Dan

If the other Championship fans think they hate us now they're going to be in for a whole world of pain this month. I think we're likely to get another 2/3 in.

Think the three who came up will all go - you have a genuine possibility that the 2022/23 and 2024/25 Premier Leagues have the exact same 20 teams.

I've spent the season trying to not be too carried away because ultimately it is my belief that our relegation was absolutely staggering underperformance and that anybody considered a breath of fresh air could come in and probably get us promoted. This is probably going to be what stops Maresca getting all the credit that he does deserve. 20 wins from 25 is very good even if it is expected of us and the question I'd ask is how many of the Premier League would manage that? I reckon it's certainly less than 17, which bodes well. The recruitment in the summer was largely good. Fatawu is looking like more of an absolute gem of a signing by the week, 19 years old and has the most chances created per minute of any player in Europe. Mavididi has faced a bit of criticism but he's too good for this league as well. Hermansen and Winks are a class above the league as well. Dewsbury-Hall is likewise proving his level is above this division. It was expected of us, but it was also expected of Leeds and they're now the same number of points away from us as they are from Birmingham in 20th. After last season and how depressing it was, and despite the fact our performance this season has kind've reaffirmed every single word I said about how badly we underperformed last season, it is nice to be moving in the right direction on the pitch again. Credit to Maresca - who is still a rookie in the game.

I really am not going to win ever again.

Aberdeen v St Mirren - Home win @ 1.90 (9/10) - This feels like a game where I'm catching a team on their upwards curve against one on their downwards curve. Aberdeen are 8th and St Mirren are 5th in the table, but I think Aberdeen have the naturally higher level and their underlying data does suggest an upturn was likely. They've won their last three home games in all competitions. St Mirren started brightly but they've lost six on the bounce away from home, and just 1 point in 8 away games. I think the price is just about good enough to get on Aberdeen here. Juventus v Roma - Home win @ 2.05 (21/20) - I think the odds on a Juventus win here are simply way too big. There's a chasm between these two teams anyway which I think anybody who has a vague enough interest in Italian football will know, but when you throw in that Juventus have won this fixture in 12 of the last 14 seasons, that they have 20 points at home to Roma's 8 away from home (from 8 games each) and sit pretty handily above them in the table, I'm really quite surprised you're getting better than even money on it. One of the kindest prices I've seen in a while if my judgement is worth anything, which this thread tells you it might not be. But we shall see. £10 returns £38.95. Which of the two do we reckon are getting a first half red card?

Think if there were any doubts a month ago they're long gone. 62 points by the start of the new year our relegation last season really was one of the most criminally bad bits of mismanagement you will ever see in sport. Have to say that was incredibly simple. After some initial promise under Bulut Cardiff looked absolutely woeful, one of the easiest games we've had for me.

WEEK 21 - THE NIGHTMARE BEFORE CHRISTMAS WEEK 21 STATS Winning bets: 0/5 Winning selections: 3/10 Weekly forum position: -£65.00 (Ranked 18/21) --- OVERALL STATS Winning bets: 37/148 Winning selections: 127/280 Total forum position: -£391.27 A slight delay in getting the table out here and I have to say, it really wasn't worth the wait, as we land our fourth worst weekend of the season with nobody collecting a win. The biggest loser of the week, and season however is @Pyfish who becomes the first to use, and lose his £25 bonus bet, and it comes with the double whammy of it being courtesy of a Grimsby defeat at home to Harrogate. Mansfield delivered a 0-2 victory in the other leg, but Grimsby lose at home and the lead at the top is cut, and not courtesy of anybody winning. @CaaC (John) was the only player to post two losers as neither Arsenal or Brighton could get wins in big away games, both managing 1-1 draws. @RandoEFC has his third loss on the trot as Dundee United couldn't beat Queens Park to even secure the void, as Union St Gilloise fairly surprisingly for me only managed a 1-2 win at the leagues bottom side in Eupen. I'd have expected a much heavier win in that game I have to say. @Stan comes the closest to picking a winner but the 3rd goal in Wrexham v Newport never arrives. It appears that Wrexham have reigned in the chaos somewhat, with the silly scorelines definitely slowing down somewhat, but an annoyance nontheless. Stockport beat Notts County 2-1 in the other game, so it came close. And as per any post on the league table, it comes with a sob story from myself. Part of me is pissed off that I seem to have saved what feels like all of the abysmal luck for a public thread, but part of me also thinks it's a good job I'm not actually backing these and that I'm doing a lot better on the real thing. The Cheltenham pick was a bit of a blinder, their upturn under Darrell Clarke has been sensational frankly given how badly they started. Sampdoria, well I was right about the chaos factor, but it was over once they got a red card. They went 0-2 down early, got one back but then had Pajtim Kasami sent off. Brought it back to 2-2 in the second half, but conceded a late winner. Yet again I'm pretty sure without the red they probably go on to win the game, but sods law. This makes it a remarkably bad 20 losses in 21 weeks. Easy to lose track as I have done here but week 22 runs from boxing day to Monday 2nd January - so you have absolutely loads to choose from as there is a full slate of the English leagues this weekend. The EFL are all playing Friday 29th and Monday 1st January while the Premier League runs a standard weekend. So there is plenty to work with.

I seem to have a bit of a knack for this. I'll definitely undo that in the next month or so though.

Sorry, there is a table coming shortly. This week runs from Tues 26th December to Monday 2nd January.

Futbol eritage tells me it's a 2-1 defeat courtesy of Chopra and Bothroyd. In reality yes I think we win it fairly comfortably.

They get some luck don't they Ipswich. On the balance of play, probably a fair result but it wrangles when they've gotten away with a decision like that at 0-1 as well. I don't think it'll matter in the long run as I expect us to see this through quite comfortably but a bit annoying nontheless. We've got to stamp out this habit of conceding late. To think until November we'd barely conceded a goal in the second half of a game, now we've conceded decisive late goal in four away games out of five. This is now a habit. Really do think Southampton are being slept on in this now. I have to hand it to Martin - very good turnaround and while their squad probably should be 3rd at worst, they are up against two sides who've been in extraordinary form. One bad run has stopped them matching us both.

Don't half wish I'd lashed this in here. I could not leave this price on Leeds to do this after they'd just produced their best result of the season:

On the off chance week 19 does happen I'll throw these in. Newcastle 2-1 Nottingham Forest Bournemouth 2-1 Fulham Sheff Utd 1-0 Luton Burnley 0-2 Liverpool Man Utd 1-1 Aston Villa Brentford 1-1 Wolves Chelsea 2-1 Crystal Palace Everton 0-1 Man City Brighton 2-3 Tottenham Arsenal 2-1 West Ham Then for this one...

I might just have the same on a draw to secure the guaranteed win.

Basically in one week you can replace a £10 stake with a £25 one. Doesn't have to be this week. Would be well advised for you to have not used it on the weekend just gone

Forest might actually go. There is life in the other dogs yet!

Total mismatch of a game. Genuinely like a Premier League team playing against a League One team and quite frankly that's because that's what it was. Another three goals, another three points, and Ipswich getting slammed too is quite handy ahead of Tuesday.

I truly am cursed in this thread there's no other explanation for it. A Sampdoria first half red FFS.

I'm on 4 bang on out of 8 for week 18....

This weeks offering.. Sampdoria v Feralpisalo - This one is a bit based around form and expected goals. Sampdoria are managed by Andrea Pirlo and a look to the underlying data tells me that he's playing the same kamikaze football that he played in Turkey when his team were a BTTS banker almost weekly with the highest combined expected goals for and against in the division, and it appears looking at Sampdoria it isn't loads different. They have won 5 of their last 6 games so things look to be clicking a bit for who were one of the promotion favourites, at home to bottom side Feralpisalo. Sampdoria have 12 points at home to Feralpisalo's 5 points away. The over 1.5 goal boost adds quite a bit to the price, and I can only assume that it's due to it being in a traditionally low scoring league in the Serie B. Carlisle v Cheltenham - This has been driven pretty much entirely by the circles I follow but they're quite high on Cheltenham's improvement under Darrell Clarke and went with them to beat Leyton Orient last week. They lost, but they did have a first half red card and were leading the game despite this until the 89th minute, so I would say while that one lost, they are probably worth getting on board with and their price is boosted due to their laughably bad start. Carlisle are in pretty dire form with just 1 win in 8. I think the price given all of this on a Cheltenham win is pretty generous.

Honestly baffles me how many people swallow this sort of rubbish as well.

Genuine question, are you up or down this season? You're looking in some right funny places here and I quite like it. I'm convinced there's an edge here somewhere.

I didn't but I did put 1-1 on predictions and had it as my PL draw in another one so I suppose if I'm playing the long game, kind of!

Fifth time in a row that fixture has ended 1-1. It's comical.

You can get 20/1 on a Rotherham win. I've never seen that in a league game of ours. Absolutely crazy. I do think we'll beat them pretty soundly. 4-0.