It was a very dour week for Dad who came in second last himself and had his super algorithm tested (and defeated) by the results this week.

You might not know why he is bottom of the three 6 pointers but I can assure you there is a tie-break criteria that comes into play.

Usually I don’t have much interest in the Trafford United versus Chelski fixture because I hate both teams.  I was generally favoring Chelsea because victory has basically no league impacts for European places or relegation so it was a harmless result.  But then something happened:  I realized that with 10 minutes to go and the result at 0-1 favoring the travelling Devils… my Dad was going to get the perfect score and steal the weekly challenge.  I’m not usually competitive but I found a passion for the game where I was cheering on the Reds and the Blues.  I didn’t care who scored but ANY goal would keep me winning.  Only a 0-1 3 pointer could ruin my day.   The last 10 minutes were packed with chances and I actually cheered when my least favorite player rounded the keeper (lucky bounce) and passed it into the empty net!  As a bonus – Louis Van Gaal was going to be interviewed about the basic lack of composure his team showed.

A perfect end to the weekend after the Hornets were disappointing in their Spuds game.

This weeks batch of fixtures look as hard as ever to pick, but here we go.

Manchester United are likely to be fielding some of their young kids today. Adam Johnson on the other side won’t be playing because he apparently likes young kids.  Sunderland have the longest streak of not keeping a clean sheet and Manchester United have won low scoring affairs against Sunderland over the last 5 years: 2-1 being the largest.  Manchester United will beat Sunderland at their own long ball game.

Bournemouth has been playing well of late and Stoke, despite their image for playing better football got trounced by Everton.  There is a homefield advantage in this series and I admit I hacked into the Anonymous Predictor this week.

Crystal Palace seem to have Watford’s number and spangle-legs Zaha has a tendency to fall over in the Hornets box to win dubious penalties (this is an unbiased Watford fan’s opinion).  I expect a tight match but once again as I was undecided I looked up another result while I had access to the Anonymous tool

Everton seem to score with every shot on target last time the two teams met.  There’s something about Everton that leads you to believe they will eventually try to make a push for Europe but the gap keeps growing and is now double digits.  Berahino may be West Brom’s best player but who knows at this point?  He’s just a potential Spurs target that doesn’t play anymore.  Everton will win a tough fought battle.

Tough to pick a winner when one team is in the bottom 3 and the other team is making the slow slide down the table.  Took another look at the Anonymous tool and decided that the team was correct but changed the score.

I really think Swansea have started a significant turn-around and are looking to stay up.  Unfortunately, Southampton have started a similar run and have the advantage of a top-notch goalkeeper.  I always say that great teams have great keepers and this is the advantage that Southampton take into Wales.

Newcastle are bad and nothing much will change that.  Chelsea, still not a force, have at least stopped losing.  Diego is so unpopular that he even gets his nose broken in training and will look something like a second rate super-hero.

Gus Hiddink will preside over another lackluster game and another win.

Cahill also wears a mask so it will definitely be a challenge to tell them apart in the game.  Gary, an England international, is finely good enough to make the team after Zouma’s knee got somewhat destroyed last week in London and fixed in Barcelona… I guess the NHS is too expensive.

I don’t like players to get hurt and even though he’s a Chelski player I hope he makes a full recovery.  I do wish it had been John Terry though.

Aston Villa are rubbish.  It turns out that Liverpool are rubbish as well.  I should pick Villa to win so that Liverpool don’t lose; however, I just can’t pick Aston Villa two weeks in a row.  There’s some logic in there somewhere.

The last two games feature the top 4 teams and have the potential to make or break the season for teams.  A Leicester win over Arsenal puts them 8 points clear of the Gunners.  Not insurmountable by any means but it starts to put pressure on the team from London and we know how well they handle pressure.   Leicester play counter football and pace up front.  Arsenal usually lose goals to counter pressure and pace up front.  If Arsenal score first it could be a tough game for Leicester to come back into.  If Leicester score first it wouldn’t surprise me to see them reverse the score from earlier in the year (5-2).  Have to believe that Sanchez is hitting prime form and will put them ahead. Walcott will double the lead before an edgy final 10 minutes sees the lead halve and Cech forced into some last minute heroics.

Citeh at Spuds has produced 40+ goals in the last 9 games and there’s only one reason to think that tally won’t increase: Spuds play decent defense and Citeh play awful offence.  There are more reasons to think it will be a high scoring affair and Spurs will pull this one out at the end.  Dembele is playing better than YaYa and Dele Alli is more enthused than anyone in blue.

Three teams within 3 points at the top? Will be an exciting end to this season.

Mid week picks weren’t too bad considering the algorithm short cuts were taken; however, you can see where the quick turnaround showed up as failures with the picks significantly underestimating the goals score (i.e. 1-1 for Liverpool vs Arsenal was clearly not accounting for all the defensive failures).  That said, I have no excuse for the universe suddenly putting the planets into an alignment that allowed for an Aston Villa win.

Looks like the competition is on again this week with me picking against la famiglia and they are quiet competitive especially when it comes to the Super Computer picks that my dad programmed (seems buggy to me as it keeps picking 2-1).

Looks like a unanimous selection for Spuds this week which says a lot about how far they’ve come in a couple of years.  This is most surprising when you consider that over the course of the last 5 years Spuds have the lowest net-spend of any premier league team – less than even Watford who like to “borrow” their players from various 2 teams in Italy and Spain (non-verified source).   Sunderland have been improving so I expect it to be quite a tight affair.

Bournemouth and Norwich are bottom half teams separated by only a single point.  Bournemouth aren’t afraid of scoring and Norwich aren’t afraid of letting goals in.  Have to favor the home team in this one.  Even only just after half way through the season these games are critical what are called 6-pointers.   I don’t get that term because generally the teams are losing most games so a win is just really a 3 pointer but tomayto-potahto.

Everton should be chasing a European spot but they just don’t seem to understand that they need to score more goals than the opposition and that a draw is only worth a single point.  They’ve stale-mated an incredible 10 games so far which is drawing more often than Tony Hart (blast from the past – who else remembers morph – a skilled footballing claymation).  Chelsea are better but still not a force with some liabilities at the back.

Manchester Blues, the Citeh, should easily win this game.  They of course lead the top net-spend over the last 5 years and should romp and rout the little Eagles (actually, Citeh have spend way less than Trafford United , though you wouldn’t know it from the style of play).  The Blues haven’t been dominating but this pick is solely based on the fact that Crystal Palace lost to Aston Villa.  No team should lose to Villa and beat anyone in the next game, let alone against a decent team.

Newcastle are one of those teams that you keep expecting to be better than they are and West Ham are that team you keep expecting to be worse than they are.  Four decent results in a row will turn into five decent results in a row for the Hammers.

Southampton dominated a decent Watford team according to Twitter (it’s how I can watch midweek) but they’ve really been very inconsistent.  Only goal difference separates the teams right now so the advantage of a home game will see them through.

Aston Villa should have no chance against Leicester.  Let’s leave it at that.  Of course last year Leicester turned things around and went on a winning streak that took them from basement to safety and there’s really nothing to stop the Villains doing the same.  Well, except they’re Aston Villa and they won’t.
The big game this week will be interesting as it features two teams that both scored and allowed 3 goals in the last game.  One had an excuse (they were playing Arsenal and had an entire hospital ward dedicated to their players).  One did not (they were playing Newcastle).  It’s hard to see any passion from the Trafford United at the moment so there should be a good chance for the scousers to keep slowly ascending the table if they can keep their head and control their emotions.

I think Klopp will open it up and set the players free at home.  it’s important to him that the team connects with the fans and I think the Reds (the real Reds and not the Devil Reds) will understand that this is the most important game of the year so far for both the team and for Klopp.

Another critical game for Arsenal that will differentiate them as pretenders from title challengers.  A mid-week draw at Liverpool and an away win at Stoke would go a long way to getting the big 4 nervous but we’re talking about Arsenal and they don’t like to make anything easy for their fans.

Watford have lost three on the bounce and the fans are restless because safety has yet to be achieved.  This is actually quite an amazing state of affairs – I think most Hornets fans would have thought that a three game skid would have been the start of a five game skid.  It’s even more shocking that the games included Citeh and Chelsea and was preceded by a 3-0 win over the team from Liverpool.  This game is a key indicator.  Swansea at home with the season slipping away with a managerial uncertainty against a pretender.  A solid victory is needed to keep the best mascot in football happy.  Unfortunately, I see one more week of nervousness and concern until QFS takes control and rights the ship.  A big win for Swansea and a bad loss for the Moose.

Congratulations to the Watford pair for Manager and Player of the Month for December!