Premier Predictions (Week 33)

Extended week this time with 7 games on Saturday, 3 on Sunday and a bonus game on Wednesday.
Saturday's early game is a big one as West Ham really need another win over Arsenal to stay in touch of the top 4, although dodgy refereeing has cost us victory in the last 3 games, so looks like the FA don't want us there?
Villa might be relegated this week if they lose again or Norwich win.
On Sunday Leicester have the chance to go 10 points clear before Tottenham play, although Sunderland are desperate for the points as well.

West Ham v Arsenal
Aston Villa v Bournemouth
C Palace v Norwich
Southampton v Newcastle
Swansea v Chelsea
Watford v Everton
Man City v West Brom

Sunderland v Leicester
Liverpool v Stoke
Tottenham v Man Utd

C Palace v Everton

Good Luck All :)

(Next week will be even more confusing as there are 15 games over 6 days, so will probably post that before this week is over).

Champions League

Champions League Quarter Finals this week.

Barcelona v Athletico Madrid (2-1)
Bayern Munich v Benfica (1-0)
Paris St Germain v Man City
Wolfsburg v Real Madrid

Barcelona beat Athletico Madrid after Fernando Torres did a 10 minute Hero to Villain routine, Barca should be favourites but Simeone's Madrid are horrible to play against. I should dislike them with the miserable moaning Simeone in charge and a team that displays all the dark arts but I like the way they upset the mega-money pair in Spain.
Bayern Munich struggled to beat Benfica 1-0 and will have to perform better at the real Stadium of Light.

Tonight sees City taking on Zlatan and his Paris supporting cast, shame City don't have a defence so they just need to score more goals than Paris? should be good :)
Real Madrid should be able to overcome Wolfsburg  assuming Ronaldo plays.

Premier Predictions (Week 32)

Last of the international weeks out of the way till the end of the season, the only good thing to come out of Hodgson's dislike of West Ham players is that none got injured playing for him. Stoke must be wishing he hated them as much.
Fixtures reasonably normal this week with 8 on Saturday and 2 on Sunday before all the re-arranged games start kicking in the week after.
Big game this week could be Tottenham going to Liverpool as they need something before Leicester play on Sunday, as they could possibly be 11 points behind before they play again?? :)

Aston Villa v Chelsea
Arsenal v Watford
Bournemouth v Man City
Norwich v Newcastle
Stoke v Swansea
Sunderland v West Brom
West Ham v C Palace
Liverpool v Tottenham

Leicester v Southampton
Man Utd v Everton

Good Luck All :)

Predictions And Fantasy Football Update

Here's the full predictions table up to the end of Week 31
John still leading but Longy and Paulo just one win away.

and here are some selected Fantasy Football Top 5's

FPL - Gary back on top after I chose the wrong captain :( Still close with only 7 weeks to go

TFF - Blog League - Ryan still leads the way.
TFF Euro's - Ray and Richard are top dogs, and I keep picking players who don't play.
My League - 6 Teams in the Top 1000 which is a lot better than I usually do :)
Rick's - I'm hanging on to the lead.
Major TFF Leagues - In the Top 5's of all of them, so hopefully some cash to come in May?

Johan Cruyff R.I.P

Sad to hear that Johann Cruyff died of cancer today :(
Knew he was ill, but still a shock that a real legend of football has gone.
A star in that brilliant Holland team I grew up watching in the 74 and 78 World Cups.

One of that small group of players that I will always think of first when someone says who was the greatest footballer of all time.

Premier Predictions (Week 31)

Games on Saturday and Sunday this week before another International break.
Saturday's early game sees Arsenal taking on Lukaku and co, followed by West Ham with a chance to go 3rd when they thrash Chelsea :)
Leicester can go 8 points clear if they beat Palace?

Sunday starts with the big North East relegation battle, Big Fat Sam vs the Spanish waiter.
Plus the Manc derby which might be the battle for 5th place this season?

Everton v Arsenal
Chelsea v West Ham
C Palace v Leicester
Watford v Stoke
West Brom v Norwich
Swansea v Aston Villa

Newcastle v Sunderland
Southampton v Liverpool
Man City v Man Utd
Tottenham v Bournemouth

Good Luck All :)

Hmmm ...

Much as I love West Ham, some of the products they have been selling have been "tacky" to say the least :)
Latest one is a pair of foam hands in the shape of Upton Park???

This rates alongside the Sullivan and Gold garden gnomes and the hammers gravestones available.

F.A Cup Semi Finals

I was having a look for somewhere to put a bet on the semi final draw, as I knew we would get Everton but couldn't find one :(

Saturday 23rd April - Crystal Palace v Watford
Sunday 24th April - Everton v West Ham or Man Utd

6th Round replay to be fixed after Thursday's Europa league game, if Man Utd get knocked out it will be the first week in April, if by some chance they get through it will have to be in the week before the Semi?

McClaren Gone

Maybe if Steve McClaren had got himself one of those dead animal wigs like Trump maybe he would have been more popular?
(Managed to crowbar in a political point there) :)

He seems like a nice guy (McClaren) but he's not a good manager, I was having nightmares at the end of last season when his name was being mentioned as a possible West Ham manager.
Despite bringing in players for £75 million this season they look worse this season than last? Shelvey and Townsend seem reasonable buys but the rest of the team look like they can't wait to get out of the door.

Not sure bringing in Benitez is going to help much as most of his successes have been achieved at clubs that were doing alright before his arrival, don't think Ashley will be too happy spending multi millions replacing all the Frenchmen with Spaniards, especially if they get relegated.

If it comes down to a relegation battle of Allardyce v Benitez I know who I would fancy to stay up.

Premier Predictions (Week 30)

Here we go with the most confusing prediction competition I've ever done :)
Total of 9 games over 4 days. 5 Premier league and 4 FA Cup games.
All games count towards the weekly Premier league competition, and the 4 Cup games will also count in the Cup competition (does that make sense). So simply please all do the 9 games.

First game is on Friday night? plus 4 on Saturday.
Arsenal have to play Sunday afternoon before travelling to Spain to play Barcelona on Tuesday (if it wasn't already hard enough?).
The big game is Sunday at 4pm with West Ham trying to reach the Semi's for the first time in 10 years.
The other big game is Monday night with Leicester trying to get one game closer to the title against Newcastle who might not have a manager?
Phew ... Good Luck All :)
----------------------------------------------------
Reading v C Palace (FAC)

Norwich v Man City
Bournemouth v Swansea
Stoke v Southampton
Everton v Chelsea (FAC)

Arsenal v Watford (FAC)
Aston Villa v Tottenham
Man Utd v West Ham (FAC)

Leicester v Newcastle

Sad

Something that annoys me, don't know why?

I've always known that West Ham's ground was actually called the Boleyn ground and is located in the London borough of Upton Park.
But throughout my life which includes many hundreds of visits I've always called it Upton Park, as does every person I've ever talked football with.
Suddenly it seems trendy in the media to call it the Boleyn? the Boleyn is the pub at the end of the road.

It was nice to hear David Gold correct the BT guy at the weekend when asked about leaving the Boleyn, he replied "we've always called it Upton Park".

Premier Predictions (Week 29)

The games coming thick and fast now, this weeks are 8 on Saturday and 2 on Sunday.
The big game is the early kick off with 3rd place Arsenal against 2nd place Tottenham, Leicester will be hoping Arsenal win although that doesn't look likely after another non performance this week.
Man City should get 3 points, Leicester have a tricky away game, and West Ham go to their bogey team and Lukaku always scores against us :(

Tottenham v Arsenal
Chelsea v Stoke
Everton v West Ham
Man City v Aston Villa
Newcastle v Bournemouth
Southampton v Sunderland
Swansea v Norwich
Watford v Leicester

C Palace v Liverpool
West Brom v Man Utd

Good Luck All :)

Premier Predictions (Week 27 + 28)

Decided to to a double bill this time.

Week 27
6 games on Saturday and 2 (+1) on Sunday, due to the League Cup Final we only have 8 Premier league games.
So I've included the Cup Final in this weeks predictions.
For this game I'm using the 90 minute (+ injury time) score only, so if it goes to extra time it's a draw .. all clear :)

Big game this week should have been Man U v Arsenal but that's looking more like a shoot out for the top 4. Big fat Sam's return to Upton Park might be interesting, hopefully we will turn it on against one of the lower teams for a change?

West Ham v Sunderland
Leicester v Norwich
Southampton v Chelsea
Stoke v Aston Villa
Watford v Bournemouth
West Brom v C Palace

 Man Utd v Arsenal
Tottenham v Swansea
(League Cup - 90 Minute Score)
Liverpool v Man City
---------------------------------------------------

Week 28
Midweek Premier league games this week, 5 on Tuesday, 5 on Wednesday.
Liverpool play Man City again and West Ham take on Tottenham owing them one.

Aston Villa v Everton
Bournemouth v Southampton
Leicester v West Brom
Norwich v Chelsea
Sunderland v C Palace

Arsenal v Swansea
Stoke v Newcastle
West Ham v Tottenham
Liverpool v Man City
Man Utd v Watford

Post before kick off's and Good Luck All :)

 p.s. Anyone heard anything of Gobshyte? hasn't posted here since last August, and hasn't updated his blog since last June. Hope he's OK??

F.A Cup 6th Round

The draw for the 6th Round of the F.A Cup (Quarter Finals).

Reading v Crystal Palace
Everton v Chelsea
Hull or Arsenal v Watford
Shrewsbury or Man Utd v West Ham

As a Hammers fan I'm glad that Chelsea play Everton, as I expected us to get drawn away to one of those :)
Shrewsbury away not so bad, unless the under performing ones suddenly start turning it on and a trip to Old Trafford might be harder?

Used to rely on the BBC for football news, but their site has gone to pot recently?
This is their version of the draw??

According to them Chelsea and Palace have 2 chances to get through and Arsenal, Hull ,Shrewsbury, Man Utd don't need to bother playing anymore as they are already out.

F.A Cup Predictions (Part 3)

Cup week again with the 5th Round, 4 games Saturday, 3 on Sunday and one Monday.
3 all Premier ties and a possibility of all Premier Quarter finals (or not).

Arsenal v Hull
Reading v West Brom
Watford v Leeds
Bournemouth v Everton
Blackburn v West Ham
Tottenham v C Palace
Chelsea v Man City
Shrewsbury v Man Utd

Looking like a straight fight between Biopunk and John, the rest of us need near perfect weeks to catch up :(

The Masked Men

Good to see Diego Costa has joined the masked men of Chelsea.
Although with the early season form maybe it was a group of imposters just pretending? :)

R.I.P Ivanov

Sad to hear that my favourite Bulgarian footballer Trifon Ivanov has died of a heart attack at just 50 years old :(
The hairiest, scariest looking player of the last 30 years.
Actually a pretty decent player despite looking like he'd escaped from the set of a werewolf movie.

:(

Scum

Premier Predictions (Week 26)

7 Games on Saturday and 3 on Sunday this week.
The big games are on Sunday this week with the top 4 playing each other.
Leicester will stay top whatever happens, but have the chance to increase the lead?
Vardy vs Mertesacker just isn't a fair contest :)

Sunderland v Man Utd
Bournemouth v Stoke
C Palace v Watford
Everton v West Brom
Norwich v West Ham
Swansea v Southampton
Chelsea v Newcastle

Arsenal v Leicester
Aston Villa v Liverpool
Man City v Tottenham

Good Luck All :)

Rip Off

Not sure why anyone would want to pay money to watch Liverpool :), 
but I must give some rare praise to Liverpool fans after last weeks protest which seems to be raising the right questions about the money grabbing owners of football teams.



Don't think much will change unless everyone says "enough is enough" and boycott complete matches or fans refuse to buy season tickets.
With the amount of money being given to Premier league clubs by the new TV deal the least they could do would be to freeze the prices, or preferably drop them?

I've been to a few lower league games watching Southend where the home teams have large stadiums way too big for the couple of thousand fans who turn up and it's a weird experience.
Much as you try to improve the mood by singing and making noise, it still feels wrong.

If the owners feel that they don't need the real supporters anymore and are only catering for "the prawn sandwich brigade" (as Roy Keane once put it so well), they will be in for a nasty shock down the line.
Good TV entertainment requires a great atmosphere to be generated by the crowd as in "real" fans who will keep cheering even when their team is in the relegation spots and are 2-0 down at home.
I feel TV companies will think twice about coughing up billions to show "soulless" matches played in near silence in half empty stadiums.

Would be nice if British clubs took a leaf out of
Uli Hoeness's book :)
Here (right) he explains why the season ticket price is so low at Bayern Munich.
The likes of Bayern Munich and Borussia Dortmund get full houses of 80,000 every game and yet a season ticket costs less than going to 2 games in this country, but you still get to see some of the best players in the world.