Sunday, November 21, 2010

Us versus Them (part 4)

At this point of the football season, last year, I was crowing about my ability to be a prophet of football forecasting genius. This season, I have been brought down to Earth with a thundering crash. Not only have some of my predictions been wrong, some have been laughable bad.

For starters; for Blackpool to finish bottom of the table; they're going to have to lose the next 24 matches and frankly that looks unlikely. In fact, of my bottom three forecast only Wolves look like saving my blushes and even they arguably don't deserve to be there, having played some great football and yet only have 9 points after 14 games.

Then, I forecast that Bolton would narrowly avoid the drop, finishing in 17th place. Yesterday, Owen Coyle's team recorded their 4th straight win (which included a 4-2 thumping of my beloved Spurs) with a dismantling of Newcastle by 5-1. They are prolific scorers and were 4th until Citeh thumped Fulham today.

I forecast that west Ham would have a better season and finish 14th; at the moment they're bottom on 9 points, with a marginally worse goal difference than Wolves and look really crap. They're going to have to do a lot to avoid the drop and Avram Grant will probably get the sack in the next few weeks.

Sunderland are doing better than I forecast, Fulham doing much worse. The top 7 however could have been forecast with me extremely drunk. For starters, I believed that Roy Hodgson was going to transform the fortunes of the Red Shite. He has. Liverpool are worse this season than they were under the Fat Spanish Waiter. However, as crap as they are, they're still only 9th and even without their talisman Gerard, who is injured, they are holding their own in a league that is as crazy as a nun with a pick axe.

I also forecast that Man U would drop out of the top 4 and flounder. At this point - over a third of the season gone - they are unbeaten and level on points with Chelsea, who are there by virtue of having won lots and drawn hardly any. They have lost 4 times, which shows you how many times SAF's team have drawn games.

As for my belief that the Arse would win the league... Heh... Heh heh. They got beaten by Spurs at the Emirates yesterday after leading 2-0. It's the third time they lost at home and that isn't the form of champions; but saying that, some commentators are suggesting if Spurs play like they did in the second half of that game and with everyone else dropping points everywhere else, they could be a surprise package for champions. This is my team and they are the only team to have lost to West Ham this season. The Hammers made Spurs look ordinary. Bolton made Spurs look poor last week. However, if spurs continue to upset the odds and win a few more games they shouldn't (on paper) then a top 4 finish isn't out of the question. Even if they are performing beyond everyone's expectations in the Champions League. The defeat of Arsenal was brilliant, but thumping Inter at the Lane and wiping that fat twat Rafa Benitez's smug smile off his face was still my highlight of the season by far!

Enough of the Premier League for the time being - more in March.

My gut feeling for the League cup - Everton - are out. Man U, my tip, are still in it and I think this will be their only trophy this season.

My tips for the Championship - QPR and Cardiff are 1st and 2nd. My powers of prophecy appear to have slipped down a division or three. I also said Northampton would struggle at the bottom of League 2 and they aren't disappointing (well, actually, they are really disappointing, but it isn't unexpected, especially when you dismantle the team that finished so well last season and replace it with 70% of a new, untested, team. Stevenage's season is panning out exactly as I forecast.

I also wrote this at the beginning of August: As for England and the new squad. Ho-hum. ... I'm not dramatically hopeful of any kind of improvement. The future is bereft of English talent at the moment.

It would appear that I still have the power of prophecy when it comes to guessing the 'kin obvious!

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