Matchday 9: 25% of the season down and it's starting to get cold (& Matchday 8 results)

Snappy title eh?

It's crazy to think that we're pretty much a quarter of the way through the season already though, and to my  mind, reached the stage where early form gives way to genuine predictions for the rest of the season. It's predictable at the top - most would have picked the Manchester duo and Chelsea  to make the top 3. The West Ham and WBA are the surprise names in the next pack, with Arsenal under performing to date (although a win at Norwich would have seen them 4th, so hardly a crisis). Newcastle and Liverpool will be the most disappointed from the midtable teams, whilst Southampton and Reading were picked to struggle before the season started. Fernandes may well be getting an itchy trigger finger at QPR after a poor initial return from a hefty investment. It's all shaping up nicely for a top of the table clash this weekend. We'll get to that however.

To the stats:

This week, 17 people played.
Most popular predicted result: Man Utd WIN (17/17)
Most disputed results: Sunderland vs Newcastle (4-9-4) & West Ham vs Southampton (9-4-4)

Longest odds: Doron Salomon (again...) 18,157/1
Shortest odds: Will O'Doherty - 792/1... Great to have you back again this season!
Average odds: 6289/1

Best predictor: Lawro - for the first time in 46 weeks I think!!! (8/10)
Worst predictor: Josh Daniels (2/10)
Average score: 6/10

Best predicted result: Man Utd WIN (17/17)
Worst predicted result: Norwich WIN (0/17)

Villains of the week: Lawro got 2 results wrong - the Swansea and Norwich WINS. Of those, the worst culprit has to be the entire Arsenal team for not turning up and depriving Lawro (and literally everyone else) a chance at another point.

Everyone's results:

To the leaderboard, comprehending of those who have played <2/3 of weeks - or 6/8:

No change at the top, but the gap has been reduced to the chasing pack. Yanik drops down to 4th, and the other big loser is Josh Daniels who falls 3 places. A reversal of the bottom 2 is of no great consequence just yet, although that gap between me and Doron is a little worrying (from my perspective).

This week, I've gone for the following:

Aston Villa vs Norwich - DRAW
Arsenal vs QPR - ARSENAL
Reading vs Fulham - FULHAM
Stoke vs Sunderland - STOKE
Wigan vs West Ham - WEST HAM
Man City vs Swansea - MAN CITY
Everton vs Liverpool - EVERTON
Newcastle vs WBA - NEWCASTLE
Southampton vs Spurs - SPURS
Chelsea  vs Man Utd - CHELSEA

Total odds: 2041/1 with Paddypower

Good luck guys - you know what to do by now...

Matchday 8: Back to the real stuff

I'm no great fan of international football. Given the choice of Arsenal winning the Charity Shield (or whatever it's known as these days) or England winning the World Cup, I'd probably plump for the former. In this post-Olympics patriotic glow, the word "probably" has been inserted. Prior to this summer, I'd have said, "definitely". The whole thing leaves me a little cold - and I enjoy watching the biennial footyfests from a sort of neutral perspective. My feeling is that I invest emotionally enough throughout the normal season - it's quite nice to relax for a week here and there. I did watch the San Marino game, and actually thought it was pretty professional - a word not usually associated with England. The Man Utd trio up top dovetailed well with the Ox and I thought Carrick was superb in providing a slow pressure from 35 yards out. His effort off the bar was also of such technical beauty it deserved to go in - things like that are what high-definition slow mo was designed for - see also Arteta's goal vs Man City last season, and Shearer's volley vs Everton a few years back. Joe Hart could have been replaced by Diana Ross circa June 1994 and the result would have been no different.

Anywho, Hodgson seems to know what he's doing, and his face isn't all twitchy and melting, so that's good enough for me.

The Premier League action all was rather predictable I thought (although not predictable enough to predict it correctly, obviously). The biggest shock was Liverpool failing to beat Stoke at home, but then, that was probably the most predictable shock. Everton's struggle against Wigan was also an unpopular choice. Overall, however, most people did pretty well this week.

To the stats:

This week, 15 people played
Most popular predicted result: Chelsea WIN (15/15)
Most disputed result: Southampton vs Fulham (6-5-4)

Longest odds: Doron Salomon 7365/1
Shortest odds: Me, 574/1
Average odds: 3092/1

Best predictors: Nick Collins, Feneley & Sam Ruback (7/10)
Worst predictors: Whoscored.com, Tarek Najm & Jonny Chernick (4/10)
Average Score: 6/10

Best predicted result: Chelsea WIN (15/15)
Worst predicted result: Wigan vs Everton DRAW & Swansea vs Reading DRAW (3/15)

Villain of the week: As with last season, villain of the week only comes into play when someone scores 8+ (or there is something so stonkingly terrible that I decide I'm going to rant about it). Therefore, no villain this week.

Everyone's results:

To the leaderboard, and the >2/3 of playable weeks qualification rule (try saying that with a mouthful of crunchy peanut butter) means that only those who've played 5/7 weeks are eligible. 

Statsman still has a dominant lead at the top, with a solid clustering around the 5 mark. Jonny Chernick and I have swopped places, and together with Tarek, we make up a feeble triumvirate scoring <4. Josh Gaon makes his first appearance on an Impossibilitee leaderboard, with a respectable 4.80.

To this week's predictions:

Spurs vs Chelsea - CHELSEA
Fulham vs Aston Villa - DRAW
Liverpool vs Reading - LIVERPOOL
Man Utd vs Stoke - MAN UTD
Swansea vs Wigan - DRAW
WBA vs Man City - MAN CITY
West Ham vs Southampton - DRAW
Norwich vs Arsenal - ARSENAL
Sunderland vs Newcastle - SUNDERLAND
QPR vs Everton - EVERTON

Total odds: 2997/1 with PaddyPower

Predictions in the comments as usual, good luck one and all. Until next time...

Matchday 7 & a Colossal results blog

There's a lot to get through from the last 6 weeks, so I'm just gonna get straight to it...

Matchday 1:

23 people played.
Most popular predicted result: Chelsea WIN (23/23)
Most disputed result: Reading vs Stoke (8-8-7)

Longest odds: Steven Daniels 4260/1
Shortest odds: Josh Daniels 1236/1
Average odds:2478/1

Best Predictor:  Steven Daniels (on debut) & Ryan Wain (6/10)
Worst Predictor: Me, Feneley and Jonny Chernick (2/10)
Average Score: 4

Best predicted result: Chelsea WIN (23/23)
Worst predicted result: WBA & Everton WINS (0/23)

No villain of the week awards for any weeks to date as I haven't followed closely enough.

Everyone's results:

Matchday 2:


12 people played.
Most popular predicted result: Spurs, Chelsea & Swansea WINS (7/12)
Most disputed result: Norwich vs QPR (4-4-4)

Longest odds: Jonny Chernick 18525/1
Shortest odds:Sam Ruback 1583/1
Average odds: 7206/1

Best Predictor: JT & Lawro (5/10)
Worst Predictor: er....Me again.... (2/10)
Average Score: 4/10

Best predicted result: Chelsea & Swansea WINS (7/10)
Worst predicted result: Wigan WIN (0/10)

Everyone's results:

Matchday 3:


12 people played.
Most popular predicted result: Man City & Newcastle WINS (12/12)
Most disputed result: Liverpool vs Arsenal (4-5-3)

Longest odds: Josh Daniels 8667/1
Shortest odds: Doron Salomon 343/1
Average odds: 2936/1

Best Predictor: Josh Daniels (5/10)
Worst Predictors: Feneley, Doron, Ryan Wain and Me (completing a very unwanted hat-trick) 2/10
Average Score: 3/10

Best predicted result: Man City WIN (12/12)
Worst predicted result: Newcastle vs Aston Villa DRAW (0/12)

Everyone's results:

Matchday 4:


15 people played.
Most popular predicted result: Arsenal & Man Utd WINS (13/15)
Most disputed result: Sunderland vs Liverpool (6-5-4)

Longest odds: Josh Daniels (again) 27,465/1
Shortest odds: Feneley 1327/1
Average odds: 9858/1

Best Predictor: Lawro (7/10)
Worst Predictor: Nick Collins (2/10)
Average Score: 5/10

Best predicted result: Arsenal & Man Utd WINS (13/15)
Worst predicted result: Villa WIN (1/15)

Everyone's results:

Matchday 5:


15 people played.
Most popular predicted result: Newcastle WIN (15/15)
Most disputed result: West Ham vs Sunderland (4-6-5)

Longest odds: Tarek Najm 84,469/1 (!!!)
Shortest odds: Steven Daniels 3968/1
Average odds: 28,132/1

Best Predictor: Whoscored.com (8/10)
Worst Predictor: Jonny Chernick & Tarek Najm (2/10)
Average Score: 5/10

Best predicted result: Newcastle WIN (15/15)
Worst predicted result: Everton WIN (2/15)

Everyone's results:

Matchday 6:

11 people played.

Most popular predicted result: Everton & Man Utd WINS (11/11)
Most disputed result: Aston Villa vs WBA & QPR vs West Ham (5-3-2 and 3-5-2 respectively)

Longest odds: Doron Salomon 7073/1
Shortest odds: Sam Ruback 311/1
Average odds: 3107/1

Best Predictor: Steven Daniels (8/10)
Worst Predictor: Me again! (3/10)
Average Score 5/10

Best predicted result:  Everton WIN (11/11)
Worst predicted result: Spurs WIN (0/11)

Everyone's results:

I really hope that's correct, but if you feel I've got your results wrong if you've been checking yourself, please let me know and I'll update it in the records. It gets very messy when trying to get through this many numbers manually! Also, in week one, there were a lot of names that were unclear to whom they belonged....please claim them and I'll create/amalgamate the records (ie Josh, Ben, Daniel etc). Thanks! To the first league table of the season...

As for the league table, I've created it for those who have played 2/3 of games (or 4 of 6 weeks). Whilst it doesn't show too much after only 6 weeks, it's clear that the "pros" are doing pretty well, along with my father who is using his maths brain to good effect. I've had an appalling start, but am blaming that on geographical isolation, and plan to change that around, starting with this weeks predictions...

I'm going for:

Man City vs Sunderland - MAN CITY
Chelsea vs Norwich - CHELSEA
Swansea vs Reading - SWANSEA
WBA vs QPR - WBA
Wigan vs Everton - EVERTON
West Ham vs Arsenal - ARSENAL
Southampton vs Fulham - DRAW
Liverpool vs Stoke - LIVERPOOL
Tottenham vs Aston Villa - SPURS
Newcastle vs Man Utd - DRAW

Total odds: 574/1 (Paddypower)

Good luck guys, and let's try and get the numbers up this week....or else I'll start with the social media harassments again....

Matchday 6: Starting to take shape

This, my friends, will be the last blog post where you are in the dark over results so far this season. That right there, is a Ricky D Guarantee. I'm returning to London this weekend, and have a very long flight in which I plan to sort out all the stats thus far. Therefore, this time next week, the bragging rights will be up for grabs once again - and I genuinely have no idea how anyone (including myself) has done so far!

The downside of that, is that you must bear with me, yet again whilst I stick up just my predictions - perhaps some of you prefer the waffle-less system, but it's my party and I'll waffle if I want to!

This week, I'm going:

Arsenal vs Chelsea - ARSENAL
Everton vs Southampton - EVERTON
Fulham vs Man City - MAN CITY
Norwich vs Liverpool - LIVERPOOL
Reading vs Newcastle - NEWCASTLE
Stoke vs Swansea - DRAW
Sunderland vs Wigan - WIGAN
Man Utd vs Tottenham - MAN UTD (obviously, do Spurs ever do anything else but lose to Man Utd?)
Aston Villa vs WBA- VILLA
QPR vs West Ham - QPR

Total odds from PaddyPower: 3012/1

Just a quick story about a man I met in a pub last week watching the CL matches. He told me he was a Man City fan - I remarked about how unusual that was here (it's almost entirely Man Utd or Liverpool fans) and he told me that he was a Liverpool fan for 20 years, but had switched to City now Liverpool were rubbish...

Still....he bought me a drink, so he's not all bad!

Good luck, enjoy your weekends and check back next week for a mega-stats blog!

Matchday 5: Nice and Early this time!

The thing that was drummed into my head about the Romans when I was a young'un was that the reason their empire was so strong was because they learned from their mistakes.

I always wanted to be a Roman - I liked the idea of wearing sandals and red baggy pants and being paid in salt (running out of Roman stuff now) - and so have taken this maxim on-board and therefore am doing this week's post in good time.

My predictions are as follows:

Swansea vs Everton - DRAW
Chelsea vs Stoke - CHELSEA
Newcastle vs Norwich - NEWCASTLE
Southampton vs Aston Villa - SOUTHAMPTON
WBA vs Reading - READING
West Ham vs Sunderland - WEST HAM
Wigan vs Fulham - FULHAM
Liverpool vs Man Utd - LIVERPOOL
Man City vs Arsenal - DRAW
Spurs vs QPR - SPURS

Total match odds: a ridiculous 39,027/1. Quite hoping that this week is the week I win :D

Just as an aside - I watched the Arsenal match last week in 30-odd degree heat on the beach. That, my friends, is called winning.

Good luck, you know what to do by now.

Matchday 4: A Million Apologies

I'm so so so sorry guys. 42 weeks in and I've majorly dropped the ball. Can't even blame lack of wifi access on this one - it just slipped my mind to do the blog.

Therefore, unless we get more than 10 real players (ie not me and not a website) this week, it won't count towards the league table (when it arrives), out of fairness as I'm sure many people won't have time to do this before the first kick off. Sorry once again.

My predictions are as follows:

Norwich vs West Ham - WEST HAM
Arsenal vs Southampton - ARSENAL
Aston Villa vs Swansea - SWANSEA
Fulham vs WBA - FULHAM
Man Utd vs Wigan - MAN UTD
QPR vs Chelsea - DRAW
Stoke vs Man City - MAN CITY
Sunderland vs Liverpool - LIVERPOOL
Reading vs Spurs - SPURS
Everton vs Newcastle - EVERTON

Total odds with PaddyPower: 1482/1

Apologies once again - if Club Impossibilitee could work the magic extra hard this week and make sure everyone sees this late blog, you guys might be able to cover my slip up.

Good luck

Matchday 3: I feel so out of touch

Last Sunday marked my first 90 mins of the season. The 20th match played by my calculations. In a sports mad country that shows 7-8 PL games a week, this is a very poor show. Unfortunately, its not going to change for the next few weeks, and this has left me feeling like I am very out of touch with what's going on!

Apologies if it seems like I'm phoning it in at the minute....WiFi is hard to come by but I promise that there will be a results post (for all weeks) in the next 2 weeks. For now, its just the predictions.

West Ham vs Fulham - Fulham
Swansea vs Sunderland - Draw
Spurs vs Norwich - Spurs
WBA vs Everton - Everton
Wigan vs Stoke - Wigan
Man City vs QPR - Man City
Liverpool vs Arsenal - Draw
Newcastle vs Aston Villa - Newcastle
Southampton vs Man Utd - Southampton (6-3 anyone?)

No odds this week as Paddypower website wouldn't load before my internet timed out!

Sorry this is a bit rubbish atm guys, bear with me for just a few weeks more. When I'm back in Blighty, I'll make it up.

Good luck