S14M17, 18 & 19: Good Tidings

Firstly, thanks for the lovely comments from last week's blog. Much appreciated.

Weird weekend. Very low odds all round - but plenty of surprise results saw a poor score for many. 3/10 games scored 0. Unusual! Huge pet peeve is the first match of the weekend going all Pete Tong. My brain cannot accept this. So a flat Arsenal performance at home versus a very organised Everton broke us all, and especially me. I was having a lovely lunch with a fellow Arsenal fan & former Impossibilitee player and frankly we forgot all about our woes until we saw the score. Woeful and Woefull. Liverpool dropped points at Fulham, but given the circumstances, will probably think it was a point gained rather than 2 dropped. Newcastle are in a boom phase at present as is the Geordie tradition - it will not last because that's also a Geordie tradition. Big, late away win for Ipswich saw the end of Gary O'Neill at Molineux, and and equally late winner for Forest has seen a few more moans around Emery grow. Forest are having a good season though to be fair. Palace got a good away win in the weirdest derby in football, whilst yet more late derby drama at the Etihad saw City hilariously throw away a win and keep piling the pressure on Pep. Chelsea continue to be pretty good without being good and then Spurs THUMPED Southampton, who too have dispensed with the services of their manager. Lastly, another lovely late goal saw Bournemouth rescue a point with a wonderful free kick from some bloke I'd definitely heard of beforehand. Promise.

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Let's get statty:

This week, 22 people played
Most popular predicted result: Arsenal, Liverpool & Chelsea WINS (22/22)
Most disputed predicted result: Forest vs Villa (9-7-6 split)

Highest odds: Josh Daniels (653/1)
Lowest odds: Feneley (183/1)
Average odds: 335/1

Best predictor: Josh Daniels (5/10)
Worst predictor: David Graniewitz (1/10)
Average score: 3.36/10

Best predicted result: Chelsea WIN (22/22)
Worst predicted result: Arsenal vs Everton DRAW, Fulham vs Liverpool DRAW & Ipswich WIN (0/22)

Everyone's score:

Leaderboard (>2/3; 11/16)

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To this week's predos:

Matchday 17

Matchday 18

Matchday 19

Good luck all & wishing you all well over the festive season!

S14M16: 1946 and All That

 A slightly different blog from me this week. Forgive me, but it's my canvas...

This week, my grandfather passed away. He'd had a long, fulfilling life full of excitement and adventure. Equally importantly, he also had a good death - peaceful and comfortable, surrounded by his loved ones, with just enough time for everyone to say goodbye, but not so much time that he was suffering.

My grandfather was very keen on sports. He would regularly tell us of when he boxed at school (complete with shadowboxing a left jab uncomfortably close to your face), and is responsible for the golfing spark in several of his grandchildren. Later on in life, he took up bowls and competed at a relatively high level, including internationally. He loved "rugger" and I have very vivid memories of watching Grandstand on a Saturday afternoon when we were at my grandparents' house growing up. In fact, that TV often had some sort of sports on - I also remember watching Freddie Flintoff smash South Africa all around the park in the 2003 test at Lords, including this moment where his bat just gave up on him. One smash too far.

Strangely though, he never really had an interest in football. He was nominally a Derby County fan - a boy who'd grown up in North London, spent part of the war evacuated in Berkshire and latterly ended up in Hertfordshire professed allegiance to the 1946 FA Cup winners in his early adolescence and never really shifted. As reasons go.....

Of course, he knew nothing about Derby. He could tell you their strikeforce in 1946, but knew nothing of the Jim Smith revival, the Paolo Wanchope-inspired massacre at Old Trafford or the infamous trivia answer that was the 2007-2008 season. I told him this week's result - a 0-0 draw away at Burnley when I saw him this week - a great result breaking a streak of 3 defeats, and I got nothing back. Admittedly, he was on some lovely medication to keep him comfortable, but the truth is I could have had the exact same response to a Derby result 5 years earlier. I never really understood why he kept up the charade - in a family full of passionate football fans (~70% Arsenal, 30% Spurs - how North London...) maybe he just wanted to be a part of the conversation. 

Anyway, I'll never find out now. But you can be sure I'll be following the Rams for the rest of the season, hoping for a mid-season revival and a play-off charge. And when they bounce back up, I'll have a little toast (of cloudy lemonade) in his honour. 

💗

S14M15: The Jonny May Fixture Schedule

I do like a double fixture week. I especially like a double fixture week with 2 wins obviously, but a bit of frenetic Barclays to shake the tree is exactly what Christmas is all about. None of this tinsel stuff.

I often feel teams start playing 4D chess here, trying to protect their squads and this can lead to stuff happening. Goals, chaotic defending, some rust in squad players and we're not close enough to Xmas itself where the tactical red to spend the holidays at home with the family comes into play. Allegedly.

So - Weekend games were fun. Goals galore and the most one-sided Man City-Liverpool game for a while. When was the last time Man City were this flat for this long?

This then continued through into the midweek matches. Everton got their first win for ages, as did City. Carnage on the Toon and feasting on the Solent. Set Piece FC did their thing to hand Amorim his first taste of defeat in the Manchester gig, but sadly, he appears to be the first real coach Man Utd have had since Ferguson. Party time may be over after a decade...

What else? Spurs followed up thumping City away by drawing to 10 man Fulham and losing to Bournemouth. Brentford went Jekyll & Hyde as they and Villa got a win and a loss each. 

Lovely.

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Let's get statty:

Matchday 13

This week, 23 people played
Most popular predicted result: Brighton WIN (23/23)
Most disputed predicted result: Wolves vs Bournemouth (14-5-4 split)

Highest odds: AFM (2043/1)
Lowest odds: Fenely (854/1)
Average odds: 1493/1

Best predictor: Loads of us (7/10)
Worst predictor: Loads of you (4/10)
Average score: 5.70/10

Best predicted result: Arsenal WIN (22/23)
Worst predicted result: Brighton vs Southampton DRAW (0/23)

Matchday 14

This week, 24 people played
Most popular predicted results: Arsenal & Chelsea WINS (23/24)
Most disputed predicted result: Ipswich vs Palace (7-10-7 split)

Highest odds: AFM (16,277/1)
Lowest odds: Geoffrey Skolnick (1786/1)
Average odds: 6325/1

Best predictor: Massey Ratings (8/10)
Worst predictor: Loads of us (4/10)
Average score: 5.17/10

Best predicted results: Arsenal & Chelsea WINS (23/24)
Worst predicted result: Newcastle vs Liverpool DRAW (2/24)

Everyone's score:

Leaderboard (>2/3; /)

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To this week's predos:

Good luck all