Weekend Review - 1 Oct 2011

Manchester United vs Norwich City

That is a 2 points loss rather than a point gain for the game against Basel. Our defenders are non-existent in the game. We threw 2 goal lead and have to thank Ashley Young to score the equaliser. Though we need 10 points to qualify for the knockout rounds, I suspect that Man Utd are going to make their life difficult for no apparent reason. Sigh.

2005 was the last time that we faced Norwich and ended in a loss before they got relegated in the same season. 6 seasons had passed and Norwich is back in the promised land. They had done fairly well in the first 6 games with 2 wins, 2 draws and 2 losses. And they are on a 2 games unbeaten run which i think Man Utd will end the run tomorrow.

Man Utd is giving 2.25 handicap which they have to score 3 goals to win the punt. I doubt they will thrash Norwich. Avoid the punt.

Fixture Focus–Spurs (Europa Group A, 29 September 2011)

Tottenham Hotspur vs Shamrock Rovers  

‘arry is serious about the Europa League.  He is dead serious about fielding his second stringers that is.

The gaffer is planning to make up to 10 changes to the squad that played at Wigan in order to keep his best players for the all important derby on Sunday.  And I agree with his plans.  Let’s see what the 2nd stringers can do to earn their spot in the senior squad. 

Expect to see seven or eight internationals including Roman Pavlyuchenko, Aaron Lennon and Steven Pienaar in the starting line up. Michael Dawson, William Gallas and Tom Huddlestone will definitely not play due to injury but they can expect to be joined in the stands by stars such as Luca Modric, Rafael Van der Vaart and Emmanuel Adebayor.

Rovers, meanwhile, may welcome central defender Ken Oman back as he continues his recovery from a knee injury while Craig Sives is also expected to be available despite missing last Sunday’s 5-2 win against Bray Wanderers. Forward Gary O’Neill is O’Neill’s only definite absentee.  Former yiddo Rohan Ricketts should also feature against his old club.

COYS!!!

EPL Prediction League Match Weekend 1–2 October 2011

EPL13: SAT 1/10 Everton v Liverpool at 7.40pm SIN/HKT

EPL14: SUN 2/10 Tottenham Hotspur v Arsenal at 10.55pm SIN/HKT

It’s a Derby Double! GAME ON!

Scoring System
3-Points for a correct outcome (Win, Lose or Draw)
1-point each for correct score on each side.

Double Entry
Later submission shall override earlier submission.

Penalty
Submissions after kick-off will not be admissible. (Disqualification)

Blog Blackout
This Prediction League will be played here but if in the event this blog goes down, we will automatically carry on the league over to the personal blog of Voxeros at http://www.JayWalkOnline.com. Please bookmark this or at the very least stay in touch with one of us as we will also be helping all stay in the loop via the various channels like MSN, Skype, email as well as SPUG Off-Topic Chat.

Midweek Outlook (27 Sep 2011)

   Manchester United vs FC Basel   

Is it just a coincidence or did we drop points simply because Wayne Rooney did not play?

Our winning streak came to an end with a 1-1 draw against unlikely Stoke City. It was only mere weeks ago that we kicked aside the likes of ManCity, Chelsea, Arsenal and Spurs, then suddenly this weekend we can't get past Stoke?

The dark clouds are looming as our list of injuries suddenly exploded before anyone can finish spelling the name Hargreaves. Rooney is out alongside with Hernandez. We'd be missing Evans, Smalling, Vidic, Rafael, Cleverly and Gibson.

Granted that we usually play our B-team for mid-week fixtures, I'd thought perhaps Fergie would like to open the 3-point account in the ECL, by upping the fire power department a few notches here.

So.

We are in the first round of the ECL where 10 points out of a total of 18 is all we need to advance. Still, I'd rather get the 10 points early than leave it till the wire.

Squad-wise for today should see Lindegaard manning the sticks while we have a choice of Macheda, Bubba, Welbeck and recently in-form Owen to deploy up front. We should see the old guards taking center stage. Giggs and Park should take on the flanks while wait..... has anyone seen Carrick? Paging for Mr Carrick!! Young may get another game following a good showing at Stoke which will mark his ECL debut if he gets onto the pitch today. Oh and yes, do save a spot for Valencia too.

Bookies are making ManUtd give a 1.75 ball handicap at 1.875 to clear it. 1X2 says ManUtd to win it at 1.18. The wager pot is skewed towards ManUtd at 82% to 18%.

Looks like everybody is expecting a Swiss Spanking tonight.

How is this so with a B-team, you may ask? Well, the answer lies in the fact that while Basel come into this tournament as Swiss champion, they are having a disastrous start to the new season currently languishing in fourth.

With a lousy form coming into the Theatre of Dreams is like sheep being herded into the slaughterhouse. A two-goal victory should be something achievable to us relatively easy today.

Fergie further added that he wishes to secure the subsequent 9 points starting with today's game so that we can ease off the pedal two games ahead to prepare for the Christmas/New Year fixture jam.

Good call.

JayWalk's 2011/2012 Track Record to-date (27 Sep 2011) : P34-W20-L14

- Voxeros

Results - Game 24 - 25 Sep 2011 EPL Prediction League 2011/2012

Sigh. It is still a zero weekend for me as I just can't find that touch to get the outcomes right. :(

Congrats to ihawk98, Bedokian and Mr White for opening their respective accounts in the Marksmen Board.

Congrats to Bedokian again for being the only 6-pointer this weekend to climb to 3rd.

Congrats to Beaver21 for pulling away to a 2-point lead over nearest rival Everton.

Congrats!

Housekeeping Notes: All of this season's tables will be kept in Flickr's photoset. Click Here.
 

EPL Prediction League "Perfect Score" Hall Of Fame
Perfect Score = 2 correct-score predictions in a single weekend and hence the award of the full 10 points.

1) Nobody Yet!

Marksmen Board (Number of Exact Predictions)
3 Games - Everton
2 Games - Beaver21
1 Game  - redherring, ianrush, cool402, necroastr, Mr White, ihawk98, Bedokian

Scoring System
3-Points for a correct outcome (Win, Lose or Draw) 1-point each for correct score on each side.  

Double Entry
Later submission shall override earlier submission.

Penalty
No points for submission after kick-off. (Disqualification)

Blogspot Blackout
The EPL Prediction League will be played here but if in the event Blogger/Blogspot servers go down, we will automatically carry on the league over to my personal blog at http://www.jaywalkonline.com/.

Please bookmark this or at the very least stay in touch with one of us as we will also be helping all stay in the loop via the various channels like MSN, whatsapp, email as well as SPUG Off-Topic Chat.

Prediction League Past Winners 

Copa America 2004 - WeiMeng

EPL 2004/2005 - Friday13

EPL 2005/2006 - ianrush

World Cup 2006 - EdwinSng

EPL 2006/2007 - Voxeros

EPL 2007/2008 - Cool402

Euro 2008 - Voxeros

EPL 2008/2009 - Everton

EPL 2009/2010 - ihawk98

World Cup 2010 - Raynaldo

EPL 2010/2011 - Mr White

As usual:

1) If you have spotted a mistake, please let me know where and what so that I can amend them accordingly.

2) Please check your scores for accuracy as soon as possible before I update the table during the next round of scores. Once the table has been updated, the old table will be overwritten.

3) In case you are still seeing the old table even if I have announced a new update, please refresh your browser to reload the table.

Weekend Review - 24 Sep 2011

Stoke City vs Manchester United

Normally for cup competitions like Carling Cup, top teams will rest their players to give young blood a taste of first team action, but Fergie went one better by fielding 8 attackers against Leeds.

Carrick at centre back, Antonio Valencia at right back, Giggs and Park Ji-sung in central midfield and 4 attackers comprising of Berbatov, Owen, Macheda and Diouf. The rivalry against Leeds doesnt get any lower than this. And end the match with Berbatov as centre back after Zeki Fryers got off with leg cramps.

On the other hand, Stoke have to battle hard against Tottenham in 120 minutes and end victorious in the penalty shootout. Going to be a physically drained against Man Utd

Man Utd have won all 6 matches against Stoke, since they promoted 2 seasons ago. Again this trend will continue as Fergie field the First 11.

Fixture Focus - Spurs (24 Sep 2011)

Wigan Athletic FC vs Tottenham Hotspur

Remembered the "W" team jinx that I had mentioned frequently last season? Seems like in this season, we are slowly cleaning ourselves off it, with an earlier away victory at Wolves.

This weekend we would be travelling to the DW Stadium, home of the Latics, where it has become some sort of a fortress status, with a run of 6 unbeaten EPL games. We could see the return of Gallas and Sandro in the lineup, along with our recent favourite playmakers Parker and Adebayor. On top of those that I mentioned above, we could see Friedel, Assou-Ekotto, Walker, King, Bale, Modric, Van der Vaart and Defoe making either a start or on the bench.

Wigan are having injury problems in their attack, but we still have some reasons for worry in the form of Di Santo, their recently-acquired goalscoring machine. Martinez and his team will definitely not take us, a top 4 aspirant, lightly.

Outcome? It would not be a goalfest like 2 seasons ago, nor it would be a defeat, but a victory with a slim margin for us.

COYS!!!!!

EPL Prediction League Match Weekend 24-25 September 2011

EPL11: SAT 24/9 West Brom v Fulham at 9.55pm SIN/HKT

EPL12: SUN 25/9 QPR v Aston Villa at 9.55pm SIN/HKT

GAME ON!

Scoring System
3-Points for a correct outcome (Win, Lose or Draw)
1-point each for correct score on each side.

Double Entry
Later submission shall override earlier submission.

Penalty
Submissions after kick-off will not be admissible. (Disqualification)

Blog Blackout
This Prediction League will be played here but if in the event this blog goes down, we will automatically carry on the league over to the personal blog of Voxeros at http://www.JayWalkOnline.com. Please bookmark this or at the very least stay in touch with one of us as we will also be helping all stay in the loop via the various channels like MSN, Skype, email as well as SPUG Off-Topic Chat.

Fixture Focus - Spurs (20 Sep 2011)

Stoke City FC vs Tottenham Hotspur

(League Cup 3rd Round)

For the first game of our League Cup campaign this season, we would be travelling to the Britannia Stadium to face Stoke, our Europa League fellow competitor.

Spurs will be entering this competition with earnest, or so said Redknapp who had expressed interest for the League (Carling) Cup. With the huge victory over Liverpool at the Lane behind them, we may not see the majority of Sunday's team playing this time round, though. Likely starters at goal would be Gomes, with Gallas (if fit), Bassong, Townsend and Corluka at the back; Sandro (if fit), Van der Vaart, Krancjar and Livermore in the middle, and Pavlyuchenko and Kane up front.

Stoke so far has no injury problems and we may see a reunion with recent-ex-Spurs players Crouch, Palacios and Woodgate in this game.

Let the Carling Cup games begin (for us)!!!!

COYS!!!!!

Midweek Outlook (20 Sep 2011)

   Leeds United vs Manchester United  

We kick off the start of the Carling Cup tournament travelling to Elland Road to face Leeds. Who can forget Leeds during their heydays? Leeds' exports to us in the likes of Ferdinand, Smith and of course Cantona has served us handsomely over the years. This is on top of other top names like Bowyer, Woodgate, Martyn, Viduka and Kewell that went out and serve their respective new masters well.

Leeds are a pale shadow of themselves after failing to keep their financials in order. An over zealous attempt to keep up with the big boys, having tasted European top tier competition, had left them hollow on the inside. A vicious cycle was thus sparked with Leeds having to sell key players in order to stay afloat. Without key players, Leeds can't perform as well as they are expected to, resulting in lower revenues and again. Lower revenues means selling of more key players (they are worth more) to stop the bleeding. Rinse. Repeat.

ManUtd should be sending in the veteran's brigade for this mid-week clash as the so-called B-team has stuttered on their season's debut drawing with Benfica at the ECL. I would expect Carrick, Giggs and Park to be on the pitch. Lindegaard should be between the sticks while Berbatov, Macheda and Owen will be vying for the 2 available spots up front.

There is a lot of talk about Paul Pogba making an appearance today but I can't be too much bothered to be watching him. Show me something first before I give him my attention.

Rest of the squad will be a mix pot of noobs and vets as the subsequent weekend game is against newly promoted Stoke City which doesn't require as much resting of key players as they did in preparation against Chelsea.

Asian Handicap is making ManUtd, the away team, give a 1.25 ball handicap and a decimal odds of 2.025 to beat it. 1X2 payout for a ManUtd victory is 1.49 and so in layman's speak. ManUtd to win.

Form-wise, some warned that Leeds has won all of their last 3 home games but it should also be highlighted that none of them are against the top tier side of the English competition.

ManUtd's B-team will break Leeds' home winning streak today. The bet is whether it'd be by a goal or not.

After watching B-team's sluggish start to the new season, I'd expect them to carry on in the 1st-2nd gear stages for the next couple of weeks.

No bet on ManUtd this week.

JayWalk's 2011/2012 Track Record to-date (20 Sep 2011) : P28-W16-L12

- Voxeros