.

Middlesborough are down. Sunderland are pretending not to go down, but will go down. Swansea also seem to have finished their little resilience. WBA have the flip flops on. Leicester are also done for the season now. Romelu Lukaku is good at football. Is that enough non-sequitors now to let me go to the results?

*I've never read Kierkegaard. Started once but basically didn't understand anything on the first page so went back to the Hardy Boys. Good ole' Frank & Joe.

Let's get statty:

This week, 23 people played

Most popular predicted results: Spurs & Everton WINS (23/23)

Most disputed result: Stoke vs Hull (12-6-5 respectively)

Highest odds: Feneley 3355/1

Lowest odds: Steven Daniels 505/1

Average odds: 1739/1

Best predictors: Fink Tank & Euro Club Index (8/10)

Worst predictor: Josh Daniels (4/10)

Average score: 6.17/10

Best predicted results: Spurs & Everton WINS (23/23)

Worst predicted results: Palace vs Leicester &Sunderland vs West Ham DRAWS (2/23)

Everyone's scores: 

Leaderboard (>2/3; 22/32)

Sort of forgotten to do the FA Cup results, so will update blog with them over the weekend.

This week's predos are FA Cup game only as only 6 games in PL as per last time this happened:

Chelsea vs Spurs - SPURS

Arsenal vs Man City - ARSENAL (even though there's money on this. That committed to not saying we'll lose|)

Good luck guys

S6M33: Springtime four

I'm not gonna lie. 2016 was bad guys. That said, 2017 ain't shaping up to be too much better. This is of course, multifaceted, but the football - that escape from reality - is rapidly becoming the most fun-spongey of distractions. Is this what it was like in the early 90s watching Clough fall away? The public evisceration of a footballing great isn't just tragic, it's also criminal how the overriding emotion is one of ennui. We could use him up front right now....

Other people are having more fun. Unfortunately, their fun only deepens my dejection. So, as a matter of humanitarian concern, it'd be just lovely if the Dahlesque Twins of Spurs & Chelsea just sort of imploded. It'd be marvellous if Mourinho stepped on a rake or something. In all honesty however, the North London funk is so thick, so intrinsic, that I feel we're even beyond schadenfreude helping now.

What else to talk about when this is so all-consuming? Boro are rubbish aren't they? So are Sunderland. Might have mentioned that before. Leicester's new manager bounce looks to have run it's course with 2 defeats in a week, but it was enough to save them from relegation now.

Yay them.

Now the birds are out, the sun is shining and I'm off to work part of a Bank Holiday weekend.

Let's get statty:

This week, 24 people played
Most popular predicted results: Spurs, Chelsea & Man United WINS (24/24)
Most disputed result: Middlesborough vs Burnley (6-8-10 split)

Highest odds: Steven Daniels 1644/1
Lowest odds: RDM 807/1
Average odds: 1254/1

Best predictor: Dinkin (8/10)
Worst predictor: Matt Abbott (3/10)
Average score: 6.25/10

Best predicted result: Spurs, Chelsea & Man United WINS (24/24)
Worst predicted result: Palace WIN (1/24 - well done Aron Kleiman)

Everyone's results:

To the leaderboard (>2/3; 21/31)

To this week's predos:

Spurs vs Bournemouth - SPURS

Crystal Palace vs Leicester - CRYSTAL PALACE

Everton vs Burnley - EVERTON

Stoke vs Hull - HULL

Sunderland vs West Ham - WEST HAM

Watford vs Swansea - WATFORD

Southampton vs Man City - MAN CITY

WBA vs Liverpool - LIVERPOOL

Man Utd vs Chelsea - CHELSEA

Middlesborough vs Arsenal - ARSENAL FOR THE LOVE OF ALL THAT IS GOOD IN THIS WORLD

Good luck guys! Here's to a cheerier post next week...

S6M32: Doors will be doors

Gonna rattle through any nonsense chat today, as we have loads of stats to plough through. Suffice it to say that Chelsea had a "blip" and will still be pretty satisfied with the look of things. Spurs are, for a second season in a row, the closest challengers...although still somewhat off the pace. They look less likely to Spurs it up again. Everyone else is rubbish, except Leicester who are now world beaters again. Sunderland & Middlesborough are the pits though (pun very much intended) and are doing their bit to avoid any North-East derbies next season.

That'll do for now, let's get statty:

Apologies in advance for any obvious errors. Please let me know and I'll update the database. There's at least 1 FT score still outstanding...

Matchday 29
Total people played: 21
Most popular prediction: Chelsea WIN (21/21)
Most disputed prediction: West Ham vs Leicester (8-6-7 split)

Highest odds:  Feneley 3777/1
Lowest odds: Doron Salomon (2164/1)
Average odds: 2897/1

Best predictor: Joe Abbott (8/10)
Worst predictor: Aron Kleiman (4/10)
Average score: 5.86/10

Best predicted result: Chelsea WIN (21/21)
Worst predicted result: WBA WIN (0/21)

Everyone's scores will be at the end of all the results

Matchday 30
Total people played: 19
Most popular prediction: Chelsea & Swansea WINS (19/19)
Most disputed prediction: Hull vs West Ham (8-5-6 split)

Highest odds: Josh Daniels 1396/1
Lowest odds: Doron 1232/1
Average odds: 1314/1

Best predictor: Dagmar (7/10)
Worst predictor: Matt Abbott & David Brickman (1/10)
Average score: 4.05/10

Best predicted result: Leicester WIN (18/19)
Worst predicted result: Crystal Palace WIN & Swansea vs Middlesborough DRAW (0/19)

Matchday 31
Total people played: 22
Most popular prediction: Leicester & Liverpool WINS (22/22)
Most disputed prediction: Watford vs WBA (7-8-7 split)

Highest odds: AFM 1457/1
Lowest odds: Feneley 707/1
Average odds: 1011/1

Best predictor: ECI (8/10)
Worst predictor: Nick Jones & David Silverman (4/10)
Average score: 5.82/10

Best predicted result: Leicester WIN (22/22)
Worst predicted result: Liverpool vs Bournemouth DRAW (0/22)

Everyone's results:

Leaderboard (>2/3; 21/31*)

To this week's predos:

Spurs vs Watford - SPURS

Man City vs Hull - MAN CITY

Middlesborough vs Burnley - BURNLEY

Stoke vs Liverpool - LIVERPOOL

WBA vs Southampton - WBA

West Ham vs Swansea - DRAW

Bournemouth vs Chelsea - CHELSEA

Sunderland vs Man Utd - MAN UTD

Everton vs Leicester - EVERTON

Crystal Palace vs Arsenal - ARSENAL

Good luck guys

S6M31: repost

Like after a tube strike, things are slow to return to normal after an international break.

Unfortunately, circumstance have meant a full post this week won't be possible, which is fortunate because I was only going to rehash the same old nonsense about the video assistance in the France vs Spain game.

So it's predos only I'm afraid.

Matchday 30

Liverpool vs Everton - LIVERPOOL
Burnley vs Spurs - SPURS
Chelsea vs Crystal Palace - CHELSEA
Hull vs West Ham - HULL
Leicester vs Stoke - LEICESTER
Man Utd vs WBA - MAN UTD
Watford vs Sunderland - WATFORD
Southampton vs Bournemouth - SOUTHAMPTON
Swansea vs Middlesborough - SWANSEA
Arsenal vs Man City - DRAW

Matchday 31

Burnley vs Stoke - BURNLEY
Leicester vs Sunderland - LEICESTER
Watford vs WBA - WATFORD
Man Utd vs Everton - MAN UTD
Arsenal vs West Ham - ARSENAL
Hull vs Middlesborough - HULL
Southampton vs Crystal Palace - PALACE
Swansea vs Spurs - SPURS
Chelsea vs Man City - CHELSEA
Liverpool vs Bournemouth - LIVERPOOL