Dan

You have already done one for this week - do you want to stick with that or do these?

WEEK 20 - MIDDLE OF THE ROAD WEEK 20 STATS Winning bets: 2/6 Winning selections: 4/10 Weekly forum position: £14.79 (Ranked 8/20) --- OVERALL STATS Winning bets: 37/143 Winning selections: 124/270 Total forum position: -£326.27 I'm slacking a little on these table updates lately but can actually delve into what went right and wrong this time out. As it turns out, it was a pretty mediocre week with the balance taking a small hit and as ever, me losing. None of the top three played this week, although incase you miss it @Pyfish @Machado @Storts I have decided that as the game Christmas present everybody gets one £25 bet to use during the season instead of the usual £10. Call it the equivalent of triple captain. You are not obliged to use it as of course, should you use it on a loser, you will be taking an even heavier hit, but it should add an interesting angle. We have a new smallest winner of the season in @CaaC (John) - quite the difference from the lottery tickets he was buying early season, although not entirely by design. Chelsea beat Sheffield United at odds of just 2/11 (1.18) and Bournemouth's game with Luton was abandoned following what happened to Tom Lockyer. Grim circumstances all round and all the best of luck to him, although I'm almost certain he'll be forced into retirement now. Bournemouth v Luton is settled as void and you get the win for Chelsea. The form player of recent weeks however is @...Dan who takes the biggest win for the third time in four weeks and rises to a season high of 5th in the table. With a clear knowledge of Ligue 2 it's about time this sort of bet started paying dividends even if it is a league I find myself trying to avoid at all costs. Caen beating Dunkerque 1-0 and Angers running out 1-4 winners at Troyes. The only two winners of the weekend however. I have to sympathise with @RandoEFC picking two what appeared to be absolute bankers to at least win their games, but in what's probably the upset of the season we've been on the end of on this forum, Doxa beat Aris Limassol 2-0 to take their tally up to 4 points from 15 games for the season. A genuine shock of a result and really one of those situations you just can't really legislate for. A freak loss. Doxa were 11/1 to win the game at home prematch. @Stan makes the seasons first foray into the women's game and isn't rewarded. What has to be considered another pretty shock result judging by the odds was Tottenham's 1-0 win over Arsenal at 7/1, but importantly for the bet, a loss as it got nowhere near the 4 goals required. Plymouth didn't disappoint at home to Rotherham, picking up yet another victory in Devon which has seen them rewarded with losing their manager to the football black hole of Stoke City, and scoring 3 times in the process. @Lucas went for a couple of win and BTTS picks that I actually backed for real, and I'm in dreadful form of late so I should probably hand the £10 loss to myself. Brighton's first failure to score in any competition this season away to an increasingly tricky to break down Arsenal followed by Leverkusen shutting out Frankfurt in a 3-0 win. Both of them having great seasons and both are in serious contention for their leagues now. Leverkusen have never won it! And as ever, I finish on myself. This one can be placed in the category of a loss that I can accept as it has helped Leicester for Ipswich to not beat Norwich at home and I'd much rather it have lost on that than them winning to nil, but my god, the statistical probabilities falling against me this season really are remarkable. I really do feel like whatever I have it will lose. That's also three times out of three where I've gone early on a selection and ended up losing - it isn't paying off. This week runs up until Chistmas Day so anything from now until then - me and my mates like to have a group bet on Christmas Day for a bit of a laugh so there are some things going on in countries not celebrating Christmas. A few leagues beginning their winter break around now, so you may be forced into the dreaded EFL. Good luck!

This isn't even a drastic change in style without him being as popular with the fans. Bad news for Gibbs-White too.

Think we're back in a position where it's very hard to not see us sailing to promotion now. 4 wins out of 4 in December. I think 2-3 really flattered Birmingham. I thought they were largely pretty badly organised and didn't really know what to do about us. We've played that into a far tighter looking game than it was slightly unnecessarily. Rotherham Saturday. For some context we're 1/6 to win the game - the shortest I have ever seen us for a league game.

Got a mate who supports Birmingham. Predictably he's been very down on them since the Rooney appointment, was open minded about it but it just hasn't worked at all so far. The worry however is he said that at Cardiff in the week they did seem to rediscover their ability to be a tough unit to break down. They are another side who like Millwall have changed manager midseason in an attempt to be more attacking and it hasn't really worked for them. I think their natural instinct is going to be to sit back, that could make this a tougher game than I was anticipating. I really fancy us to win 1-2. Got all the hallmarks of a narrow win for me. If we do that leaves us 3 ahead of Ipswich and 13 ahead of Southampton/Leeds, with Leeds and Ipswich facing each other next week and ourselves playing Rotherham at home. Nothing is decided in December, but I do think if we win tomorrow there is very much going to be that collective feeling on Christmas Day that we're too far clear to be hauled in again that was there around 6 weeks ago. We had a kind December on paper, and so far, so good. Even better news is those idiots Sky, who've stuck this on a crappy Monday night for their Wagatha Christie nonsense are going to be left blunted by Vardy being very unlikely to play. Daka's scored 2 in 2 and neither of the other two have really played well enough to justify leaving that out, so he will start for sure. Lets get it won.

There was still time for a talking point to develop when Nunez did that. There wasn't when Dalot did his. So he's had to use that.

It's the inconsistency. You could forgive that if they were clamping down on it but that just reeks of trying to create a talking point for the sake of it.

That was incredibly bad.

Kinda what I was getting at last page. I think you put an Osimhen in either side they'd be title favourites if Man City are going to keep slumping like this.

This is genuinely one of the lowest quality games I've watched this year and I've been watching the Championship all season.

He's not been the only problem but he just doesn't seem to have that knack where you need it. That incident late in the half where he's got a chance and ends up dallying. Think if that falls to Salah or Diaz you probably score. Nunez gets it and that happens. I think you probably need better. I'm finding it bizarre with Liverpool this season. I don't know if I'm getting unlucky on you but I feel like I've hardly seen you play that well.

You seriously need better than Nunez. He's garbage.

Crikey I'm thinking of backing Aris in a few ways. They seem a complete banker.

It's early days but he's been decent. Remember him catching my eye when we played Rennes a couple of years ago and he was one of the best players on the pitch, very good one v one. Can't really knock his numbers either - 2 goals and 5 assists in under 8 nineties in the league.The others have been the problem really, they've gone downhill defensively this season. 2 clean sheets in their last 15 games in the league. I'm saying this without watching them all that much in detail though. Something very flat about them this season.

They had a bad summer. Doku looks like the only really good one so far. Gvardiol's not really been all that yet has he? Kovacic and Nunes just bizarre signings, complete downgrades.

Yeah but Burnley have moved on from those dark ages!

I'm leaving this one here. Everton was a good move for him - they had a lot of players well suited to his football as well.

It's pretty likely. I do think Monday is a bit of a banana skin but Rotherham at home, surely, surely we win?

Bloody hell what a brilliant day for us. Leeds and Ipswich both dropping home games they were expected to win. They play each other next week as well while we have Rotherham at home. Fantastic chance to build up a gap.

definitely gonna start doing this to basically seal Leicester's promotion.

Ipswich to beat Norwich and BTTS @ 2/1 - first pick. It's paid out in 7/10 Ipswich home games and it just feels totally inevitable for me.

That's next weeks! Can have that for then though if you wish.

WEEK 19 - GOOD GRIEF WEEK 19 STATS Winning bets: 0/7 Winning selections: 3/12 Weekly forum position: -£70.00 (Ranked 18/19) --- OVERALL STATS Winning bets: 35/137 Winning selections: 120/260 Total forum position: -£311.48 I'm a bit pushed for time this week but let the table do the talking. Absolute disaster throughout. @CaaC (John) probably the main winner of the week having not predicted! Better luck next time out.