Results from the last few weeks and M25/M26 Predos

Nil waffle.

Matchday 22

22 people played
Most popular prediction: Arsenall & Man City WINS (22/22)
Most disputed prediction: Norwich vs Hull (6-10-6 split)

Highest odds:  Feneley 3169/1
Lowest odds: Steven Daniels, 887/1
Average odds: 1897/1

Best predictor:  Fink Tank & EuroClub Index (7/10)
Worst predictor: Feneley & Menachem (3/10)
Average score: 5.14/10

Best predicted result: Man City & Arsenal WINS (22/22)
Worst predicted result: Liverpool vs Aston Villa DRAW (1/22 - well done Josh Daniels)

Everyone's results:

Matchday 23

22 people played
Most popular prediction: Chelsea & Man Utd WINS (22/22)
Most disputed prediction: Aston Villa vs WBA (12-7-3 split!)

Highest odds:  Doron 7897/1
Lowest odds: Steven Daniels 978/1
Average odds: 4257/1

Best predictor:  Josh Gaon, David Dinkin & EuroClub Index (8/10)
Worst predictor: Doron (2/10)
Average score: 5.59/10

Best predicted result: Man Utd WIN (22/22)
Worst predicted result: Chelsea vs West Ham DRAW (0/22)

Everyone's results:

Matchday 24

23 people played
Most popular prediction:Arsenal WIN (22/23)
Most disputed prediction: West Ham vs Swansea (8-8-7 split)

Highest odds:  Josh Daniels 8335/1
Lowest odds: Sam Ruback, 1350/1
Average odds: 3901/1

Best predictor:  James Tobias (6/10)
Worst predictor: Lawro, WhoScored.com, Will O'Doherty & Tarek Najm (2/10)
Average score: 3.74/10

Best predicted result: Arsenal WIN (22/23)
Worst predicted result: Stoke & Chelsea WINS (0/23)


Everyone's results:

To the leaderboard, for those who have played 2/3 of games (17/24):

To this week's predos now:

Liverpool vs Arsenal - DRAW

Aston Villa vs West Ham - ASTON VILLA

Chelsea vs Newcastle - CHELSEA

Crystal Palace vs WBA - PALACE

Norwich vs Man City - MAN CITY

Southampton vs Stoke - SOUTHAMPTON

Sunderland vs Hull - SUNDERLAND

Swansea vs Cardiff - CARDIFF

Spurs vs Everton - DRAW

Man Utd vs Fulham - MAN UTD

Total odds: 1800/1 (PaddyPower)

and for the organised, the midweek games:

Cardiff vs Aston Villa - ASTON VILLA

Hull vs Southampton - DRAW

West Ham vs Norwich - WEST HAM

WBA vs Chelsea - CHELSEA

Arsenal vs Man Utd - ARSENAL

Everton vs Crystal palace - EVERTON

Man City vs Sunderland - MAN CITY

Newcastle vs Spurs - SPURS

Stoke vs Swansea - SWANSEA

Fulham vs Liverpool - LIVERPOOL

Total odds: 1151/1 (PaddyPower)

Good luck guys

M23 Predos & M24 fixtures (to be updated upon my return)

Hopefully you'll all have seen  the last autopublish regarding the FA cup game. Cos if you haven't, you probably won't see this one either.

Anyways, I'm currently away on me honeymoon which is lovely but I've had to promise her indoors (or outdoors most likely as it's hot) that I wouldn't post a blog from paradise.  Not the done thing apparently.  I reckon Buffett and that other bloke, Mittal probably also put their lives into caretaker mode when they're chillaxing. I probably need a wifi enabled yacht to sort this problem out. Nothing too garish...just a cheeky 90m or something.  If you guys chip in, I'll even let the season champion borrow her for a week or so. The good ship Lawro...

I've got sidetracked again.

Those predos:

Man Utd vs Cardiff - MAN UTD
Norwich vs Newcastle - NEWCASTLE
Southampton vs Arsenal - DRAW
Swansea vs Fulham - FULHAM
Crystal Palace vs Hull - PALACE
Liverpool vs Everton - DRAW
Aston Villa vs WBA - VILLA
Chelsea vs West Ham - CHELSEA
Sunderland vs Stoke - SUNDERLAND
Spurs vs Man City - CITY

And Matchday 24 in case y'all wanna be organised:

Newcastle vs Sunderland - DRAW

West Ham vs Swansea - SWANSEA
Cardiff vs Norwich - DRAW
Everton vs Aston Villa - DRAW
Fulham vs Southampton - SOUTHAMPTON
Hull vs Spurs - DRAW
Stoke vs Man Utd - MAN UTD
WBA vs Liverpool - LIVERPOOL
Arsenal vs Crystal Palace - ARSENAL
Man City vs Chelsea - MAN CITY

Total odds: 5066/1 (Paddypower)

Good luck guys

FA Cup 2.4

At the time of going to post, there is still 1 outstanding tie -Charlton vs Oxford, so I'll hold off on the results until that's complete.

However, there are 12 players this year, so total prize pot of £36, to be split as before, 70% to the winner, 20% to second place and 10% to third place (£25.20/£7.20/£3.60). Yes small fry compared to the largesse offered by yah know, bookies and shizzle, but it's an inflation-busting rise of 20% on last year. Don't get that kind of opportunity every day. Obviously. Only every January.

'Nuff waffle.

Round 4 fixtures:

1 Sunderland v Peterborough United
2 Bolton Wanderers v Cardiff City
3 Southampton v Yeovil Town
4 Huddersfield Town v Charlton Athletic or Oxford United
5 Port Vale v Brighton & Hove Albion
6 Nottingham Forest v Preston North End
7 Southend United v Hull City
8 Rochdale v Sheffield Wednesday
9 Arsenal v Coventry City
10 Stevenage v Everton
11 Wigan Athletic v Crystal Palace
12 Chelsea v Stoke City
13 Manchester City v Watford
14 AFC Bournemouth v Liverpool
15 Birmingham City v Swansea City16 Sheffield United v  Fulham

Good luck guys.

M22 predos & a massive results catch up!

No chat folks. Only mounds of stats. Let's get to it.

Matchday 17

22 people played
Most popular prediction: Liverpool, Man City & Man Utd WINS (21/22)
Most disputed prediction: Southampton vs Spurs (8-8-6 split)

Highest odds:  Josh Daniels 13,123/1
Lowest odds: Me, 1650/1
Average odds: 4368/1

Best predictor:  Gaj (9/10)
Worst predictor: David Dinkin & Nick Collins (3/10)
Average score: 5.77/10

Best predicted result: Liverpool, Man City & Man Utd WINS (21/22)
Worst predicted result: Sunderland vs Norwich DRAW (4/22)

Everyone's results:

Matchday 18

24 people played
Most popular prediction: Everton & Man Utd WINS (24/24)
Most disputed prediction: Cardiff vs Southamton (4-12-8 split)

Highest odds: Me, 1872/1
Lowest odds: Steven Daniels 500/1
Average odds: 961/1

Best predictor: Loads of you (6/10 - see graph)
Worst predictor: Josh Gaon (4/10)
Average score: 5.17/10

Best predicted result: Man Utd WIN (24/24)
Worst predicted result: Palace & Sunderland WINS (0/24)

Everyone's results:

Matchday 19

21 people played
Most popular prediction: Man City WIN (21/21)
Most disputed prediction: West Hams vs WBA (8-8-5 split)

Highest odds: Steven Daniels 3593/1
Lowest odds: Andrew Feneley 925/1
Average odds: 2448/1

Best predictor: More loads of us (8/10 - see below)
Worst predictor: Gaj 4/10
Average score: 6.71/10

Best predicted result: Man City WIN (21/21)
Worst predicted result: Aston Villa vs Swansea DRAW (7/21)

Everyone's results:

Matchday 20

24 people played
Most popular prediction: Arsenal & Liverpool WINS (24/24)
Most disputed prediction: Southampton vs Chelsea (4-6-14 split)

Highest odds: Josh Daniels 9938/1
Lowest odds: Me 781/1
Average odds: 4300/1

Best predictor: Lawro & Will O'Doherty (7/10)
Worst predictor: Steven Daniels (2/10)
Average score: 4.83/10

Best predicted result: Arsenal & Liverpool WINS (24/24)
Worst predicted result: Spurs WIN (0/24)

Everyone's results:

Matchday 21

25 people played
Most popular prediction: Everton WIN (25/25)
Most disputed prediction: Fulham vs Sunderland (9-11-5 split)

Highest odds: Doron Salomon 4838/1
Lowest odds: Will O'Doherty 402/1
Average odds: 1480/1

Best predictor: Even more of us (8/10 - see below)
Worst predictor: Doron (4/10)
Average score: 6.88/10

Best predicted result: Everton WIN (25/25)
Worst predicted result: West Ham WIN (0/25)

Everyone's results:

To the leaderboard, for those who have played >2/3 available week (15/21).

The major thing to highlight here is how many people are now batting at above 50%! The next thing to highlight is how relentless the Fink Tank is.

To this week's predictions:

Sunderland vs Southampton - SUNDERLAND

Arsenal vs Fulham - ARSENAL

Crystal Palace vs Stoke - DRAW

Man City vs Cardiff - MAN CITY

Norwich vs Hull - HULL

West Ham vs Newcastle - NEWCASTLE

Liverpool vs Aston Villa - LIVERPOOL

Swansea vs Spurs - DRAW

Chelsea vs Man Utd - CHELSEA

WBA vs Everton - EVERTON

Total odds: 1752/1 (PaddyPower)

Good luck guys!

Matchday 21 Predos

I'm currently slogging my way through the mound of data that built up over the festive fixtures, as well as the FA Cup Game (thanks to those who took part). This means that this post will be updated in due course with a mound of data & statistics.

Until then, the next round of PL fixtures:

Hull vs Chelsea - CHELSEA
Cardiff vs West Ham - CARDIFF
Everton vs Norwich - EVERTON
Fulham vs Sunderland - SUNDERLAND
Southampton vs WBA - SOUTHAMPTON
Spurs vs Crystal Palace - SPURS
Man Utd vs Swansea - DRAW
Newcastle vs Man City - MAN CITY
Stoke vs Liverpool - LIVERPOOL
Aston Villa vs Arsenal - ARSENAL

Total odds: 630/1

FA Cup Game: 2.3

OK guys, a reminder of the rules. £3 to enter (will pester you for money when I return to normal working hours) and it's a completely separate game from the PL game.

1 point per correct predictions - scores will be aggregated over all rounds. Winner of the tie, not Win/Draw/Lose.

First place - 70% of the entry fee pot, second place 20% and third place 10%. The more people that play, the more to win...so if you have a colleague/friend/relative who feels like losing their money, then pass this page on.

If you're not a regular player, let me have your email address so I can hassle you with new rounds when they occur.

To post your predictions, copy the list below into a "comment" and then alter the predictions accordingly.

Any questions, get in touch with a comment or @ccdaniels65 and I'll answer ASAP.

To the predos:

1 Barnsley v Coventry City - BARNSLEY
2 Yeovil Town v Leyton Orient - LEYTON ORIENT
3 Liverpool v Oldham Athletic - LIVERPOOL
4 Nottingham Forest v West Ham United - WEST HAM
5 Bristol City v Watford - WATFORD
6 Southend United v Millwall - SOUTHEND
7 Middlesbrough v Hull City - HULL
8 West Bromwich Albion v Crystal Palace - WBA
9 Kidderminster Harriers v Peterborough United - PETERBOROUGH
10 Doncaster Rovers v Stevenage - STEVENAGE
11 Stoke City v Leicester City - LEICESTER
12 Southampton v Burnley - SOUTHAMPTON
13 Newcastle United v Cardiff City - NEWCASTLE
14 Rochdale v Leeds United - LEEDS
15 Wigan Athletic v Milton Keynes Dons - WIGAN
16 Charlton Athletic v Wrexham or Oxford United - CHARLTON
17 Manchester United v Swansea City - MAN UTD
18 Port Vale v Plymouth Argyle - PLYMOUTH
19 Norwich City v Fulham - FULHAM
20 Aston Villa v Sheffield United - ASTON VILLA
21 Macclesfield Town v Sheffield Wednesday - SHEFFIELD WEDNESDAY
22 Sunderland v Carlisle United - SUNDERLAND
23 Bolton Wanderers v Blackpool - BLACKPOOL
24 Blackburn Rovers v Manchester City - MAN CITY
25 Everton v Queens Park Rangers - EVERTON
26 Brighton & Hove Albion v Reading - READING
27 Arsenal v Tottenham Hotspur - ARSENAL
28 Birmingham City v Bristol Rovers or Crawley Town - BIRMINGHAM
29 Grimsby Town v Huddersfield Town - HUDDERSFIELD
30 Ipswich Town v Preston North End - IPSWICH
31 Derby County v Chelsea - CHELSEA
32 AFC Bournemouth v Burton Albion - BURTON

Good Luck guys - predos to be in by the first game's kick off (Sat 12.45pm). Any late entries will be penalised for any games that have already kicked off.

M19 & M20 Predos & FA Cup Rules

Yet another quick post here guys.

Matchday 19 predos:

West Ham vs WBA - WBA
Aston Villa vs Swansea - DRAW
Hull vs Fulham - HULL
Man City vs Crystal Palace - MAN CITY
Norwich vs Man Utd - MAN UNITED
Cardiff vs Sunderland - DRAW
Everton vs Southampton - EVERTON
Newcastle vs Arsenal - ARSENAL
Chelsea vs Liverpool - DRAW
Spurs vs Stoke - SPURS

Total odds: 2234/1 (PaddyPower)

Matchday 20 predos:

Swansea vs Man City - MAN CITY
Arsenal vs Cardiff -ARSENAL
Crystal Palace vs Norwich - CRYSTAL PALACE
Fulham vs West Ham - WEST HAM
Liverpool vs Hull - LIVERPOOL
Southampton vs Chelsea - CHELSEA
Stoke vs Everton - EVERTON
Sunderland vs Aston Villa - SUNDERLAND
WBA vs Newcastle - NEWCASTLE
Man United vs Spurs - MAN UNITED

Total odds: 781/1 (PaddyPower)

The FA Cup prediction game makes its return next week with the 3rd Round. It's a totally separate game from the regular Premier League stuff, so if you don't want to play, it will have no effect on your score. It was just a good way last year to make things interesting, and a few people ended up quids in.

Let's keep the stake the same - £3 - and the rules are simplified this year; no more co-efficients and complex maths. Simply put, every tie is worth a point, and the cumulative score at the end of the competition will decide the top 3, who'll win the pot in the ratio 70%-20%-10%. How much they win depends on how many people play. All you have to do is predict which team will go through the round - nice and simple. Full fixture list to be published in due course, but as there are a fair few games, have a think about who you'll be going for.

Good luck guys.

M18 Predos

Just the predos:

Results to follow in the new year

Hull vs Man Utd - MAN UTD
Aston Villa vs Crystal Palace - ASTON VILLA
Cardiff vs Southampton - DRAW
Chelsea vs Swansea - CHELSEA
Everton vs Sunderland - EVERTON
Newcastle vs Stoke - NEWCASTLE
Norwich vs Fulham - NORWICH
Spurs vs WBA - DRAW
West Ham vs Arsenal - DRAW
Man City vs Liverpool - MAN CITY

Total odds: 1872/1 (Paddypower)

Good luck, and don't pig out too much

Matchday 16 Results & 17 Predos

Howdy peeps.

So last week was an interesting one, then.

I only caught (and have still only seen) the last 10 minutes of Man City vs Arsenal. What a redonculous 10 minutes that was. If the whole game was like that, then that must rate as one of the best value for money games in football history. Aside from the 3 goals I saw scored, Bendtner had a goal disallowed for offside (very close, probably correct), Walcott had a very good chance and City looked dangerous as well. Sure, the defending was mad, but the people want goals damnit!

If I'm totally honest, I didn't see another sausage of football all weekend, but if we fast-forward to Sunday, Spurs were spanked by the Scousers, which ultimately seems to have cost AVB his job. I have to say, I thought he was totally hard done by at Chelsea, and was worried when he took over from 'Arry at Spurs, but it's a real marmite issue - you can argue that he gave Spurs the highest points total they've ever had in the Premier League, whilst losing one of his star players, and that after losing the other star player, rebuilding 1/3 of a squad and rejecting a chance to manage Qatar FC in St Germain, he deserved time to consolidate on a decent start with new players and being in the running for CL football, in the QFs of the League cup and a good Europa League performance too.

On the other hand, he presided over several spankings, his football sometimes appeared dour if not strange, he clearly couldn't utilise Soldado, didn't trust Defoe and had no relationship with Adebayor. He'd lost the defensive stability of last year with Dawson and Lloris regressing and seemed unable to relocate it. Most crucially, he never won the press over, initally for not being 'Arry, and then latterly for singling out one of their own. Unfortunately, it seems impossible to survive once Fleet Street sets it's mind on unseating you.

For what it's worth, I think he's still unfortunate, although certainly more culpable than at Chelsea. The news that he didn't want 4 of the new signings also suggests that not all was well in the Kingdom of Chigwell. I'd welcome debate this week, along with predos. (I welcome debate all weeks, though it's rarely forthcoming).

In other news, Tan of Cardiff fame is a complete Wasteman.

Let's get statty:

This week, 24 people played
The most predicted results were Chelsea and Everton WINS (24/24)
The most disputed result was: Norwich vs Swansea (9-8-7 split)

Highest odds: er, Me, with a slightly audacious 16, 570/1
Lowest odds: Doron, 2228/1. It's apocalyptic.
Average odds: 5732/1

Best predictor: Gaj Thiru, with a storming 9/10. Bloody Cardiff.
Worst Predictors: er, Me (shocking, I know), Richard Verber and Tarek Najm (3/10)
Average score: 5.54/10

Best predicted results: Chelsea & Everton WINS (24/24)
Worst predicted result: Liverpool WIN (3/24)

Everyone's results:

The leaderboard:

The not-at-all-competitive Menachem Grunewald joins David Dinkin in being better than any of our statistical models. Gaj's great score puts him in a position to create a trinity of human success stories. Lawro for a second year running, puts many to shame. The usual suspects are located down the bottom, with no real major changes there. And yes, Nick, your score includes that other week.

There are a lot of games coming up in a short period, and I'm starting a batch of night shifts very shortly. So, I'll post the weekend fixtures now, followed by a new post on Monday for the Boxing Day fixtures, next weekend's fixtures & New Year's fixtures.

There will certainly not be any results posts in that time, but I'll catch up the first week of January. Speaking of which, there will be a cash FA Cup game again, as before. Details to follow, but it'd be great to have even more entrants than last year.

To this week's predos:

Liverpool vs Cardiff - LIVERPOOL

Crystal Palace vs Newcastle - NEWCASTLE

Fulham vs Man City - MAN CITY

Man Utd vs West Ham - MAN UTD

Stoke vs Aston Villa - DRAW

Sunderland vs Norwich - SUNDERLAND

WBA vs Hull - DRAW

Southampton vs Spurs - SOUTHAMPTON

Swansea vs Everton - EVERTON

Arsenal vs Chelsea - ARSENAL

Total odds: 1650/1 (PaddyPower)

Good luck all, and have a great festive footy season.

Matchday 16 Predos & a Mega results Catch Up

UPDATED beginning:

No preamble. Apologies for the wait.

Matchday 13

This week, 25 people played
The most popular predicted result was Liverpool WIN (25/25)
The most disputed result was Norwich vs Palace & West Ham vs Fulham (10-12-3 & 12-10-3 respectively)

The highest odds were: 3165/1 (Tarek Najm)
The lowest odds were: 1025/1 (Steven Daniels)
Average odds: 1833/1

Best predictor:  David Dinkin & Nick Collins (8/10)
Worst predictor: A lot of people. Al on 5/10. See below
Average Score: 5.92/10

Best predicted result: Man City WIN (24/25)
Worst predicted result: Hull WIN (0/25)

Everyone's scores:

Matchday 14

This week, 23 people played
The most popular predicted results were Arsenal & Liverpool WINS (23/23)
The most disputed result was Stoke vs Cardiff (9-8-6 split)

The highest odds were: 5389/1 (Josh Daniels)
The lowest odds were: 1848/1 (Steven Daniels)
Average odds: 3131/1

Best predictor: Me, David Dinkin & Andrew Feneley (7/10)
Worst predictor: Will O'Doherty, Jonny Chernick, Eli Daniels, Steven Daniels and Doron Salomon (4/10)
Average Score: 5.43/10

Best predicted result: Arsenal & Liverpool WINS (23/23)
Worst predicted result: Palace & Villa WINS (1/23 - congrats to Charlie & Tarek there)

Everyone's scores:

Matchday 15

This week, 14 people played
The most popular predicted result was Liverpool (14/14)
The most disputed result was Fulham vs Aston Villa (6-5-3 split)

The highest odds were: Doron Salomon 3032/1
The lowest odds were: Will O'Doherty 1819/1
Average odds: 2352/1

Best predictor: David Dinkin (5/10 - 3/3 - chapeu monsieur)
Worst predictor: Me, Whoscored.com, Will O'Doherty, Josh Gaon, Sam Ruback & Doron Salomon (2/10)
Average Score: 3/10

Best predicted result: Liverpool WIN (14/14)
Worst predicted result: Newcastle & Stoke WINS (0/14)

Everyone's scores:

To the leaderboard, and vast changes as one would expect after 20% of games without a new one being produced.

So Dinkin's superb run of form, (potentially combined with FinkTank missing out on a week) sees him zoom to the top with a solid margin. What's striking about this season, compared to others, is the number of people scoring >5.00 as an average. Unfortunately, the group at the bottom are starting to be cut adrift from those in the middle, although, with more than half the season to still be played, there's a lot that can change.

To this week's predictions:

Man City vs Arsenal - DRAW
Cardiff vs WBA - WBA
Chelsea vs Crystal Palace - CHELSEA
Everton vs Fulham - EVERTON
Newcastle vs Southampton - NEWCASTLE
West Ham vs Sunderland - SUNDERLAND
Hull vs Stoke - DRAW
Aston Villa vs Man Utd - DRAW
Norwich vs Swansea - SWANSEA
Spurs vs Liverpool - DRAW

Total odds: 16, 570/1 (er....yeah)

Good luck guys

Matchday 15 Predos

So just the quick post from me, and I'll catch up results over the weekend.

Predos for this weekend:

Man Utd vs Newcastle - DRAW
Crystal Palace vs Cardiff - PALACE
Liverpool vs West Ham - LIVERPOOL
Southampton vs Man City - CITY
Stoke vs Chelsea - CHELSEA
WBA vs Norwich - WBA
Sunderland vs Spurs - DRAW
Fulham vs Aston Villa - VILLA
Arsenal vs Everton - ARSENAL
Swansea vs Hull - SWANSEA

Total odds: 2101/1 (PaddyPower)

Good Luck guys

Matchday 12 Results, a double blog and the season is 1/3 through

For the first time in 3 years, I've got writers' block. I've sat and written this first line, then deleted and rewritten it a fair few times now. Fortunately, I could always write about having writers' block since it's the first time, but then I figured I'd just babble on for a bit game by game.

The Merseyside derby was a typically intense matchup for that part of the world. Lukaku could have had a hat-trick, Allen finished a gaping chance like I would and Mirallas got his revenge on Suarez. Artur Boruc then proceeded to show off his silkiest of silky skills (bit like I'd have done) and Palace showed a bit of fight as a parting gift to Millen. The Newcastle renaissance continues, whilst Chelsea had their first routine win for quite a while. Man City were irrepressible (whilst Spurs were rather poor) and Cardiff showed Utd-esque fighting spirit to gain a point at the death. Finally, I don't really know much about what happened at WBA, but by all accounts, Long scored a nice goal.

Easy. Opening paragraph waffled through, let's get statty.

This week, 23 people played

The most predicted result was Chelsea WIN (22/23)

The most disputed game was Everton vs Liverpool (7-7-9)

The highest odds were from me, 7157/1

The lowest odds were from Stevie D, 3500/1

Average odds: 4724/1

The best predictors were Dinkin, Chernick, Charlie and JT (7/10)

The worst predictors were Yanik & Adrian (3/10)

The average score was 5.22

The best predicted result was  Chelsea WIN (22/23)

The worst predicted result was Crystal Palace WIN (0/23)

Everyone's results:

To the leaderboard, for those who have played >2/3 of available weeks, or 9/12.

Without giving massive commentary, I'm astounded by just how consistent the Fink Tank model is. One 3, and every other week has been 5-7. Superb stuff from the Times pundit and his intepid band of statisticians.

To this week's predos:

Aston Villa vs Sunderland - DRAW

Cardiff vs Arsenal - ARSENAL

Everton vs Stoke - EVERTON

Norwich vs Crystal Palace - DRAW

West Ham vs Fulham - FULHAM

Newcastle vs WBA - NEWCASTLE

Spurs vs Man Utd - DRAW

Hull vs Liverpool - LIVERPOOL

Chelsea vs Southampton - CHELSEA

Man City vs Swansea - MAN CITY

Total odds: 2761/1 (PaddyPower)

and the midweek games:

Crystal Palace vs West Ham - WEST HAM

Arsenal vs Hull - ARSENAL

Liverpool vs Norwich - LIVERPOOL

Man Utd vs Everton - DRAW

Southampton vs Aston Villa - SOUTHAMPTON

Stoke vs Cardiff - DRAW

Sunderland vs Chelsea - CHE;SEA

Swansea vs Newcastle - SWANSEA

Fulham vs Spurs - SPURS

WBA vs Man City - MAN CITY

Total odds: To be updated when the predos are there after the weekend games.

Feel free to give me both sets of predos straight away if you'd rather. Good luck folks.

Matchday 11 Results & Matchday 12 Predos

Gonna jump straight into it this week with a phenomenal stat from last week.

5/22, or 23% went for a Man Utd home win.

I'm not sure that we've ever had a stat like that in the last 3 years (it'd be easy to check, but I don't want to ruin the Disney-like magic), including for games involving Chelsea or Man City. There was always a feeling that United at Old Trafford were always at least value for a draw, and more often than not, a win. It just jumped out at me as Impossibilitee's own way of showing the Moyes effect.

And yes, I'm more than aware that they did win. However, it's the perception that's interesting. I was working last weekend, so didn't see the game. I did however, discharge a patient who was a Man Utd fan on the grounds that if he was well enough to mock me after full time, he was well enough to go home. He hasn't returned, so I was either right, or very wrong.

(Career saving bit: If anyone from the GMC reads this blog, that last bit was a joke. Thanks for stopping by.)

It was actually a strange round of matches - I'd like to say one for the underdogs, except they were all strangely predictable. Man United are still Man United. Sunderland seem to have this hoodoo over Man City, WBA are in good nick (and would have won were it not for a horrific penalty decision) and Spurs' profligacy was punished by a keeper in sublime form. The only real shock for me was Palace holding Everton, and again, with absolutely zero in-depth knowledge of the game, I'm ascribing that to 'dead-cat bounce'.

What it did mean, however, was a round of low scores, and a happy bookmaker or two.

Let's get statty:

This week, 22 people played
The most predicted results were Liverpool and Chelsea WINS (22/22)
The most disputed result was Man United vs Arsenal (5-9-8 split)

The highest odds were from Steven Daniels (4075/1)
The lowest were from Doron Salomon (Madre mia, time to cash in the life insurance....428/1)

(Insurance premium saving bit: that last bit was a joke. Thanks for stopping by.)

The best predictors were Tarek Najm, EuroClubIndex and Fink Tank with 5/10
The worst predictors were (deep breath) Me, WhoScored.Com, Gaj Thiru, Adrian Daniels, Nick Collins, Steven Daniels & Josh Daniels (a proud weekend for my family).

The best predicted result was Liverpool WIN (22/22)
The worst predicted results were Sunderland and Newcastle WINS and the DRAW between Chelsea and WBA (0/22)

Everyone's results:

To the leaderboard, for those who have played 8/11 weeks.

This week's predos:

Everton vs Liverpool - EVERTON
Arsenal vs Southampton - ARSENAL
Fulham vs Swansea - SWANSEA
Hull vs Crystal Palace - DRAW
Newcastle vs Norwich - NEWCASTLE
Stoke vs Sunderland - DRAW
West Ham vs Chelsea - CHELSEA
Man City vs Spurs - DRAW
Cardiff vs Man Utd - MAN UTD
WBA vs Aston Villa - ASTON VILLA

Total odds: 7157/1 (PaddyPower)

Good luck chaps, see you next week

The Big Results Post & Matchday 11 Predictions

As promised, a rather large post of results from the last 3 weeks. A fair amount to get through, and the lack of major talking points from last weekend allows me to crack straight on.

Let's get statty:

Matchday 8

This week, 26 people played.
The most popular predicted results were Arsenal & Chelsea WINS (26/26)
The most disputed result was Crystal Palace vs Fulham (9-8-9 split)

Highest odds: Doron Salomon (3330/1)
Lowest odds: Me (349/1)
Average odds: 1,243/1

Best predictor:  Adrian Daniels (8/10)
Worst predictor: Me, James Tobias, Josh Gaon and WhoScored.com (4/10)
Average score: 5.62/10

Best predicted result: Arsenal & Chelsea WINS (26/26)
Worst predicted result: Everton vs Hull DRAW (1/26 - well done Dr Feneley)

Everyone's scores:

Matchday 9

This week, 22 people played.
The most popular predicted results were Arsenal, Manchester United & Spurs WINS (22/22)
The most disputed result was Chelsea vs Man City (11-8-3 split)

Highest odds: Doron (obviously) 2102/1
Lowest odds: Sam Ruback, 357/1
Average odds: 912/1

Best predictor: Steven Daniels (9/10)
Worst predictor: Lawro (4/10)
Average score: 6.59/10

Best predicted result: Arsenal, Manchester United & Spurs WINS (22/22)
Worst predicted results: Sunderland WIN (1/22 - well done Doron)

Everyone's scores:

Matchday 10

This week, 23 people played.
The most popular predicted results were Chelsea, Man United & Man City WINS (22/23)
The most disputed result was Everton vs Spurs (10-8-5 split)

Highest odds: Sam Ruback, 3745/1
Lowest odds: Josh Daniels, 1700/1
Average odds: 2657/1

Best predictor: Me & Steven Daniels (7/10)
Worst predictor: Will O'Doherty, Jonny Chernick, Yanik Joshi and Charlie Rawson (3/10)
Average score: 5.04/10

Best predicted results: Manchesters United & City WINS (22/23)
Worst predicted results: Newcastle WIN (0/23)

Everyone's scores:

And now to an updated leaderboard, showing those who have played >2/3 of available weeks, or 7 of 10:

The first thing to note is that (albeit, with nearly 3/4 of the season to play), the scores are higher than in previous years across the board. Are we improving as a cohort, or is the league more predictable? Or have the vagaries of the fixture calendar produced a start to the season disproportionately easy to call?

The pros have the lead, along with our most 'tactile' player, Eli. Last year's biggest winners from a general perspective are sat near the bottom, with FA Cup champion Josh Gaon mimicking his real life counterparts in taking his eye off the league competition.

Still relatively early days however, and plenty of movement to occur; that much is certain.

To this week's predictions:

Aston Villa vs Cardiff - CARDIFF

Chelsea vs WBA -CHELSEA

Crystal Palace vs Everton - EVERTON

Liverpool vs Fulham - LIVERPOOL

Southampton vs Hull - SOUTHAMPTON

Norwich vs West Ham - DRAW

Spurs vs Newcastle - DRAW

Sunderland vs Man City - MAN CITY

Man Utd vs Arsenal - ARSENAL

Swansea vs Stoke - SWANSEA

Total odds: 1722/1 (PaddyPower)

Good luck guys

Matchday 10: I need a system

Folks, I'm failing you. Clearly, the pressures of being a normal working human and writing a blog on time are more than I can cope with and it's not good enough. I owe you all an apology, and I'm going to put my head down and come up with a new system so results don't back up like this.

The current masterplan is to go to biweekly blogs, that are shorter, so can be slotted in to my routine easier. That's the plan for next week, where I'll blog early in the week with all the results that have built up, and hopefully this week's too.

Until that point however, here are this week's predictions:

Newcastle vs Chelsea - CHELSEA
Fulham vs Man Utd - MAN UTD
Hull vs Sunderland - HULL
Man City vs Norwich - MAN CITY
Stoke vs Southampton - SOUTHAMPTON
WBA vs Crystal Palace - WBA
West Ham vs Aston Villa - DRAW
Arsenal vs Liverpool - ARSENAL
Everton vs Spurs - DRAW
Cardiff vs Swansea - DRAW

Total odds to be updated

Good luck guys, and check back early next week for the results

Matchday 9: *insert clever title*

Just a quick post here because I'm shortly off to the world of Puskas, Kiraly's baggy grey trackies and unpronounceable football teams, so won't be putting up last week's results just yet.

They will be up as soon as possible however.

This week's predictions however, are as follows:

Crystal Palace vs Arsenal - ARSENAL
Aston Villa vs Everton - EVERTON
Liverpool vs WBA - LIVERPOOL
Man Utd vs Stoke - MAN UTD
Norwich vs Cardiff - DRAW
Southampton vs Fulham - SOUTHAMPTON
Sunderland vs Newcastle - NEWCASTLE
Chelsea vs Man City - DRAW
Swansea vs West Ham - SWANSEA
Spurs vs Hull - SPURS

Total odds: 635/1 (PaddyPower)

Good luck guys!

The Big Results Catch Up & Matchday 8 Predos

I wanted to write last week with my thoughts on Jack Wilshere's opinion of who should be eligible to play for England, and the response from Kevin Pietersen (not a tiff, as the standard sensationalists would have you believe). Nationality is a complex topic, and one that will never be given a fair hearing when the following 3 things combine: 140 character limits, a press looking to create trouble (trouble = sales/clicks) and an inarticulate interviewee. However, given that the whole topic happened over a week ago, and there have been 2 batches of football matches in between, it would seem rather like going over old ground for no real reason other than I'd previously planned to. So I won't.

Even more spaces on the as-yet-unpuclished World Cup 2014 wallchart were filled in this week with the completion of most of the regional qualifying groups. I'm sure we'll be having a World Cup tournament here during the summer - something a little more rigorous than the sweepstake that saw Mexico lose me £20 at the last World Cup. Congrats to Bosnia & Hercegovina on qualifying for their first ever World Cup as an independent nation - Dzeko aside, I know nothing of their team, but they do a lovely range of flavoured local liqueurs if that's your thing. Their coffee is awful though. Travel tips the impossibilitee way...

This will be long enough post without further waffle, but it would be amiss not to mention England. For all the talk of Roy's pragmatism, it was yet another unbeaten qualification campaign and they scored more than double the number of goals Spain scored (having played 2 games more) - there is no chance that England will win in Brazil, but they won't lose every game 5-0 either. They are a solid knockout stage team, and the luck of the draw as much as anything else will determine whether it's a QF year, or whether they can join the pantheon of greats (nostalgic SF defeats in 1990 and 1996, stirring backing tracks, decades of crappy magazine footy shows on Sky1 with minor celebs talking about their memories of the campaign...on second thoughts...maybe qualifying wasn't so great after all...)

Enough...let's get statty:

Matchday 6:

This week, 26 people played
Most predicted result: Man United WIN (25/26)
Most disputed result: Hull vs West Ham (13-6-7 split)

Highest odds: Josh Daniels (6604/1)
Lowest odds: Steven Daniels (929/1)
Average odds: 2370/1

Best predictor: Me and Steven Daniels (7/10). Yes, Collins, I know before you start...
Worst predictor: Winters, Daniel Wigman, Menachem Grunewald & Charlie Rawson (3/10)
Average score: 4.42/10

Best predicted result:  Southampton & Liverpool WINS (22/26)
Worst predicted result: Aston Villa WIN (0/26)

Everyone's results:

Matchday7:

This week, 24 people played
Most predicted result: Liverpool WIN (24/24)
Most disputed result: Fulham vs Stoke (10-9-5 split)

Highest odds: Josh Daniels with a farcical 21,988/1
Lowest odds: Sam Ruback 680/1
Average odds: 5819/1 (3125 if the anomalies are discounted)

Best predictor: Lawro with a stonking 9/10 - only West Ham's win at White Hart Lane denied him!
Worst predictor: Feneley with a stinking 2/10
Average score: 5.21/10

Best predicted result: Liverpool WIn (24/24)
Worst predicted result: West Ham WIN (1/24 - well done to whoscored.com)

Everyone's results:

And now to the leaderboard, and as always, only those who have played >2/3 of weeks (or 5/7) are eligible. At this stage of the season, there are big movers every week, and Gaj is a prime example, dropping from the top to mid-table in just a couple of weeks. Still early days yet, however.

To this week's predictions:

Newcastle vs Liverpool - LIVERPOOL
Arsenal vs Norwich - ARSENAL
Chelsea vs Cardiff - CHELSEA
Everton vs Hull - EVERTON
Man Utd vs Southampton - MAN UTD
Stoke vs WBA - WBA
Swansea vs Sunderland - SWANSEA
West Ham vs Man City - MAN CITY
Aston Villa vs Spurs - DRAW
Crystal Palace vs Fulham - CRYSTAL PALACE

Total odds: 349/1 (PaddyPower)

That's your lot folks, good luck!

Matchday 7 Predictions - To Be Updated with Other stuff

This blog is going to just be a place-holder I'm afraid for now. I'm currently working a week on nights, and this leaves very little time for anything else - including sleeping unfortunately. So I'll just give the predictions now, and catch up with the results when I return to normal.

This week, my predictions are:

Man City vs Everton - MAN CITY
Cardiff vs Newcastle - DRAW
Fulham vs Stoke - STOKE
Hull vs Aston Villa - ASTON VILLA
Liverpool vs Crystal Palace - LIVERPOOL
Sunderland vs Man Utd - MAN UTD
Norwich vs Chelsea - CHELSEA
Southampton vs Swansea - DRAW
Spurs vs West Ham - DRAW
WBA vs Arsenal - ARSENAL

Total odds: 4,008/1 (PaddyPower)

It's 2.40 in the morning and I've just been called back. Check back tomorrow or over the weekend for last week's results

Good luck!

Matchday 6: Month 2 comes to a close

Friends, recently my life has taken a turn for the worst. Self-inflicted, undeniably but nevertheless, my sanity is being gradually eroded as a result of action I've recently taken.

I now listen to TalkSport in the car.

What an utter crock of 6 different types of farmyard manure, left to ferment and stew under an equatorial sun (obviously covered, or else it'd just dry out and your could use it for fuel or building houses or whatever, and I'm definitely not driving at it being a useful, innovative byproduct of life where resources are scarce. I digress).

Alan Brazil and whichever moron he's persuaded to roll out of bed that morning jabbering with inane cliches, with as much insight into a modern, professional game (instead of his dinosaur era 'bite-yer-legs' playing days) get me going before I've even got to work. It says a lot about you when Neil Warnock (FFS!!!!) is the most sane man on your show. But he's essentially harmless. The standard, better-in-our-day old pro struggling to retain the limelight. It's a shame they can't all be like gents of the game such as (former colleague) John Radford or (former Impossibilitee player, I should really give him a call) Sir Bobby Charlton, but such is life. However, he's nothing compared to the gobshite who ruins my commute home.

Adrian Durham. Clown Prince of c***** (my mother may well read this blog). A vicious little bugger if there ever was one, who together with the probably-not-racist-but-would-probably-at-least-entertain-the-BNP-canvasser-for-10-minutes-or-so-on-the-doorstep-and-may-offer-him-a-biscuit Darren Gough produce some of the most vapid, hypocritical broadcasting available in any country in the world. Thanks to TuneIn Radio (plug, sponsorship please), I've actually checked. 

Durham can never be wrong - when callers point out the errors in his warped logic, he verbally assaults them into submission with a mixture of low-grade insults and informing the caller that the verbatim quotation provided from 10 minutes earlier was never uttered by him at any point, ever. He'll have a bash at anyone and anything because it'll give him an extra 5 minutes of content, with no joined up thinking to a theory espoused earlier. He's a school bully, and part of me wants to call in and let rip, and most of me doesn't want to give him the satisfaction of getting a rise. So, I've ranted here, 'cos it's my blog and I want to; and otherwise I'd have to discuss the football and nothing major happened last week.

And I know I could switch to a different channel, but after experimenting I've come to the conclusion that they're all rubbish/repetitive and at least they choose new topics to be imbecilic about daily.

PS. Stan Collymore actually talks some sense, if occasionally a little communisty for my liking. Matt Holland's not terrible either, but just gets shouted down. 

PPS. Brendan Rogers should keep quiet. David Moyes should buy a Fergie mask and coat before training tomorrow so as to fool his squad into playing like the old days. Spurs are jammy, but deserved and Mouinho's a cock. And I know it's only 5 games in but whatever - we are top of the league, say we are top of the league!

Just be glad I didn't put an umlaut on every single 'o' in this piece.

Let's get statty:

This week, 26 people played

Most predicted result: Arsenal & Chelsea WINS (26/26)

Most disputed result: Norwich vs Aston Villa (7-9-9 split, one no result)

Highest odds: Josh Daniels 7040/1

Lowest odds: Will O' Doherty 1125/1

Average odds: 3458/1

Best predictor: Me, EuroClubIndex, Fink Tank, Yanik Joshi, Eli Daniels & Nathan Daniels (7/10)

Worst predictor: Nick Collins (2/10)

Average score: 5.35/10

Best predicted result: Arsenal & Chelsea WINS (26/26)

Worst predicted result: Southampton & Hull WINS (0/26)

Everyone's results:

To the leaderboard, and as always only those who have played >2/3 of games (or 4/5 so far) are eligible:

As one would expect, still pretty congested and at this stage, a couple of extreme results can cause major changes to the leaderboard.

This week's predictions:

Spurs vs Chelsea - DRAW

Aston Villa vs Man City - MAN CITY

Fulham vs Cardiff - CARDIFF

Hull vs West Ham - HULL

Man Utd vs WBA - MAN UTD

Southampton vs Palace - SOUTHAMPTON

Swansea vs Arsenal - ARSENAL

Stoke vs Norwich - DRAW

Sunderland vs Liverpool - LIVERPOOL

Everton vs Newcastle - EVERTON

Total odds: 1715/1 (PaddyPower)

Final order of business - This is the last set of predictions in September and therefore the last opportunity to enter the pay game. Thanks to those who have already paid their entrance fee, and those who have indicated a willingness to me - I'll chase you up once I know everyone who is in. If you haven't yet done so, please indicate with your predictions this week if you're keen and I'll chase you next week.

Good luck guys.

Matchday 4 Results & Matchday 5 Predos: Ain't nobody perfect

So the first fixtures after the transfer window shut have left an interesting shadow behind - the 2 Merseyside clubs are the only teams to remain undefeated, with Liverpool failing to win for the first time this season. Chelsea hammered away at Goodison, but Naismith's success where Eto'o had previously failed made Mou appear pretty helpless on the touchline.

Özil required 10 minutes to make his first impact in English football before Ramsey secured the points, compounding Atkinson's sole error in not playing on (for me, how you could penalise Sagna or Altidore against the other when they were both grappling in the same, illegal way - and as for a red card....do me a favour, it's quite clearly not a DOGSO when the 'foul' occurs). Eriksen looked sik tings at the Lane, and Gylfi obviously finally managed to swing back via Reading to collect his shooting boots. Ashley Young got his first dive of the season under his belt, then succumbed to gravity rather quickly a few minutes later - a foul was fair, but the decision to give a penalty was poor. The game, however will be remembered, for an outstandingly terrible bit of headgear from Rooney - could Cech not have lent him his scrum cap? City continue there remarkably average start to the season, whilst Newcastle seem to have got stronger by doing literally nothing. The promoted sides were understandably favourites to go down at the start of the season - and don't seem to be doing much to alter that opinion. Finally - I had a feeling Southampton vs West Ham would be one of those cracking games between similarly matched clubs. God I was wrong.

Let's get statty:

This week, 28 people played
The most popular result was Man Utd WIN (28/28)
The most disputed result was Hull vs Cardiff (8-11-9 split)

The highest odds were from Tarek Najm (4740/1)
The lowest odds were from Dan Grabiner (541/1)
Average odds: 2392/1

Best predictor: Tarek (7/10)
Worst predictors: EuroClubIndex, Fink Tank, Will O Doherty, Nathan Daniels & Sam Ruback
Average score: 4.43/10

Best predicted result: Man Utd WIN (28/28)
Worst predicted result: Newcastle & Everton WINS (1/28 - congrats Tarek & Doron)

Everyone's results:

Now the leaderboard (updated to include Yanik's results from M3, sorry...)

Possibly the most people we've ever had on a leaderboard - thought very early days still!

Another reminder too about the pay game - thanks to those who've already paid - but a few more makes the pot even larger! Let me know if you're in and we'll sort the payment out.

To this week's predictions:

Norwich vs Aston Villa

Liverpool vs Southampton

Newcastle vs Hull

WBA vs Sunderland

West Ham vs Everton

Chelsea vs Fulham

Arsenal vs Stoke

Crystal Palace vs Swansea

Cardiff vs Spurs

Man City vs Man Utd

I'll be filling mine out later in the week.

Good luck as always.