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

S4M11: Gloves on

I do not like being cold. I've never liked it. Stupid weather, stupid seasons, utterly pointless if you ask me. We started life in the warmth, and some idiotic ancestor migrated to what is effectively a giant outdoor freezer.

Humans were not designed to live in the cold. This is why they end up doing silly things like living in Ice Houses and fighting mammoths and signing giant Norwegians who are massive frauds and lead their teams to embarrassing defeats at teams from sunnier climes. See, if your other Norwegian leader is missing from your trip to a polar region, you also do badly. QED.

In fact, arguably, temperature played a part in every single result this weekend with no away wins. Leicester couldn't cope with the swirling winds of Suffolk, eventually forcing their way to a late point against woeful Ipswich. Liverpool equally called on the gods of the Irish Sea to overturn a defict against placid Channelers, Brighton - reversing the calm win from local buds Southampton vs Everton. Notts Forest took a dub for the midlands over Londoners West Ham, whilst Spurs beat Villa to rescue pride and Chelsea rescued a point in rainy Manchester ('cos London is quite arid at the minute). Fulham & Brentford, in fairness, wasn't hugely impacted by the weather, but was impacted by 2 late winning goals from Harry Wilson.

So we're just left with the score draw between Wolves and Eagles, and in fairness, if they were to have a real life fight, I reckon that's a better result for the eagle than the wolf. Wolves are hardcore.

S14M10: Euro Royale

You'se lot eh. So needy.

Anticlimactic now. Like Tommy in Guy Ritchieland, you have removed the delicious, sweet, sticky middle from my fried dough.

Oof. So, yeah, some football happened. 

Nott(s) Forest won. Late goals at Villa Park (to draw) and Brentford (to win).  And Brighton (to draw). Could have done a whole para on that. Late goals and stuff. But now you won't get to read it as I'm sulking.

Man City scored early. See, little linked segue. Nice. You don't deserve this. They then faffed about and played with their food, with a last gasp chance for the Saints nearly earning an undeserved point and place in Para 1. Which would have meant there was no Para 2.

Or 3. See what I've done. Everton also scored late.

Sunday was nice home wins for Chelsea, Palace and a late, controversial penalty winner for West Ham, which finally was too much for Man Utd and they binned off Ten Hag, tragically, as he was yet another awful manager running Utd into the ground. Eventually they'll get it right, and Amorim certainly has the tools to be that guy. Shame. I was rooting for the Rio/Scholesy double act.

Arsenal & Liverpool gunslung a 2-2 draw and that, folks, was all she wrote.