Only safety and places in Europe to play for as Leicester claim the title. There is always advertising for “Championship Weekend” and every year the title is already secured. Football (soccer) may have made it in the USA but there is still a closeted desire for there to be a play-off to provide that end-of-year excitement and predictable finale. I try to explain that the FA Cup, and to a lessor extent the Champions League, holds the honor of providing that drama but it’s not the League title and that’s the tournament that really matters. The fact that the Champions League winners will not be their domestic title holders still doesn’t sit right – I’m still old-school fan where the European Cup was a knock-out of Champions.
Why all the chatter? With all the talk of Leicester being the greatest upset, greatest story in football history it seems that we all forgot an even bigger achievement of two European cups in a row where only domestic champions and current holders qualified.
But achievement does not equal odds. At 5000-1 (or 2500-1 depending on bookie) the odds given to Leicester was staggering.
To put it in context these are current 5000-1 bets:
- Elvis is found alive.
- Yeti or Loch Ness Monster is proven to exist.
- Christmas is the warmest day of the year in England.
- Kanye West and Kim Kardashian name their next child Sinner.
- Kim Kardashian becomes the U.S. president in 2020.
- Barack Obama plays cricket for England after he leaves Oval Office.
Src:
http://espn.go.com/espn/feature/story/_/id/14759409/why-leicester-city-become-biggest-long-shot-champion-sports-history
I think Christmas being the warmest day may be worth a bet for a few years from now.
Last week’s results were terrible for me. I guess I tried too hard to be different – picking West Brom over West Ham? Seriously, what was I thinking!
| Dad, Mum, Spouse | 5 correct, 1 perfect | 7 pts |
| Me | 3 correct, 1 perfect | 5 pts |
| Me | 3 correct | 3pts |
This weeks picks:
| Me | |
| Norwich vs Manchester United | 1-2 |
| Aston Villa vs Newcastle | 1-2 |
| Bournemouth vs West Brom | 2-1 |
| Crystal Palace vs Stoke | 0-1 |
| Sunderland vs Chelsea | 1-1 |
| West Ham vs Swansea | 2-0 |
| Leicester vs Everton | 1-1 |
| Tottenham vs Southampton | 2-0 |
| Liverpool vs Watford | 3-0 |
| Manchester City vs Arsenal | 1-1 |
Trafford United are trying to get into the Top 4 and a win against Norwich will put pressure on Citeh who disappointed in the Euro Champions League (Arsenal aren’t home free yet either). They will face a Norwich team trying to claw and scratch their way out of the bottom 3. A closer encounter than one would normally expect but the Red Devils will eek out another win and in the end the numbers will make future statisticians wonder why LVG was fired at the end of the year.
Villa have 16 points. That seems like it should make them the worst team in Premier League history but the record shows that Derby got relegated with 11 points. Norwich and Sunderland will be hoping that the Villains will pull off an unlikely victory but I don’t expect them to do any favors. No one will be relegated this week but it’s one step closer for Norwich.
With one win in the last 10 between them it’s hard to predict that either of these teams will try and win but with 2 draws it’s hard to think that is a result either. I’d pick them both to lose if I could but a coin flip put Bournemouth on top.
Crystal Palace are not mathematically safe but are safe. This is a typical Pardew year – the dizzy heights of November are give way to the second half collapse. This is the same trend we saw at Newcastle and it’s unexplainable other than players can only tame so much false motivation until they realize that they’re crap. Focus on the FA Cup, boys.
Leicester have wrapped up the title. Everton have likely succeeded in Roberto having a tv gig next year. Full on Champagne and Pizza the Foxes fail to impress but still impress more than Everton who have nothing left to play for.
Tottenham lost the title the first few weeks and tried desperately to catch up… but this week with nothing to play for they will dominate the Saints
Watford beat Liverpool 3-0 earlier in the year. Revenge is sweet. I can safely predict this up and down score because that’s Liverpool’s year has had more up and downs than [insert rude thing here].
Citeh vs Gunners.. should have and could have been so much more important. A draw or loss for Citeh puts tremendous pressure on them of Trafford United wins. All of a sudden they lose control of their own destiny. The last 2 weeks will have a tremendous impact on next year – always say that if one team can mess up the perfect scenario… its’ Citeh.