Long story short - the last couple of days have been a little kray kray & as such, I don't have time to write a full blog. Ranieri's sacking has hit me hard....
So just the predos for now & I'll stick results & graphs up on the weekend.
Updated with M25 results:
26 people played
Most popular predicted result: Man City WIN (26/26)
Most disputed results: Sunderland vs Southampton & Liverpool vs Spurs (8-9-9 & 9-9-8 split respectively)
Best predictors: Joe Abbott, Matt Abbott & David Brickman (8/10)
Worst predictors: Aron Kleiman & Will O'Doherty (3/10)
Average score: 5.46/10
Best predicted result: Man City WIN (26/26)
Worst predicted result: Burnley vs Chelsea DRAW (1/26 - well done Sam Ruback)
Everyone's results:
Leaderboard (>2/3; 17/25)
Predos:
Chelsea vs Swansea - CHELSEA
Crystal Palace vs Middlesborough - DRAW
Everton vs Sunderland - EVERTON
Hull vs Burnley - HULL
WBA vs Bournemouth - WBA
Watford vs West Ham - WEST HAM
Spurs vs Stoke - SPURS
Leicester vs Liverpool - LIVERPOOL
So an uninspiring draw still managed to throw up a few unexpected results. Newcastle came a cropper to Oxford and did Liverpool against a pack of Golden Wolves. Watford losing to Milwall would probably also be classed as shock, except for the fact that they were awful. Until they stopped being awful - you're welcome. And as to the 2 non-league teams - booya - 5th round here we come!
Interesting fact: Sutton also have a related satellite team inspired by them abroad. I knew Arsenal did and I'm sure other clubs do - but Sutton must be the smallest club ever to have this. The Gambia, if anyone cares. Home of the Argos President.
Spurs managed to avoid being the unwanted shock of the round by the skin of a hen (standing on a beach ball)'s tooth. Chelsea had their usual routine home win against a lower league side. Nowt else to mention other than football's first Saltbae themed celebration. The 21st century amiright...
Let's get statty:
9 of the 11 players played
Most popular predicted results: Leeds, Liverpool, Bristol City, Chelsea, Burnley, Middlesborough & Man City WINS (9/9)
Most disputed results: Derby vs Leicester & Millwall vs Watford (5-4 & 4-5 split)
Best predictors: Tarek & Josh Daniels (11/16)
Worst predictors: Daniel Wigman & Sam Ruback (0/16) - Steven Daniels & Aron Kleiman (9/16 of those who played)
Best predicted result: Chelsea, Burnley, Middlesborough, Man City WINS (9/9)
Worst predicted result: Sutton, Wolves, Lincoln WINS (0/9)
Everyone's results:
R6 predos:
Burnley vs Lincoln - BURNLEY
Huddersfield vs Man City - MAN CITY
Middlesborough vs Oxford - MIDDLESBOROUGH
Millwall vs Leicester - MILLWALL
Wolves vs Chelsea - CHELSEA
Fulham vs Spurs - SPURS
Blackburn vs Man Utd - MAN UTD
Sutton vs Arsenal - ARSENAL
Well folks, you'd have to say that's that for the league title.
Liverpool and Arsenal had the chance to reel Chelsea in and make things interesting. Now, the gap is 9 points to Tottenham, and 10 to Man City. Neither of whom have shown themselves capable of the consistency required to make up a gap like that, if - and it's a big if - Chelsea return to their early season form.
So, we turn again to the lesser battles. The remaining CL places are still 3 from 5, with a 5 point range separating the protagonists. Everton remain dark horses for as long as Lukaku maintains his form. At the ugly end of the table, it's also looking like 3 from 5. Sunderland are rallying whilst Palace have yet to show any benefit from their new manager effect. I don't think we've discussed the Alardyce-Cheryl Cole/Tweedy/wtvr her name is now photo yet. That is frankly the most disturbing image I've ever seen.
Hull & Swansea are also showing those famed green shoots, so could Leicester complete the more likely part of an unlikely & unwelcome double. A penny for the thoughts of Riyad Mahrez right now...
Let's get statty: Matchday 23:
23 people played
Most popular predicted results: Arsenal & Man Utd WINS (23/23)
Most disputed result: Stoke vs Everton (5-9-9 split)
Best predictor: Will O'Doherty 5/10
Worst predictor: AFM 0/10 - **A NEW ADDITION TO THE CLUB**
Average score: 2.48/10 - A NEW RECORD LOW!!!
Best predicted result: Man City WIN (18/23)
Worst predicted result: Watofrd WIN & Man Utd vs Hull DRAW (0/23)
Matchday 24:
23 people played
Most popular predicted results: Man City WIN (23/23)
Most disputed result: WBA vs Stoke (12-7-4 split)
Highest odds: AFM 11403/1 (2nd highest, my mother, 3277/1)
Lowest odds: Steven Daniels 231/1 (Doron - 232/1)
Average odds: 2967/1
Best predictor: AFM - 9/10 - What a turn around! And if she'd gone with the only guaranteed result that weekend, she'd have been the first human 10 in Impossibilitee history!
Worst predictor: Silverman (3/10)
Average score: 5.78/10
Best predicted result: Man City WIN (23/23)
Worst predicted result: Sunderland WIN (1/23)
Everyone's results:
Leaderboard: (>2/3; 17/24)
This week's predos:
Arsenal vs Hull - ARSENAL
Man Utd vs Watford - MAN UTD
Middlesborough vs Everton - EVERTON
Stoke vs Crystal Palace - DRAW
Sunderland vs Southampton - SUNDERLAND
West Ham vs WBA - WEST HAM
Liverpool vs Spurs - SPURS
Burnley vs Chelsea - CHELSEA
Swansea vs Leicester - SWANSEA
Bournemouth vs Man City - MAN CITY
The stats get done, but I can't think straight about writing something, and I'd toyed with writing a blog before the FA Cup game as any chat is now old news. But I didn't. So all I have to say is that there is nothing better in football than a last-kick winner and, to honour the late Graham Taylor - do I not LOVE that?
Jon Snow, or whatever his name is got "pelters" - to channel my inner TalkSport - unfairly from me but it's all better now.
And as Forrest said, "that's all I have to say about that"
Let's get statty:
Matchday 22:
24 people played
Most popular predicted results: Arsenal, Liverpool & WBA WINS (24/24)
Most disputed result: Man City vs Spurs (9-6-9 split)
Best predictors: Me & Menachem (7/10)
Worst predictors: Loads of you (4/10)
Average score: 5.17/10
Best predicted results: Arsenal & WBA WINS (24/24)
Worst predicted result: Swansea WIN (0/24)
Everyone's scores:
Leaderboard (>2/3; 15/22)
Predos:
Matchday 23
Arsenal vs Watford - ARSENAL
Bournemouth vs Crystal Palace - BOURNEMOUTH
Burnley vs Leicester - BURNLEY
Middlesborough vs WBA - WBA
Sunderland vs Spurs - SPURS
Swansea vs Southampton - SWANSEA
Liverpool vs Chelsea - CHELSEA
West Ham vs Man City - MAN CITY
Man Utd vs Hull - MAN UTD
Stoke vs Everton - EVERTON
Matchday 24
Chelsea vs Arsenal - DRAW
Crystal Palace vs Sunderland - PALACE
Everton vs Bournemouth - EVERTON
Hull vs Liverpool - LIVERPOOL
Southampton vs West Ham - DRAW
Watford vs Burnley - WATFORD
WBA vs Stoke - WBA
Spurs vs Middlesborough - SPURS
Man City vs Swansea - MAN CITY
Leicester vs Man Utd - MAN UTD
The 3rd round of the FA Cup didn't seem to have as much build up this year - it might have just been me working all hours in & around Christmas/New Years...but I sort of blinked and it was FA Cup time again.
Bit of a shame that, I thought...the FA Cup is a trophy I love, with a lot of great memories (and some utter horrors) over my footballing life. So I was was a bit put out by missing the draw, and then working during the 3rd Round weekend and missing the 4th round draw too! At least I got to celebrate by walking down the corridor whistling "Hey Jude" over and over for 3 hours....
I don't think the draw was that conducive to excitement either - it's fair to say that there were no major shocks - and those that were "giant killings" came with caveats...the quality really starts bunching further down the tree. Liverpool were probably the closest to a true giant killing, but renowned goal machine Lucas ruined that outtake from the Brothers Grimm anthology.
Argyle. Where does that come from?* Why aren't more clubs given names like that?
Anywho, let's get statty:
This year - 11 people have entered the game so far. People are of course welcome to donate enter late although they will find it very difficult to win from hereon out.
Most popular predicted victors: Brentford, Spurs, Arsenal, Chelsea, Man Utd & Ipswich (11/11)
Most disputed results: Sunderland vs Burnley, Cardiff vs Fulham, Bolton vs Palace & Norwich vs Southampton (all 6-5 or 5-6 splits)
Best predicted results: Brentford, Spurs, Arsenal, Chelsea, Man Utd WINS (11/11)
Worst predicted result: Lincoln WIN (0/11)
Everyone's results:
An early lead for Team Feneley & Daniel Wigman - Aron Kleiman takes up a familiar position I'm afraid. Still....plenty to play for at this point.
Round 4 predos:
1 Tottenham Hotspur v Wycombe Wanderers - SPURS 2 Derby County v Leicester City - LEICESTER 3 Oxford United v Newcastle United - NEWCASTLE 4 Sutton United v Leeds United - LEEDS 5 Liverpool v Wolverhampton Wanderers - LIVERPOOL 6 Southampton v Arsenal - ARSENAL 7 Lincoln City v Brighton & Hove Albion - BRIGHTON 8 Chelsea v Brentford - CHELSEA 9 Manchester United v Wigan Athletic - MAN UTD 10 Millwall v Watford - WATFORD 11 Rochdale v Huddersfield Town - HUDDERSFIELD 12 Burnley v Bristol City - BURNLEY 13 Blackburn Rovers v Blackpool - BLACKBURN (THIS IS THE TLA DERBY) 14 Fulham v Hull City - HULL 15 Middlesbrough v Accrington Stanley - MIDDLESBOROUGH 16 Crystal Palace v Manchester City - MAN CITY
Yep - I've picked ALL the shocks. So to spite me, I'll get 1 wrong and we all know which one that will be...
Good luck guys, I'll contact you directly with bank details to pay for those of you who haven't
Deleting a hastily posted placeholder uploaded on my way in to work and trying to think about something to say about last week's football. A tough task when you're eyes are open only with caffeine and matchsticks.
I think I'll go bullet points:
Harry Kane's had a good week hasn't he?
Burnley are really taking the "win your home games" mantra to heart
Hull will have hope that things can improve under Silva - although that's always the thing that kills you apparently. Bournemouth seem to be less consistent than last season, which I'm pretty sure is a perception that wouldn't stand up to scrutiny.
Sunderland really are awful
Swansea are also awful. Arsenal maximally hit 3rd gear for about 15 minutes of the 2nd half. Clement has a huge job ahead of him.
Watford & Boro are not the most exciting teams in the world
Palace are also in trouble. West Ham seem to have recovered from their blip. Carroll's goal was excellent but come off it being better that the scorpion duo. My criteria is "could I have scored it?" and I'd be much more likely to score a scissor kick than a scorpion kick so there.
Leicester really got all the luck in the world last year. They were not a good team, but had a great run. Reversion to the mean. Conte seems to have won his game of Chicken with Costa for now.
Er...who saw Everton battering City?
Fair play to Liverpool for nearly winning a game I thought they'd get battered in. Injuries, Utd form etc. Pogba had a #shocker, Emoticon that.
Cutting edge analysis I'm sure you'll agree...
Let's get statty:
This week, 26 people played
Most popular predicted result: Arsenal WIN (25/26)
Most disputed prediction: Sunderland vs Stoke (10-10-6 split)
Highest odds: Sam Ruback, 116,537/1
2nd highest odds: AFM 19,379/1
3rd highest odds which is now getting ridiculous: Josh Daniels 6923/1
Lowest odds: David Silverman 2246/1
Average odds (all included): 22,580/1
Best predictors: Menachem Grunewald & David Dinkin (7/10)
Worst predictors: Josh Daniels & Eli Daniels (2/10)
Average score: 4.38/10
Best predicted result: Arsenal WIN (25/26)
Worst predicted result: Everton WIN (2/26)
Everyone's scores:
To the leaderboard (>2/3; 15/21)
So to this week's predictions:
Liverpool vs Swansea - LIVERPOOL
Bournemouth vs Watford - DRAW
Crystal Palace vs Everton - EVERTON
Middlesbrough vs West Ham - WEST HAM
Stoke vs Man Utd - MAN UTD
WBA vs Sunderland - WBA
Man City vs Spurs - SPURS
Southampton vs Leicester - SOUTHAMPTON
Arsenal vs Burnley - ARSENAL
Chelsea vs Hull - CHELSEA
Memory is a baffling thing. We don't really get it. We know which bits of the brain light up under scan...we sort of know the route mapped out to lay down memory but the how is still full of shrugs.
And that's without even touching on the other aspect - recovery. 'Cos unless you're me moving house, there's no point shoving stuff in a box which will never be opened again and anyway what if it comes in useful shut up I'm not a hoarder you're a hoarder.
So some memory is obvious and we access it daily. How to do tasks, remembering faces etc. A lot of this is subconscious but there's also the flipping through the mental roladex to get the information you want. Then there's the random incursion triggered by some unknown switch. Your mind might link a particular smell or a sound or song to a memory instantly bringing the past front & centre.
But we also get triggers from bizarre stuff. The "I don't know what you did there Brain, but I kinda liked it" surprises. Which is basically the whole reason for the last 300 words. I was looking for someway to talk about Chelsea losing to Spurs & therefore ending their winning streak. As a Gooner, it was a real Heart vs Head vs Heart that one...obviously Chelsea couldn't win as 1) they're Chelsea 2) they're way ahead in the league and 3) the whole Arsenal consecutive wins record thing but also Spurs are Spurs (thanks Prime Minister for allowing us to get away with meaningless definitions in every day contexts now. Top PMing).
In the end, I was happy enough with the result given that my prayers for the whole (Batman) Bale-stadium-earth-crack thing (see previous blogs) never comes true, but every now and again, I try to at least pretend that I'm objective which meant recognising the brilliant run that Conte managed to put together and how transformative it's been for their season. So I came up with the phrase "all good things must come to an end" as a starting point at which point the inspiration for the waffle above popped into my head like one of those autoplay ads ruining the internet.
Nelly Bloody Furtado.
Who remembered she existed? Who's now humming the song to themselves? Apologies all round.
In other footballing news, Man City's redemption continues, Man Utd keep on rolling like Old Man River, Arsenal managed to win 3-3 after Bournemouth really should have put the game to bed at 70 odd minutes. Hull & Swansea appointed new managers to try and turn their seasons around, Liverpool have righted themselves after their stutter and Everton are still inconsistent as heck. Palace's new manager has still to do anything of note other than drink a pint of wine as a grown man.
For those of you who were concerned about how abruptly I'd jettisoned the Furtado tangent, let me reassure you that she's doing fine and has a new album out in March apparently...
Think that's enough waffle for now. Let's get statty:
Matchday 19:
20 People played
Most popular predicted result: Chelsea, Man Utd & Arsenal WINS (20/20)
Most disputed prediction (split): Southampton vs WBA (6-7-7 split)
Best predictors: Loads of you 7/10
Worst predictor: David Brickman 4/10
Average score 6.25/10
Best predicted results: Chelsea, Man Utd & Arsenal WINS (20/20)
Worst predicted result: Hull vs Everton DRAW (2/20)
Matchday 20:
20 People played
Most popular predicted result: Man City & Liverpool WIN (20/20)
Most disputed prediction (split): Middlesborough vs Leicester (5-5-9) - no bet from Nick Jones
Highest odds: AFM 3772/1
Lowest odds: AF 441/1
Average odds: 1560/1
Best predictor: Doron 7/10
Worst predictor: Josh Daniels 2/10
Average score 4.85/10
Best predicted result: Man City WIN (20/20)
Worst predicted result: Sunderland vs Liverpool DRAW (0/20)
