S4: The Final Table + FA Cup 3.Final

And just like that, season 4 of Impossibilitee comes to an end.

I'd like to say it's been a classic, but we all suffer from perception bias, and frankly, I had a shocker all season long, so it's not a moment too soon as far as I'm concerned. A big pre-season needed from my perspective.

The last matchday threw up a couple of shock results - Stoke absolutely hammered Liverpool in their best result in 60 odd years, whilst Leicester thumped a sorry QPR - the win wasn't unexpected but the emphatic nature probably was. WBA failed to leave their sunloungers in a first half where Walcott went wild with Wilshere; Wenger was well (w') impressed. Chelsea celebrated their trophy lifting afternoon with a fairly routine win, although they did have to come from behind - their carrying of Drogba was funny if a little bit unsportsmanlike for my taste. 

Burnley won at a Villa side looking ahead to tomorrow's FA Cup final to end their season on a high - they go with the good wishes of most neutrals, whilst Crystal Palace beat Swansea to finish in the top half for the first time in ages. The HarryKane returned to beat Everton, whilst Man City said goodbye to Lampard who'll finally move to NYC now. Nice that both he and Gerrard got their farewell goals - the end of a (debated to death) era

And finally to the final relegation spot - Hull needed to beat Man Utd to have any chance of staying up. They failed. 2 disallowed goals and 20 minutes against 10 men after Fellaini decided to castrate some Hull bloke before kneeing him in the face. Newcastle did their part anyway - beating a West Ham side who look forward to a new dawn in Stratford with European football, but without Big Sam. In feelgood moment of the week, Jonas Guttierez sealed his return from testicular cancer with the clincher, in what's likely to be his last game too.

And so to the end of our campaign - let's get statty:

This week, 18 people played

Most popular predicted result: Chelsea WIN (18/18)

Most disputed result: Stoke vs Liverpool (7-6-5 split)

Highest odds: Steven Daniels (7350/1)

Lowest odds: Feneley (1340/1) 

Average odds: 3433/1

Highest scorer: Feneley (7/10)

Lowest scorers: WhoScored.com, Steven Daniels, Josh Gaon & Will O'Doherty (4/10)

Average score: 5.28/10

Best predicted result: Chelsea WIN (18/18)

Worst predicted result: Spurs WIN (0/18)

Biggest swing: Mousa Sissoko's opener for Newcastle - 9 of us had the draw

Everybody's results:

So to the final leaderboard of the season, for those who played >2/3 of available week - 26/38

Josh Gaon led from the front all season, and hold on to win bu 0.05. A 3rd win in 3 seasons for the double FA Cup game winner - what a champion. The FinkTank consolidates their position as the best mathematical modeller. Honorable mentions to Yo Abbott with a solid 3rd place on debut and to Andrew Feneley's Mum for evading a late, desperate grab from Tarek. Just like at TrufShuf in 3rd year eh?

On a personal note, I've come bottom of my mini-family league for the first time. It's a humbling experience given previous leaderboard. Still, gives me a reason to ignore my family until August I guess....#canttakethebantz

The leaderboard for those who didn't qualify for the actual leaderboard...

All I've got to say is....JT....I expected better of you...

To the FA Cup, and it's an easy one to organise for those of you playing...

Arsenal vs Aston Villa - ARSENAL

I'll do a full FA Cup week next week, and will have do some close-season analysis of trends over the last 4 years, so you won't be without me entirely until August!

All that remains to say is thanks for playing once again, congrats Josh Gaon (trophy lifting session TBA) and good luck FA Cuppers.

See you next week and COME ON YOU GUNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNERS!

S4M38: Right of Reply

Those of you who've read every word I've ever published on this blog will know that a part of my daily reading comes from Football365. For those of you who aren't familiar with this site, it's a "neutral", PL focussed football site (duh) with lots of interesting features about other leagues, a bi-daily Mailbox for regular Joes' like me to get published once in a while, a factchecker page that calls out Media bullshlacha and so on. If you're not a regular, I advise you to be - I think generally, the tone they strike is a good balance between fairness and humour.

If you're Doron, you'll disagree as they hate Man Utd. But everyone hates Man Utd so......

The reason I've brought this up is that they used to have a feature which was excellent but have stopped in the last few years. They still produce a weekly "Winners & Losers" column generally on a Monday morning after a round of PL fixtures. They used to follow it up with a second column a day or two later called "W&L: Whingers & Moaners" where the writer took some of the comments written below the line and engaged with them - either in a constructive way or calling them out for the rose-tinted bollocks that they often were.

This is a very long and convoluted way around to this - and to hammer home that point, this unnecessary clause...this piece is not sponsored by F365 - back to the crux of the matter:

I, George Gallolway*, allegedly of sound mind, have noticed a little rebellion creeping into the comments in the last week. There seems to be a selective issue with my counting abilities.

Well...I'd like to point out the 3 following pieces of information:

• I have a GCSE in Mathematics of football. Or something about Goal Averages. I dunno - it was ages ago and I didn't actually do most of the work. CEO material.
• I use Excel. I don't actually count anything myself. This has nothing to do with the point above.
• Whiners are wieners.

I don't mean to suggest I'm infallible. However in this case, this is clearly a Zionist-Swedo-Iranian plot to ensure minor changes to an amateur prediction league. This shall not stand. So, having donned the black fedora of accountancy, I have proceeded on a timely and waste-of-taxpayers-money (I did it at work) recount.

Basically, there was a minor clerical error. A weany little thing which in the grand scale of the universe and all of it's goings-on is really not all that relevant. What's 1 extra point to me, Josh Daniels, Feneley's Mum & Sam Ruback amongst friends?

Database amended, fear not.

I'm not even gonna wait for an Impossibilileak. Anyone who wants the data can have it. Just send a one off admin fee of £1500 and it's all yours.

However, this is irrelevant. The punishment for whistleblowing is a one way ticket to North Korea for a fun day out at an anti-aircraft gun testing facility. So, 잘다녀오십시오! Jalda nyeoo sip sio!

Check me out - satire + football + maths. You guys don't know you're born.

Other comment from last week:

 Yes, Josh. That is true. I'm putting it down to the Hail Mary thingamajiggy.

*I'm not actually George Gallolway. Promise. The extra 'l' makes it a made up person anyway so if there was an allegedly litigious unemployed bloke around....yeah good luck with that

In football news...

• Steve G should have gone ages ago. This is getting awkward now. Do as Fergie did and just go out of the blue - don't linger man.
• Yay Sadio Mane
• Yay Villa - has anyone ever stayed up by being absolutely trounced?
• I didn't see Man utd vs Arsenal. Sounds like I didn't miss much
• Fabregas has clearly found something on Lastminute.com

Enough of that - let's get statty:

This week, 19 people played

Most popular predicted result: Liverpool WIN (18/19)

Most disputed result: Man Utd vs Arsenal (8-5-6 split)

Highest odds: Steven Daniels (18,443/1)

Lowest odds: Andrew Feneley's Mother (1997/1)

Average odds: 7229/1 

Best predictors: Sam Ruback, Yo Abbott, Feneley & FinkTank (5/10)

Worst predictor: ***ROUND OF APPLAUSE***

David Silverman with only the second EVER 0/10!!!!

Go join Will O'Doherty on the honours board, son!

Average score: 3.26/10

Best predicted result: Man City WIN (16/19)

Worst predicted result: Crystal Palace & WBA Wins (0/19)

Swing: Lukaku's late winner - 11 people threw toffees at the TV with that one.

Everyone's results:

To the leaderboard for those who've played >2/3 of weeks (25/37)

Josh Gaon hasn't done quite enough yet - a 10 from Fink Tank could still see the title return to Times Towers. The stats snitches have seen Sam drop back to equal 3rd place, seen Feneley leapfrog me and Josh and Will dead level. Tarek remains very bottom - but within touching distance of Feneley's mum should he have a big week....

This week's predos:

Arsenal vs WBA - ARSENAL

Aston Villa vs Burnley - DRAW

Chelsea vs Sunderland - CHELSEA

Crystal Palace vs Swansea - CRYSTAL PALACE

Everton vs Spurs - EVERTON

Hull vs Man Utd - MAN UTD

Leicester vs QPR - LEICESTER

Man City vs Southampton - MAN CITY

Newcastle vs West Ham - DRAW

Stoke vs Liverpool - STOKE

Total odds: 2495/1 (PaddyPower)

Good luck guys.

S4M37: And then there was one

As expected, Burnley and QPR were confirmed as participating in the Championship next season, leaving just a single space with them in the relegation zone. Aston Villa,  Leicester and Sunderland continued their late revivals to leave Hull in the danger seat. Even Newcastle manged to pick up a point this week. Meanwhilst, Spurs, Southampton and Liverpool have their own battle to shed points now to try and avoid the Europa League.

It's a real shame how bloated the competition has become - I remember Arsenal's run to the final in 2000 of the old UEFA Cup with great fondness - Nantes, Werder Bremen, Deportivo la Coruna (before they were CL regulars...how times have changed) - all great ties against some fresh names. I do understand the reticence of clubs to really commit to the Europa League - whilst I think the Thurs-Sun thing is a bit of a red herring (you'll play twice a week in the CL too), it's the volume of games that's the killer. UEFA should lose the group stages and just go full knock out in my opinion.

Places 2-4 have more or less had their clubs confirmed, although the order is yet to be confirmed. It's advantage Man City now, and even more so should Arsenal fail to beat a Man Utd side back on their jammy winning horse this weekend.

What else? Stevie G made a funny at the expense of the Chelsea fans who really are revealing themselves to be quite the sensitive souls this season.

Right - enough of that, let's get statty:

This week, 20 people played

Most popular predicted results: Man City & Arsenal WINS (20/20)
Most disputed result: Newcastle vs WBA (6-6-8 split)

Highest odds: AFM 6690/1
Highest odds excluding AFM: 1507/1 Josh Daniels
Lowest odds: Steven Daniels 1100/1
Average odds: 2219/1 (1270/1 without AFM)

Best predictor: Sam Ruback 6/10
Worst predictors: ECI, AFM, Dinkin, Menachem, Will O'D & Brad (3/10)
Average score: 4.05/10

Best predicted result: Man City WIN (20/20)
Worst predicted results: Swansea & Sunderland WINS (0/20)

Swing: Gerrard's equaliser - upset 14 people.

Everyone's scores:

To the leaderboard (>2/3 or 25/36)

This week's predos:

Southampton vs Aston Villa - DRAW
Burnley vs Stoke - STOKE
QPR vs Newcastle - NEWCASTLE
Sunderland vs Leicester - LEICESTER
Spurs vs Hull - SPURS
West Ham vs Everton - DRAW
Liverpool vs Crystal Palace - LIVERPOOL
Swansea vs Man City - DRAW
Man Utd vs Arsenal - DRAW
WBA vs Chelsea - CHELSEA

Total odds: 11,954/1 (PaddyPower)

Good luck guys!

S4M36: The Focus shifts to 18

So it's official. Chelsea are champions. In a perfect display of irony after all the chat this week on Chelsea's style, they won 1-0 with  rebound from a missed penalty to get over the line with 3 to play. Liverpool similarly just about managed to beat a QPR side who are now all but down. Gerrard's farewell narrative tour continues with a missed penalty followed minutes later by the winner. Joining them will be Burnley, who would be disappointed to come away from their match at Upton Park with nothing - yet again, I find myself typing the word penalty in conjunction. To make it 4 in a row, we turn to Manchester where van Persie missed a penalty that would have earned a point for Man Utd - instead, they've now lost 3 on the spin, without scoring a goal for the first time since 1989. Somewhere in the north of Spain, there's a chuckling Scotsman. At the bottom end of the table, Leicester, Aston Villa and Sunderland all won to keep it very tight for that final relegation place - Newcastle join the party with their 8th consecutive loss followed by a remarkable unravelling on camera by John Carver - who is doing his best to never ever work in football again.

Swansea beat Stoke to record a record points total for them, whilst Aguero scored yet again against Spurs to keep City's bid for second alive. Finally, a superb 1st half performance from Arsenal knocked the stuffing out of Hull, and confirmed the 20th consecutive St Totteringham's Day. There's been a lot of negative comments about the celebrating of this ancient feast to which I respond - isn't mockery and banter against your rivals a massive part of being a football fan?

Finally, this week saw the Champions' League semi-final first legs, which I'll briefly touch on, even though I saw not a single minute of either of them. Juve got it spot on against Madrid - both teams were missing star midfielders, but they coped better to give themselves a great chance to catenaccio it out in Madrid. Pep clearly tried to do something clever with Bayern that mere mortals like me can't understand. However, I don't think you can really do anything to stop the Barca front 3 - the pace, work rate and skill they possess is unrivalled in any club side currently, or in history according to my knowledge.

'Nuff chat. Let's get statty:

This week, 20 people played.

The most popular predicted results: Leicester & Chelsea WINS (20/20) (massive endorsement of Newcastle there)

The most disputed prediction: Aston Villa vs Everton (5-6-9 split)

Highest odds: Josh Daniels 3795/1

Lowest odds: Steven Daniels 462/1

Average odds: 1733/1

Best predictors: Yo Abbott & Josh Gaon (8/10)

Worst predictors: Me, Feneley's Mum, Josh Daniels & WhoScored.com (4/10)

Average score: 6.00/10

Best predicted results:  Leicester & Chelsea WINS (20/20)

Worst predicted result: WBA WIN (0/20)

Swing: Swansea's opener from Jefferson Monteiro (7 of us lost out)

Everyone's scores:

To the leaderboard for those who've played >2/3 seats (24/35)

To this week's predos:

Everton vs Sunderland - EVERTON

Aston Villa vs West Ham (The Cameron Derby) - ASTON VILLA

Hull vs Burnley - HULL

Leicester vs Southampton - DRAW

Newcastle vs WBA - NEWCASTLE

Stoke vs Spurs - STOKE

Crystal Palace vs Man Utd - MAN UTD

Man City vs QPR - MAN CITY

Chelsea vs Liverpool - CHELSEA

Arsenal vs Swansea - ARSENAL

Total odds: 1106/1 (PaddyPower)

Good luck guys!

S4M35: Rage Against The Machine (& Tarek)

Let's get straight to it. This was not a good week. I've added to my list of off-season hypotheses to be tested the theory that Christmas & the end of the season have the lowest scores, due to unpredictable scores. The Christmas theory is based around fatigue - the end of the season being due to the disparate "importance" for points in match-ups.

Suffice it to say, that the average score was low this week, but digging into the numbers a little more revealed an interested trend. 2 of the joint worst performers were the most statistical predictors in ECI & FinkTank, suggesting that their long-term, data-driven approach to prediction doesn't allow for the flexibility of my end-of-season theory above. Tarek completed the set - for him, I have no reason. Too many meatballs or something.

Anyway, this is good news for humans everywhere, since when the whole Skynet thing happens as prophesied by Cameron the Wise in 1984, we will have an edge with which we can hold out until help arrives in a DeLorean or something.

Koeman and Poch managed to press each other into parity in the early kick off, before a couple of missed penalties did their best to call time on part of the relegation battle - QPR at least salvaging the draw, whilst Burnley showed that you are not just vulnerable after you score, but also when you should have scored! Leicester gaining karmic retribution for the Watford playoff episode of a couple of years ago.

Hull also managed to win away for only the 2 time this season - Pardew continuing his streaky form as demonstrated at Newcastle for so long.

Streaky Mind Map

Newcastle, of course, were obvious in losing, although they made it seem closer than it was with a late goal. John Carver is going his best to be statistically the worst manager in the history of football. Sunderland got an objectively cracking result with a draw away at Stoke, but in the context of what they need, it's not good enough.

Liverpool's wheels have well and truly come off, losing to Hull after a draw with WBA, whilst LvG has now lost 2 in a row, in the same fixture that did for Moyes last year. You wonder if Moyes would have been given more time if he'd also been aggressive in his press conferences. Man City got a late winner to beat Villa, who should have had a penalty against not-Joe-Hart after he brought down Benteke at 2-2 when through on goal. Amazing how they seem to be stumbling so much given the quality of their squad.

The final weekend game saw Mourinho be predictable, and Arsenal almost as predictable, especially given Everton's win earlier in the day. A reasonably tight game saw both teams happy with a point, followed by a week of squawking in the press about who's actually better.

In my view, it's quite simple. Chelsea are the better team. That's why they are top. They're top because they've been the best team in the country all season, but have been operating at an "efficient" level since January. Whether that's due to injury, other teams figuring them out or Mourinho reverting to his tried and tested tactics, they've earned the right to scrap their way to lifting the trophy, likely this weekend. Every single team would do the same as Chelsea did this weekend, were they in the same position.

That said, it is boring. It's always boring to watch a team scraping it's way through an extended period unless you're a fan of said team when it's excruciating during games and then great after. It's more boring when that team contains phenomenal attacking talent, and have already shown their ability to demolish other sides only a few months ago.

Why the reaction? In my opinion, it's because, deep down, they (Mourinho/Chelsea fans) know it's true. They know that, whilst the record books record the victors, the epic stories of football - the things that all football fans can love on a non-partisan basis, and the stuff that gets young kids hooked is the story - the legend. All the banners in the Shed End will never create that kind of buzz around Mourinho shutting a game down. Ironically....the epic stories (for a neutral) come from the Inter-Mourinho years - the Miss in Moscow and the Di Matteo fairytale in Munich. Maybe I'm wrong - that's just my opinion.

Let's get statty:

This week, 20 people played

Most popular predicted result: Man City WIN (20/20) - how lucky we all were...Obrigado Fernandinho!

Most disputed result: Burnley vs Leicester (6-6-8 split)

Highest odds: Doron Salomon (5881/1)
Lowest odds: Feneley (1080/1)
Average odds: 4052/1

Best Predictor: Richard Verber (6/1)
Worst predictors: Tarek Najm, ECI & FinkTank
Average score: 3.15/10

Best predicted result: Man City WIN (20/20)
Worst predicted result: Stoke vs Sunderland DRAW (1/18)

Swing: Chadli's equaliser for Spurs - ruining the afternoon for 8 people.

Everyone's results:

To the leaderboard, for those who've played >2/3 available weeks (23/34)

To this week's predos:

Leicester vs Newcastle - LEICESTER
Aston Villa vs Everton - EVERTON
Liverpool vs QPR - LIVERPOOL
Sunderland vs Southampton - SOUTHAMPTON
Swansea vs Stoke - DRAW
West Ham vs Burnley - DRAW
Man Utd vs WBA - MAN UTD
Chelsea vs Crystal Palace - CHELSEA
Spurs vs Man City - DRAW
Hull vs Arsenal - ARSENAL

Total odds: 1791/1 (PaddyPower)

Good luck guys!

S4M34: Pearson, Pulis and Precious Van Gaal

So, a truncated programme of Premier League football still managed to fox us all. Pun somewhat intended. Leicester seem to have finally woken up and are now going on the sort of run that could see teams that thought they were safe do that whole wake-up-with-a-start-at-stupid-o-clock-in-the-morning-being-really-confused-and-bleary-eyed-thing-and-know-that-were-it-a-real-problem-like-a-burglar-then-you-just-couldn't-do-anything-about-it-'cos-you-were-coming-from-a-cold-start thing.

You know the feeling. Pearson's team could make it 4-in-a-row (ok, might have overdone the hyphens now) playing a Burnley team who look like their resistance is starting to crumble. Their issue is goals - they work hard and rarely concede loads - but if you can't score, then conceding 1 is often enough to drop points, and 2 is nearly always a death sentence. In fairness, I think many, both fans of the club and neutrals, thought they would be even worse off now, so it's par for the course, and they'll gladly take the parachute payments and, will in due course, be back, I'm sure.

They lost to an Everton side also putting together a late run - but by contrast, this has been disappointing to Evertonians compared to last season's valiant effort to get CL football. They face a Man Utd team who they doubled last season - the question now is whether van Gaal will get his team to respond or whether their newly found confidence is fragile. I didn't see the game last week, but by everything I've heard/read - it went roughly to the predicted Mourinho plan. I did, however, see the van Gaal press conference on MoTD. Wow. Talk about spitting the dummy out. I get that these are uber competitive guys being interviewed in a cupboard (seriously...flash interview spaces are amazingly cramped) after an emotionally draining afternoon, but no need to act like a complete John Terry about it.

Speaking of whom, Chelsea will look to pull the same miserable rabbit out of their blue hat against the form team in the league. Arsenal have been less fluid in recent weeks, but have won their last 3 "big games" (don't think I've ever written that sentence on this blog in 4 years) and would love to at least delay the Chelsea open-top bus-ride around Fulham for another week. Arsenal of course, would be hoping to have one of their own in May after confirming their FA Cup final spot - followed by a rejuvenated Villa under Tim Sherwood - who seems to have nailed this mid-season boost malarkey. A post previously held by Pulis last season, who bested his successor in the role, Pardew to halt the Palace renaissance.

Quick run through of the rest: Newcastle are absolutely hopeless and I reckon Mike Ashley has just placed the club in 'Caretaker' mode. Stoke are not a bad side anymore, although you wonder in Southampton have just run out of puff now the run for 4th place is over - are their legs just a little heavy? Man City can't yet be said to have kick-started their form - West Ham are only marginally behind Newcastle in the 'already on holiday' travel brochure.

Long article - I've missed you guys

Let's get statty:

This week, 21 people played

Most popular predicted results: Palace & Man City results (19/21)
Most disputed result: Newcastle vs Spurs (7-6-8 split - plenty of eedjits like myself thought Newcastle might want to win one more match before the end of the season)

Highest odds: Feneley's mum (obvs) with a frankly staggering 17,952/1. This is over only 7 games.
Highest odds excluding Feneley's mum: Me (373/1)
Average odds: 3234/1 (290/1 excluding the outlier)

Best predictors: Yo Abbott (what a run of form he's had), JC backpage pin up Dinkin, Times page 20 something pinup FinkTank and er, the internet's EuroClubIndex (5/7)
Worst predictor: Me & Tarek (2/7)
Average score: 3.52/7

Best predicted result: Man City WIN (19/21)
Worst predicted result: WBA WIN (1/21 - well done Mrs Feneley)

Everyone's score:

To the leaderboard, for those who have played >2/3 games - or 23/33.

Fink Tank has hunted down Josh Gaon....could he overtake in the final straight? Yo Abbott pushing for CL football next year...more likely glorious failure and a transfer to Real Madrid though...

To this week's predos:

Southampton vs Spurs - SPURS

Burnley vs Leicester - LEICESTER

Crystal Palace vs Hull - CRYSTAL PALACE

Newcastle vs Swansea - SWANSEA

QPR vs West Ham - QPR

Stoke vs Sunderland - STOKE

WBA vs Liverpool - LIVERPOOL

Man City vs Aston Villa - MAN CITY

Everton vs Man Utd - MAN UTD

Arsenal vs Chelsea - DRAW (as ever, not really)

Total odds: 4832/1 (PaddyPower)

Good luck guys!

S4M33 & FA Cup 3 SF: All the results!

So how's everyone doing? Nice little bank holiday weekend? Bit of sunshine starting to break through. Good good.

Let's get down to business. Well...aren't Man Utd on a charge? Fair play to them...this run of games was going to make or break LvG and, credit to the big red-faced lump of Gouda....he's nailed it. Apropos to that, why do Man Utd only hire red-faced managers? Maybe the real reason why Mourinho was passed over for Moyes...

They're doing well..unlike City and Liverpool who have stumbled. Arsenal of course are doing their usual surge for 4th place, this season looking to nail it on the last day via a freefall from 2nd. Chelsea also seem to not really be that fussed about the whole winning in style thing - pets and their owners etc. Well...managers

Other teams that are currently rubbish include Spurs, Newcastle, WBA. In fact, I'd argue that Palace, Southampton and Swansea would still be quite happy with their performances, and probably Villa and QPR are happy to be showing some backbone. The rest? dunno.

What's going to be interesting is who will go down with Leicester. I still think QPR, and am edging towards Sunderland as the final side to go down....a poor side without the new manager bounce...

Anyway, that'll do for the discussions of 2 week old Premier League football.

Let's get statty:

Matchday 31:

This week, 20 people played

Most predicted results: Man Utd, Swansea & Chelsea WINS (20/20)

Most disputed result: Leicester vs West Ham (7-8-5 split)

Highest odds: Andrew Feneley's Mum (12,895/1)

Highest odds excluding AFM: Doron (3551/1)

Lowest odds: Steven Daniels (776/1)

Average odds: 4045/1

Best predictor: Charlie R (7/10)

Worst predictors: Menachem & Richard Verber (3/10)

Average score: 5.1/10

Best predicted results: Man Utd, Swansea & Chelsea WINS (20/20)

Worst predicted results: QPR & Palace WINS (1/20 - well done me & Charlie)

Goal-swing: er, not sure....I think Ozil's free kick meant 10 people couldn't be right, and that's a bit more than Austin or Puncheon, as their result was 1 more step removed...ie more people wrong, but a draw in the middle, you dig?

Matchday 31:

This week, 19 people played

Most predicted results: Southampton, Arsenal & Liverpool WINS (19/19)

Most disputed result: Sunderland vs Crystal Palace (4-8-7 split)

Highest odds: Josh Daniels (2663/1)

Lowest odds: Feneley (850/1)

Average odds: 1364/1

Best predictor: Loads of us (7/10)

Worst predictor: Sam Ruback 3/10)

Average score: 5.68/10

Best predicted results: Southampton, Arsenal & Liverpool WINS (19/19)

Worst predicted result: Villa WIN (0/19 - none of us backed Timmy)

Goal-swing: Shelvey's penalty - shafted 6

Everyone's results:

The leaderboard, for those who have played >2/3 available weeks (22/32)

To the FA Cup game now:

The QF:

11 people played - yet again, boo Tharshan & Joe

Most predicted result: Liverpool WIN (10/11)

Most disputed result: The rest - 6-5 splits (or 5-6)

Best predictor: Joe Abbott (4/4)

Worst predictor: Brad Allix (1/4)

Best predicted result: Liverpool WIN (10/11)

Worst predicted result: Reading WIN (5/11)

Score from QF & totals so far:

3 points left to play for....so Joe Abbott & Sam Ruback are guaranteed some money....the question is who gets the 3rd cash spot and who gets what!

Predictions for this weekend:

Crystal Palace vs WBA - PALACE

Everton vs Burnley - EVERTON

Leicester vs Swansea - DRAW

Stoke vs Southampton - SOUTHAMPTON

Chelsea vs Man Utd - DRAW

Man City vs West Ham - MAN CITY

Newcastle vs Spurs - NEWCASTLE

Total odds: 373/1

and FA Cup (for those involved):

Reading vs Arsenal - ARSENAL

Aston Villa vs Liverpool - LIVERPOOL

That'll do for now. I'm halfway through a death run at work myself (not literally thankfully) so hope normal service to be resumed next week when I've had some time to think!

Good luck guys!