Tag: Premier League

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Round 24 Picks

Here are the weeks predictions:

Guess Work

Looks like everyone was on time despite my late reminder – except LS.

LSTime

I made some quick guesses picks this week because I didn’t have time to do my normal lengthy analysis.

Arsenal V Crystal Palace
Arsene is finally allowed on the touchline after his three match ban for telling the referee that his terrible decision was terrible. Woy’s Boys are moving up the table and are one win away from being in the top half. It’s awmost wike Woy wants Palace to pway like Asenal. He was recently spotted doing an impression of his French opposition.

WookaWikes

Jack Wilshire playing forward will lead the scoring with Iwobi following up.  Xhaka will play like a statue and watch Zaha trap the ball, look up, think about it, take a step and side-foot in from 18 yards before pointing at another defender to blame them for being out of position.  Welbeck gets a late winner.

Brighton & Hove Albion V Chelsea
Chelsea aren’t really firing on all cylinders with Morata really struggling:

It reminds of the time they had that other European superstar:

Alonso will step and score from a free-kick late on.  Time to make him a forward.

Burnley V Manchester United
At Old Toilet Burnley gave Man You a run for their money but they relied on a fantastic free kick and that won’t happen again.  Pogba is back, Martial is playing forward, Lingard is in and they aren’t relying on Rashford.   Sounds like shutout.

Lingard and Lukaku net one each though Romelu will take 10 attempts to get his on target.

Everton V West Bromwich Albion
West Brom are bottom of the table and away.  Normally this wood be an easy to predict loss but nothing is a given any more and I expect this to be a tight affair.

Johnny Evans will put the Baggies in front before Rooney equalizes.

Leicester City V Watford
Watford are a good team with an outstanding manager.  Or so they said.  Watford are an ok team with an ok manager but are currently doing less than ok.   I expect Andre Gray to net another one of his consolation goals after Riyad “He’s Still In Leicester?” Mahrez puts the home team up two.

Manchester City V Newcastle United
Citeh lost and so now Newcastle will try the press.  One long ball one Aguero later… they fall behind.

Southampton V Tottenham Hotspur
The saints will lose to a resurgent Spurs.  Kane, Alli, and Erikson will all score leaving millions of fantasy players that captained Kane frustrated.

Kane Facts

Stoke City V Huddersfield Town
No goals.

Swansea City V Liverpool
There will always be goals against Liverpool but I think by now we should get the point that Salah and Firmino will always have chances to score…. and even the Ox can get involved.  Ayew is the only player Swansea has so he will put one past Loris Karius.  I’m sure they wish Loris was LLoris over in Mersey land.

West Ham United V Bournemouth
Don’t see West Ham losing at the cavern that is their home.

Weekly Comments

JE: “Has Sanchez signed for united for the weekly wage of the earth yet? Not checked the news!”
No he hasn’t but it’s money that Man U has earned through the money they generate from their fans in London.

AM: “I have predicted a WATFORD defeat and if that proves correct I’ll leave it there, BUT, if they even get a point I will be lodging an official complaint! :-/”
So will everyone else?

ME: “Man Pretty is my banker this week as losing last time out was a good kick up the backside. They will want to show it was just a blip. Can’t say I’d like to be in Newcastle kit this week.”
There are eleven players in Manchester who will be at the Middle Eastlands stadium thinking the same thing!

BE: “I have lost faith in Arsenal as a top team, but I think that they can still beat Crystal Palace, if not, I will be shattered.
Looks like there should be 3 or 4 definite away wins, but there have been a few upsets recently.”
In other words – the top four should win… and Arsenal aren’t in the Top 4.  Not too much argument in general except ME went for a draw at Turf Moor.  That will be upsetting to a few people if that comes true!

AB: That’s staying power http://www.bbc.com/sport/football/42645881
Trivia question for answering in comments.  Who was the oldest player to play for England? Who was the youngest?  And what was the age gap as the tie-breaker.  NO cheating!

 

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Round 23 Predictions – Round 21 and 22 Results

So we’re in the middle of the transfer season and things are a little silly.  I’m not going to comment on that aspect of the game though because I don’t understand how a model 2018 Coutinho is worth 19 times an early model Bergkamp.

I cost less than Coutinho’s Arm and Leg

The results from round 21 are in finally after the Spuds played their late game against the Hammers.  It was a tough week with many games ending in a 0-0 result which meant in a low scoring week.  It took a lot of expertise to come out looking good this week – so congratulations to JCE for topping the table with the lowest winning score of the season to date.

Challenging Week that Relied on Skill

The results from round 22 are also in.

High Scoring Lucky Guess Week

Congratulations to LS for starting his second-half turn-around…… presuming he picks in time for week 23!

Week 23

Predictions

Weekly Commentary

AB: “Keepers can, at times, grant us so much”

AM: “Happy New Year ONE and ALL. GGMU!”
Nothing to add here

ME: “Coutinho having gone may increase Liverpool ‘s chances statistically, but I can’t bet against Man Pretty …good sell…probably, but time will tell.”

i think the sale is good but it will lead to bad buys due to the influx of cash – selling Torres was great business.  Offsetting that with a huge fee for a carthorse name Carroll was the opposite.  The price of Naby Keita just went up at the same time his form has allegedly been dipping.

“Worried about Man Utd facing the sacked manager team but believe they will overcome Stoke.”

if they don’t there should be a new sacked manager.

“Relegation candidates will probably share spoils, I have to hope that is true otherwise it will be another failed week for me.”

Probably a decent call.  Lots of draws selected so you won’t be alone.

“Arsenal v Chelski was a very good game and their abilities should see them through, especially as they really need the points.”

Ramsey is back and he’s a big difference maker for that team.  He’s not necessarily noticed but their record with and without him makes him a standout.

One Line Analysis

Bournemouth V Arsenal
Arsenal are better than Bournemouth who are pretty close to the bottom of the table.

Chelsea V Leicester City
The blue team will win.

Crystal Palace V Burnley
Neither team is great but Burnley haven’t won in a while.

Huddersfield Town V West Ham United
Lowest scoring team plays rubbish team at home which might not be the most fascinating fixture of the week.

Liverpool V Manchester City
Could be lots of goals and could be Citeh’s first loss but it might not be either.

Manchester United V Stoke City
One team is bigger,better,and richer than the other team and they should win or lose their manager.

Newcastle United V Swansea City
Newcastle can’t buy players because they have no money and Swansea can’t buy players because they’re in Wales. (or maybe because they aren’t good) so neither team is filled with talent.

Tottenham Hotspur V Everton
Potato Chickens will beat the men of Toffee

Watford V Southampton
Two struggling teams with rubbish defenses and attackers but one just sold their best player and the other is getting people back from suspension and injury.

West Bromwich Albion V Brighton & Hove Albion
Finally the new manager bounce happened but it was just a small boing for the boing boings.

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Round 18 – Yet Another Round!

The picks are in from a few but not enough to warrant posting them all as I’ve yet to automate the transcribing and formatting of the entries (maybe next year).

This week I will put in a quick game prediction to help those still to pick (or allow those who have a chance to correct theirs).  It should be noted that the more thought and detail I put into these picks the worse my score tends to be.

You have been warned!

Only Two Quotables This Week

ME:  “I have given spurs a draw but think Pretty will extend their run.. patriotic me thinks!”
I agree with the patriotic piece.  KMFE went for Citeh for patriotic reasons as well but she’ll be right.

AM: “Toyed with the idea of putting Spurs down for an away win at Man City – a HUGE part of me hopes that my actual prediction is incorrect!”
Some of us hope your actual GGMU prediction is incorrect!

ME: “Watford will win if they keep 11 on the pitch.”
If you support the Herts Deer team then you cannot be patriotic.  I don’t ever know what team will show up.  I took a heart based guess this week! 

ME: “Stoke desperate for a win and Palace on a roll… I’m hopeful neither will win. I think Arsenal will play better, Newcastle won’t”
That’s about the level of my analysis!

Amusing Media
I try to usually post something amusing, clever, or funny but I’m a but tired this week and so I just have a question:

Just How bad is Andre Grey that Deeney keeps playing?

This is the opposite of missing a sitter.  Saving a sitter (not this year).

Weekly Analysis

Arsenal V Newcastle United
The Arse must be disappointed with their midweek result but they have an opportunity to play a rubbish team and make up for it with a resounding win.  Newcastle will score first just to get their away fans hoping for something better than their eventual loss.

Bournemouth V Liverpool
The Scousers must be disappointed with their midweek result but they have an opportunity to play an inconsistent team with a top goal-scorer that was at one point considered good enough for the MLS.  Bournemouth will score (because Liverpool don’t have a defense) but the Red Army will score a few more.

Brighton & Hove Albion V Burnley
This one could be 0-0 but I’m not going to write-off 17 of Burnley’s games as good fortune.  With an early favorite for Manager of the Year at the helm I see the clarets sneaking another 1 goal win.  Not quite Leicester a couple of years ago but pretty soon they will have reached safety and they will have to start talking about the disaster that is qualifying for Europa League (which I shouldn’t say as that led MU to the Champions League this year).  It won’t matter anyway, because that spot’s reserved for Spurs.

Chelsea V Southampton
Chelsea had a poor game and it was obvious that they would come back and win comfortably mid-week.  With Morata back they should score a few at home.  I think it could be a clean sheet but I just always feel Southampton find a way to score.

Everton V Swansea City
Allardyce didn’t fix Everton they weren’t that bad to begin with.  He is picking a younger squad with Calvert-Lewin and Kenny though and they’ve tightened up at the back.  Against a team that can’t score that is ominous for the Welsh boys.

Leicester City V Crystal Palace
Leicester are back to the old Leicester.  Palace are turning the corner.  Slight advantage to the home team.

Manchester City V Tottenham Hotspur
Don’t see it any way but a CIteh win.  Here’s a memory for the to-be-disappointed Potato Chicken fans.

Stoke City V West Ham United
Bore draw.

Watford V Huddersfield Town
Huddersfield aren’t very good and if the Moosemen can keep 11 players they have a chance. But who’s going to score?  Time to drop Deeney – he’s too slow, too useless.  Time to drop Andre Grey – he’s fast, too useless.   Maybe it’s time for Harry to go up front … at least we’d see some cool celebrations.
In fairness, I’d rather see some speed up front and playing Andre more consistently would give him a chance to work with Richarlison.

Goooooooooooooooaaaaaalll

West Bromwich Albion V Manchester United
The Boing-Boings might be just boinging at this point.  Manchester United look decent occasionally but mostly they are surviving on glimpses of skill by different players (Martial scored when I said he was average, Ashley Young scored twice when I said he was not good enough for Watford, Lingard scored when I forgot who he was… and Lukaku spots the net occasionally).  This week I predict the whole team will be crap so obviously they’ll sparkle in an easy win to zero.

What happened to that guest post JE?  You want me to give you access or what?

 

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Round 13 2017/18 – Thanksgiving Week

Everyone got their picks in and here they are:

Thanks For Randomness

This Weeks Quotes

Some contributions this week some seem to be an excuse for not fulfilling the promise of last year’s success with a recent mediocre run:

JE – “I have no idea about results this season. I do know that i got a good result by blagging me DM tickets! X”

Here’s one that they didn’t play – time to get the season back in gear:

I also get the banter of two arch-nemesis who should really directly antagonize each other:

ME – “I have deliberately predicted incorrect results this week to give AM a better chance! … From your team pictures it looks like Man Utd could poop over the Gulls! ”

AM- “All I’ve done in the past few weeks is take my foot off the gas just to wait for old ME to catch up! ”  “PS – ‘Old Toilet’ my arse!!”

Well head-to-head score is as follows (to ruin the suspense):

Looks Who’s Ahead!

Seems that one is winning by points but not head-to-head.  I’m sure I could call it a tie but the rules are that ME is winning!

The Game Summaries

Burnley V Arsenal
Arsenal have 18 of their 22 points at home and they are playing at Turf Moor where Burnley are actually capable of getting results this year.   Should be a close game and end with honors shared.  I want to make this 1-1 but I put 2-2 and it’s too late to change it and upload it again.  I therefore declare that the last few minutes will end in a chaotic pair of offsetting goals in time added on.

Crystal Palace V Stoke City
I think that Palace will go down but I really think that Mark Hughes should be fired so that settles that.  Palace for the win with Benteke scoring because I took him out of my fantasy team and replaced him with a goat.  Or not.

Huddersfield Town V Manchester City
Huddersfield will try and keep this a goalless affair.  Not going to happen.

Liverpool V Chelsea
So everyone thinks that Liverpool are going to lose because they let in three goals against Sevilla in the week.  Do I need to point out that they didn’t lose? This is Anfield and Mane Salah will score a hattrick to put them up 3-0.  Chelsea will score, of course.  This is my pick and is part of what I call fantasy football.  Reality football is that Jordan Henderson is playing and he’s rubbish so Chelsea probably won’t lose.

Was Merse  Drinking Again Last Year?

Manchester United V Brighton & Hove Albion 
Fellaini will score when the Red Devils revert to the long-ball and end up 1-0.  That’s what my brain said but then I realized that they’ve scored 4 goals every time they play at Old Toilet.  Brighton won’t score.  That makes 4-0 the going prediction.  So three of us will either be disappointed or happy with the number of goals.

Newcastle United V Watford
Watford are brilliant and have the best manager in the world – or so the press would have you think.  They’re average just like their opposition so I’m going to go for the old stand-by of 2-2 for the Moosemen though the players may deliberately lose to keep Silva around.

Southampton V Everton
Everton have an interim scape-goat in Unsworth and I don’t think he can be too excited at the prospect of continuing his managerial status at Everton as it’s definitely destroying his resume.  Another loss as Southampton manage to eek a goal out of something.  This deserves a 0-0.

Swansea City V Bournemouth
The Cherries are better than Swansea.  The picks seem to bear this out overall. End of discussion.

Tottenham Hotspur V West Bromwich Albion
West Brom would get a new manager bump but they have a caretaker manager in Gary Megson and are actually looking to take Alan Pardew.  I think I would have kept the old-boy Tony Pulis.  Mr P let it be known he’s in charge by basically telling Danny Rose to sit down and shut up… though he’s thinking of moving to Real Madrid if Zidane gets the boot.  Interestingly, I just read Four-Four-Two that called Zidane the best manager in the world.  Funny ole game that Spurs will win.

West Ham United V Leicester City
West Ham are playing at home and will be looking to play better than they did last week against Watford (I missed most of the game after Andy “Elbows” Carroll tried to knock-out half the opposition).  David Moyes is their manager so it’s hard to see how they will ever play better.  Close game which Leicester should win but probably won’t.

Signing off.   Preparing my analysis for next week… you can already get your picks in.  Hopefully this will give me more time to write something amusing or that makes sense.

 

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Round 07 2017/18 – Results “Black Jack”

This was a high scoring week (for some of us). Things were looking close on Saturday but a crazy set of Sunday results moved BE to the top of the pack.
There was a fairly big score this week….let’s see if you can guess what it was without looking.

A Good Hand

Maybe that wasn’t enough of a clue.  Maybe this is….

A Good Player

Twenty one points!  This is the highest score of the year and a high water mark for everyone to shoot for.  It is a lot but I should still point out that this is still four points short of the ridiculous total put up by KMFE last year that stands as the record since we started making picks 3 years or so ago.

Weekly Leaders

As mentioned, last year 25 points put KMFE to the top of the overall charts – a position from which she slowly fell.  This year, 21 points has put BE firmly at the top of the charts but we’ve been here before. It is from the top last year at the half-way point of the season that she started the magnificent slide from first to last suffering the kind of second half collapse we would expect from Watford. So don’t give up hope if you find yourself last Livi.  My advice:  Stop picking against Liverpool!

Aggregate Scores

Looks to me like the new members [LS, AB] are struggling while the experienced players [BE,JCE,ME,JE] are hanging out at the top.  LJ is an experienced player who continues to lose and live by his mantra “I think knowing football is actually a hindrance”.

Next week a quick summary of who these initialisms actually are!

Entry Form for Week 8

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Round 05 2017/18 – Premier League Picks

OIt’s only week five and already we’ve hit on what I will call the stupid schedule.. games played on a seemingly random schedule. Speaking of random, here are this weeks mix of numbers.

Random Number Generator

I don’t have a theme this week and I’m a but tired after the stressful couple of weeks so just a bog-standard summary this week.

Bournemouth vs Brighton & Hove Albion
This game is an easy pick. It’s a 2-1 pick all day long every day – especially every day after the game has been played.  A number of us already got a jump on the leader board though with the popular pick.

Chelsea vs Arsenal
Almost a unanimous decision provided here.  It’s hard to know if that’s respect for Chelsea or disrespect for the flat track bully that is Arsenal.  I’m tempted to pick an upset here as one of the key factors cited in Chelsea’s advantage is that Gary Cahill is fit.  Well,he’s in the Top 5 overrated players in English football – slow, not poised, and looks uncomfortable on the ball.

More Comfortable on the Ball than Cahill

Will be a strange atmosphere due to the increased police presence after the Parsons Green tube.

Crystal Palace vs Southampton
Woy’s Boys are back.  If he can accomplish with Palace what he did with England, we should expect Palace to finish in the top half of the table knowing they will fail to live up to their potential. I dub their new manager  “Welegation Woy”.

Huddersfield Town vs Leicester City
It’s hard to know what Leicester is this year – almost beat Arsenal (doesn’t prove much), beat Brighton (doesn’t prove they’re good) and lost to United and Chelsea (doesn’t prove they’re bad).  I suppose an away win at Huddersfield who are seemingly tough to break down might go some way to convince us they deserve more their current position.  The current news is whether Silva is a Leicester player or not having filed the final paperwork 14 seconds late – Sporting Lisbon want their cash either way.  You could argue with FIFA over what 14 seconds could mean but quite a lot can happen in that amount of time:

Liverpool vs Burnley
It’s hard to know what Liverpool is this year – almost beat Watford (doesn’t prove much), beat Arsenal and Cwystal Palace (doesn’t prove they’re good) and lost to Citeh and Chelsea (doesn’t prove they’re bad).  I read that Pre-Karius will be in goal because nothing is better behind a weak defense than a weak goalkeeper.  Klopp going for the gung-ho style of football.

Manchester United vs Everton
First time I’ve ever rooted for Rooney to score at the Old Toilet.  Will be the first time I’m disappointed that he hasn’t.

Newcastle United vs Stoke City
Newcastle fans always think they’re bigger than they are and a couple of wins later they actually believe they are.  Wrong on both counts.

Tottenham Hotspur vs Swansea City
Spuds “will hope Hurri-Kane can blast in another couple of goals”  [that joke from BE].  Swansea sounded like a Spuds midfielder last week (Dier) so Spurs should manage another win at “home”.

Watford vs Manchester City
Unanimous this one. Watford lose. Citeh win.  No arguments here.

West Bromwich Albion vs West Ham United
The boing-boings disappointed last week and West Ham grabbed a win.  Anything might happen but it will be so much more fun if Bilic gets fired.

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Round 04 2017/2018 – Premier League Results

How quickly things can change.  In less time than it takes a hurricane to move from East Florida to West Florida a winner can turn to a loser and a loser can turn to a winner.

Winners and Losers

Our double winner, Mr AM, dropped faster than the air pressure in a hurricane and LS went higher than flood waters in a bad storm.

This week the most controversial incident was one that resulted in Liverpool getting thrashed and rekindling of that age-old debate at whether accidental decapitation should be a red card or not.

Mane Not Fouling Anyone

I will post an aggregate table next week.  And finally, congrats to BE for not coming last!

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Round 01 2017/2018 – Premier League Picks

It’s Round 1 and most of the picks are in…as usual we have JE being casually late and operating on his own Fergie/Mourinho time.   Or, Silva time.

Time I Joined A Proper Club

We have a few new people join this time round to see if they can match up to the current champion and Beebster’s biggest fan,  my brother, JE.

*I may go into more detail on who is who later but I will point out three supercomputer algorithms that are playing (SC1,SC2, SC3).  The winner last year was a supercomputer!  The algorithms are proprietary and have not yet yielded financial returns (it’s illegal to wire money for betting purposes in the USA).

The opening few weeks will be a case of calibrating team expectations.  Will West Ham finally adjust to playing in a giant cavern?   How will the Spuds do playing all there games away from home at the large Wembley.  They will no doubt miss the intimate White Hart Lane and suffer from the less than intimate size of the new field (tiring on the old legs).   From the second smallest to largest field in a year is going to have an impact – not to mention their 1-4 record there last year.

The bigger problem is just keeping track of transfers and what those transfers mean.   The big names are obvious – Lukaku will be expected to deliver 25 goals (and fail), Cleverly will be expected to deliver mediocre performances (and succeed).  More than that there is the stupidity of the open transfer window – will Coutinho actually leave.

Watford bought a Burnley substitute for18m GBP which took spending to over $1 B GBP (yes, that is a B).   Let’s put that in perspective.

Loadsamoney

If you look at it from the point of view of fans:

Everyone else has Loadsamoney

All the picks so far:

Lots of Guesses

Arsenal V Leicester City

Going to be a good start to the league, lots of goals,lots of excitement.  This prediction lark is a lot easier after the fact.

Brighton & Hove Albion V Manchester City

Soufyan Ahannach has come in and make a huge difference for the Seagulls and they are looking to shatter their transfer record with a 13.5 million signing which is about the amount Yaya wants Citeh to spend on his agent’s birthday cake.   It’s not really fair is it.

Chelsea V Burnley

Most people see Chelsea walking this game but Burnley will not, I repeat, will not be as horrible away from home as they were last year.  Conte didn’t get the star power additions he wanted and Hazard is hard.  This is a tougher position than they faced all of last year.. just putting in a back 3 and playing from the front was easy.  They’ll still win.

Crystal Palace V Huddersfield Town

Palace from the Sowf at home against the newly promoted team from the the North.  I think Palace will surprise a little this year.  They didn’t get relegated with Big Sam so imagine how well they will do with a right proper boss who’s going to introduce “total” football.

Everton V Stoke City

My pick for first manager to go not called Silva is Mr Hughes.  The first game will make that one step closer to happening.   I think Rooney will be a good player in the slot for Everton.

Manchester United V West Ham United

With Lukaku, Mourinho will be hoping last year’s 0-0 games will be this year’s 1-0 games.   That’s about how ambitious the new Man Utd truly is…

1-0 !

Newcastle United V Tottenham Hotspur

Another week before we get to see Spuds at Wemberley.   Already, this is a must win game for the Le Coq on a beachball team.

Southampton V Swansea City

Two teams that no one really cares about.  Moving on.

Watford V Liverpool

The game of the Year.  Klopp for the Chop (he’s my dark horse pick for managers to get the Emre Can) vs Silva.  I’d like to say the meese have a chance and they do.   Liverpool should be focusing on the Hoff in next week’s Champions League playoff.

Don’t Hassell the Hoff

West Bromwich Albion V Bournemouth

I have Josh King and Junior Stanislas on my fantasy team so I must like the Cherries;however, I just have a hard time betting against the Old Man Tony Pullis at home.

 

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Another Season of Useless Predictions

It is a new season and once again it starts with me not knowing who plays where which is a bit of a disadvantage when it comes to trying to predict things. More importantly, I don’t know who’s going to be moving while the window is open – Benteke to West Ham, Sanchez to everywhere, and every team needing “4 or 5 players” except Manchester United who need 11 players and Manchester City who bought everything they needed. As a Hornets fan I do know change so I did take the time in the Summer to see who our new manager is – he apparently managed Hull last year and thinks that a Burnley substitute is worth $18m.

Despite knowing that my pre-season picks last year were a disaster, I am once again going to make my predictions.

So here we go again.

Young Player of the Year
Last year’s pick Raheem Sterling – seriously?
Ruben Loftus-Cheek would be a good choice if he didn’t play for Palace. You’re not going to keep them in the top 10 and so you won’t get your recognition.  My choice this year will be Jesus though my fear is that he’ll start slow and will be gone by Christmas… the Benjamin Button Son of God.

My pick is thus:

1st, Jesus
2nd, Ruben Loftus-Cheek
3rd, Raheem Sterling (fool me thrice, why don’t you – is he still young?)

Where’s Dele Ali? He’s at Spurs.

Goalkeeper of the Year

Everton spend a lot on a keeper so either he’s the man or a bust.

1st, Jordan Pickford
2nd, David DeGea

Not Jordan Pickford

Top Goalscorer

Spurs are playing at Wembley so their tally will go down, Man City will score in bunches but share them across all the forwards…then there’s Lukaku.  I really want him to fail but I’m sure he’ll be top of the charts.  Last year I picked Aguero, a rather obvious and not terrible, choice.

1st,Lukaku
2nd, Lacazette
3rd, Morata

Where’s Harry Kane?  He’s at Spurs with Dele.

Best Signings

I don’t know much about many of the players signed but there was some serious money splashed about.  Manchester City brought in a bus load of defenders but Watford managed to spend $8m on Cleverly… which is, not so cleverly.

Worst signing could be Liverpool – that would be Coutinho signing for Barca.

First Firing

First manager to be fired could be Silva because Watford have a stinker of a schedule to start (Liverpool) and could easily be bottom from the get go.  My odds on favorite, however, is Mark “most overrated manager” Hughes who will try and lead Stoke to a no-score draw record.

It’s going to be Silva.

And finally…..The Table

Here’s my end of year table.

Totally Off Base End of Year Table

At Christmas?

Technically, Only Half Crazy Table