S7M17: Thick & Fast

I've already given my excuses this season re: 48 hr turn arounds.

Predos below:

Burnley vs Stoke - BURNLEY
Crystal Palace vs Watford - WATFORD
Huddersfield vs Chelsea - CHELSEA
Newcastle vs Everton - EVERTON
Southampton vs Leicester - LEICESTER
Swansea vs Man City - MAN CITY
Liverpool vs WBA - LIVERPOOL
Man Utd vs Bournemouth - MAN UTD
Spurs vs Brighton - SPURS
West Ham vs Arsenal - ARSENAL

Good luck guys

S7M16: Cracking

Goals galore this weekend, with some great games.

The Rafa return was not a happy one at Stamford Bridge, with Chelsea winning comfortably. The Newcastle bubble of a month or so ago seems to have truly burst and needs something to invigorate it, like a sale...

Liverpool also ran amok on the South coast, with their Keeganesque approach to life being ideal for good highlights packages, but less ideal for winning leagues. Special mention to Lewis Dunk too for his valiant attempt to score an own goal against every side in the league this year, The other side of Liverpool was also content with a solid 2-0 win over the promoted Huddersfield who also seem to have hit a bit of a wall of late. New manager bounce and all that...

Burnley lost which is a shock of sorts, although Leicester have been quietly effective under Puel. An early goal from Demarai Gray settled that one; he incidentally being a key figure in Iain MacIntosh's relatively successful FM17 challenge. Weird that. Stoke, who are rubbish, beat Swansea who are worse. Watford who are doing ok drew with Spurs who are not really doing ok by their recent standards. Sanchez saw red for them for an elbow that frankly might not be malicious, but is certainly indefensible, much as Spurs Twitter tries...

...speaking of which, let me start at the end of the Arsenal-Man Utd game, which was one for the ages. Pogba's tackle was filthy and dangerous and frankly I'm amazed Bellerin didn't sustain a nasty ligament injury. It's reckless, and a deserved red and this nonsense about Bellerin's leg being in the wrong place is just ridiculous. It's not on a defender to block the ball and then remove themself from potential harm's way. It's on the attacker to not go in studs showing and plant them into their opponent.

It's remeniscent of this:

To the game itself, it was very good of the rest of the Arsenal defence to preemptively show solidarity with Bellerin's injury and shoot themselves in the foot. We know how Mourinho sides set up away from home. We know they have a little burst early on and then drop deep. We know they struggle to score. Stay focused, keep it tight & ride out the storm. Don't give away a soft goal by giving the ball away and then all running after the ball like 5 year olds in the playground. Don't give away a soft second goal within 5 minutes by having a mindblank outside your own area. Special mention to a delicious assist from Martial. 2-0 down, more goals that Utd have scored away from home in big matches since the days of Matt Busby or some such statistic & a mountain to climb.

Let's not paint this as a Mou masterclass. He parked the bus but left all the windows open and the key in the ignition but a combination of average finishing and extraordinary goalkeeping saved Man Utd. The one from Lukaku's acrobatic og attempt was my favourite I think. The chutzpah of choosing Lingard as MotM...

Then, when it seemed that an equaliser was imminent, another stupid goal conceded on the counter. Pogba did brilliantly (he was so badly missed, and will be so badly missed now) making Koscielny look every one of his 32 years (75 in Achilles terms) and squaring for a tap in - infuriatingly after Xhaka tracked the run brilliantly, then decided to ignore the man he's just seen in open space in the box.

There is no capacity for face-palming in blogs but rest assured that I have done so in real life.

There was no real serious comeback after that - 2 good shouts for a penalty not given but that was that. A weird game where Man Utd obviously the happier, but Arsenal fans were pretty heartened given their performance in a big game - something that often goes awry. An xG of 5:1 Arsenal apparently at the end if that's your thing - all I know is you play that game 100 times and we win more times than we lose.

WBA & Palace played apparently. Very nice too. The Mouth Derby ended 1-1 with more penalty controversy on the Sunday. Do we believe that a ref apologised mid-game for missing a dive? I don't. Would critically undermine him for the rest of the game. Man City came from behind to win with yet another late goal to basically ensure their win streak goes on forever. Mark of Champions & all that. 13 in a row now, and if they win this weekend, they equal the record.

Let's get statty:

This week, 26 people played

Most popular predicted results: Chelsea & Man City WINS (26/26)

Most disputed result: Arsenal vs Man Utd (11-11-4 split)

Highest odds: AFM (8906/1)

Lowest odds: Josh Daniels (374/1)

Average odds: 2741/1

Best predictors: WhoScored.com & Joe Abbott (8/10)

Worst predictors: AFM & David Silverman (4/10)

Average score: 5.96 /10

Best predicted result: Chelsea & Man City WINS (26/26)

Worst predicted result: Man Utd WIN (4/26)

Everyone's scores:

Leaderboard (>2/3; 11/15)

This week's predictions:

West Ham vs Chelsea - CHELSEA
Burnley vs Watford - BURNLEY
Crystal Palace vs Bournemouth - DRAW
Huddersfield vs Brighton - HUDDERSFIELD
Swansea vs WBA - SWANSEA
Spurs vs Stoke - SPURS
Newcastle vs Leicester - LEICESTER
Southampton vs Arsenal - ARSENAL
Liverpool vs Everton - LIVERPOOL
Man Utd vs Man City - MAN CITY

Good luck guys

S7M15: Football should become an indoor sport

I've done my turn sitting in freezing stadia being "entertained" until I have no sensation in any digits, and it's part and parcel of the game. This week though was new for me.

I mean, it clearly wasn't. Cold is like pain. I've obviously experienced that sensation before but I can't remember feeling that miserable in detail. And I wasn't even watching - this was playing so I should have been able to get warm from running around. I swear I didn't warm up until halfway through the next morning - hot showers & duvets be damned.

I raise this issue to show not how hard/soft I am dependent on your perspective for venturing out/moaning about it, but to point out that this is further evidence that the likes of John Terry - short sleeves and gloveless in all climates are not human.

So 2 matchdays on and what have we learnt?

Man City look good still. Man Utd look a better attacking unit with Pogba. Chelsea are quietly rebuilding form. Arsenal are not as awful as we suspect, but not as good as they can appear. Liverpool are as per usual. Spurs are struggling with a smaller squad than others, but that's no-one's fault but their own. Read the same comment as Arsenal. Burnley are having a stormer of a season so far, but if that chip on their fans & their manager's shoulder gets any bigger, they might shatter. Some new managerial blood has arrived - although it looks suspiciously like old managerial blood who we all hope fail miserably.

At Goodison, Unsworth signed off in style with a Wazza hat-trick, ably assisted by Joe Hart for at least 2 of the 3. Nice when an old team-mate helps you out like that. Moyes' career must be done now though surely....4 years have aged him significantly and frankly his methodology doesn't seem to get results anymore. Clement also seems to have hit a brick wall in Swansea - his card must also be marked. Gotta feel Mark Hughes ain't much longer for this league either...

2 sets of results to get through so let's get statty:

M13:
24 people played
Most popular predicted results: Man Utd, Man City & Spurs WINS (24/24)
Most disputed result: Liverpool vs Chelsea (8-8-8 split)

Highest odds: Doron Salomon (1433/1)
Lowest odds: Josh Daniels (600/1)
Average odds: 1017/1

Best predictor: Doron (9/10)
Worst predictor: Loads of us (4/10)
Average score: 5.33/10

Best predicted results: Man Utd & Man City WINS (24/24)
Worst predicted result: Spurs vs WBA DRAW (0/24)

M14:
24 people played
Most popular predicted results: Arsenal, Man City & Chelsea WINS (24/24)
Most disputed results: WBA vs Newcastle & Everton vs West Ham (9-7-8 split)

Highest odds: AFM (723/1)
Lowest odds: Doron Salomon (271/1)
Average odds: 602/1

Best predictor: Nick Collins (9/10)
Worst predictors: Matt Abbott & Nick Jones (4/10)
Average score: 6.17/10

Best predicted results: Arsenal, Man City & Chelsea WINS (24/24)
Worst predicted result: Leicester WIN (2/24)

Everyone's results:

Leaderboard (>2/3; 10/14)

This week's predos:

Chelsea vs Newcastle - CHELSEA
Brighton vs Liverpool - LIVERPOOL
Everton vs Huddersfield - EVERTON
Leicester vs Burnley - DRAW
Stoke vs Swansea - STOKE
Watford vs Spurs - SPURS
WBA vs Crystal Palace - WBA
Arsenal vs Man Utd - DRAW
Bournemouth vs Southampton - BOURNEMOUTH
Man City vs West Ham - MAN CITY

Total odds: 776/1

Good luck guys

S7M14: Don't push your luck

I'm not bloody Amazon Prime. No chance of a 2 day turn around in these parts.

Weekday predos:

Brighton vs Crystal Palace - DRAW
Leicester vs Spurs - SPURS
Watford vs Man Utd - MAN UTD
WBA vs Newcastle - DRAW
Arsenal vs Huddersfield - ARSENAL
Bournemouth vs Burnley - BOURNEMOUTH
Chelsea vs Swansea - CHELSEA
Everton vs West Ham - EVERTON
Man City vs Southampton - MAN CITY
Stoke vs Liverpool - LIVERPOOL

Weekend predos & results to follow

S7M13: It's Happened Again (not that one)

The average odds for a 10 match accumulator in Season 1 of Impossibilitee were around 3000/1. With an average of 25 players per week, that's 950 bets a year. Except it's not 'cos often a gameweek isn't included but bear with me. We're 6 1/3 seasons in, so that's a little over 6000 opportunities, so we'd expect 2 maximums in this time period, which is exactly what we had - with 2 on the same week a few years ago (FT, ECI).

Well, we're now ahead of the curve. Sam Ruback's previous life highlight was arguably seeing Alex Song's Range Rover. Well no more amigos, time for a change to that twitter bio...

(I was tempted to use a gif of a certain German playmaker enjoying a brew but didn't want anyone to be upset by it...)

It makes me so proud watching y'all spread your wings and improve. Average weekly score of 6.84 with 25 players. Pretty damn good folks. Give yourselves all a round of applause (Nacho style).

The weekend kicked off with a cracker of a Derby at the Emirates. The footballing karma equalised itself at the earliest opportunity, with Arsenal deserving the win, but benefiting from a mistake from the officials. Callum Wilson showed his touch hadn't deserted him during his injury layoff, burying Huddersfield. Burnley & Man City continued their good form, as did Chelsea & Watford. Pogba inspired Man Utd on his return from injury, whilst Salah et al destroyed a blunt Southampton. Dodgy reffing reared its head on the South coast, denying Brighton a penalty in their draw with Stoke, whilst Everton also drew with Palace, Niasse getting both goals, along with a now confirmed history-making 2 match ban for diving. Stupid rule that, as previously discussed.

Let's get statty:

Matchday 11
24 people played
Most popular predicted result: Spurs WIN (24/24)
Most disputed result: Huddersfield vs WBA (11-6-7 split)

Highest odds: Josh Daniels (29,389/1)
Lowest odds: Feneley (4965/1)
Average odds: 11,476/1

Best predictor: 4 of yous (6/10)
Worst predictors: Nick Taylor-Collins (2/10)
Average score: 4.40/10

Best predicted result: Spurs WIN (24/24)
Worst predicted result: Bournemouth WIN (2/24)

Matchday 12
25 people played
Most popular predicted result: Man Utd WIN (25/25)
Most disputed result: Crystal Palace vs Everton (9-8-8 split)

Highest odds: Josh Daniels (5739/1)
Lowest odds: Doron (1412/1)
Average odds: 2915/1

Best predictor: Sam Ruback (10/10)
Worst predictors: Joe Abbott, Steven Daniels & Menachem Grunewald (5/10)
Average score: 6.84/10

Best predicted result: Man Utd WIN (25/25)
Worst predicted result: Brighton vs Stoke DRAW (6/25)

Everyone's results:

To the leaderboard (>2/3; 9/12)

To this week's predos - remember the Friday night game!:

West Ham vs Leicester - LEICESTER
Crystal Palace vs Stoke - CRYSTAL PALACE
Man Utd vs Brighton - MAN UTD
Newcastle vs Watford - NEWCASTLE
Swansea vs Bournemouth - BOURNEMOUTH
Spurs vs WBA  - SPURS
Liverpool vs Chelsea - CHELSEA
Southampton vs Everton - DRAW
Burnley vs Arsenal - ARSENAL
Huddersfield vs Man City - MAN CITY

Good luck guys

S7M12: Might need a scarf for this weekend

Unfortunately work's run away from me this week so haven't had a chance to do the stats from before the international break.

So just the predos for now...check back next week for the whole thang

Arsenal vs Spurs - DRAW
Bournemouth vs Huddersfield - BOURNEMOUTH
Burnley vs Swansea - BURNLEY
Crystal Palace vs Everton - DRAW
Leicester vs Man City - MAN CITY
Liverpool vs Southampton - LIVERPOOL
WBA vs Chelsea - CHELSEA
Man Utd vs Newcastle - MAN UTD
Watford vs West Ham - WATFORD
Brighton vs Stoke - BRIGHTON

S7M11: Pep Rally

The early game was the much-hyped near-top of the table clash between Mourinho's grizzled lot & the young Poch project, playing the role of Hollywood hero. Frankly, in these games, the script often doesn't go the way of the public hope. The public probably being anyone in North London, because whilst those of a white persuasion had the obvious investment, those on the red team were stuck between a rock and a hard place, only a much worse version.

Anyway, Veterans 1-0 Yoof.

Then to London. West Ham thought they'd relieved some pressure on Bilic...well...Joe Hart had relieved some pressure on Bilic but Antoniio dithered, Zaha didn't and Palace had their 4th goal and 4th point of the season.

Arsenal won their 13th game in a row at home - stadium record that, coming form behind to beat a Swansea side really struggling to get going this season. Liverpool won comfortably against Huddersfield, as did City against WBA to register the best start to a league season from any side. 2 late goals there didn't really reflect the game.

Tight away wins for Stoke at Watford & Chelsea at Bournemouth both come as welcome relief (not that there's ever a bad time to win away) whilst honours even on the south coast.

Everton's woes continued as new boss Puel won on debut for Leicester, and then Burnley won a tight game to best Newcastle and keep their great start to the season going.

Let's get statty:

This week, 25 people played
Most popular predicted results: Man City & Liverpool WINS (25/25)
Most disputed prediction: Burnley vs Newcastle (7-10-8 split respectively)

Highest odds:  Doron Salomon 1249/1
Lowest odds: Steven Daniels 601/1
Average odds: 829/1

Best predictors: David Brickman & Josh Gaon (9/10)
Lowest predictors: Me & Matt Abbott (4/10)
Average score: 6.28/10

Best predicted results: Man City & Liverpool WINS (25/25)
Worst predicted result: Stoke WIN (0/25)


Everyone's scores:

Leaderboard (>2/3; 7/10)

This week's predos:

Stoke vs Leicester - LEICESTER

Huddersfield vs WBA - HUDDERSFIELD

Newcastle vs Bournemouth - NEWCASTLE

Southampton vs Burnley - BURNLEY

Swansea vs Brighton - DRAW

West Ham vs Liverpool - LIVERPOOL

Spurs vs Crystal Palace - SPURS

Man City vs Arsenal - DRAW

Chelsea vs Man Utd - MAN UTD

Everton vs Watford - EVERTON

Good luck guys