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!