RandoEFC

Sainz showing again how mad it is that Perez and a rookie are going to be driving top four cars next year while he's in a Williams.

Piastri and Perez out in Q1 . Oscar has struggled for a few races now.

Villa chucked the win in the last minute. Still can get a £6.67 profit if Chelsea win.

Red Bull fuming in practice with McLaren 1-2. Hopefully Lando can get a good points swing this weekend and keep the title fight alive.

Absolutely robbed a point there. Awful display. Big up Beto the big lovable lump.

This has been such a load of rubbish. Our defensive shape has been quite good for most of the game but our threat has been non-existent. Calvert-Lewin never gets joy when he gets put up against two centre backs he can't bully or outrun. I could have told you that before the game but Dyche comes without a plan other than hoofing it up to him anyway, watches it for 80 minutes and his only solution is to make a like for like swap for Beto. You can see in the players' body language that they know it isn't working. Not to excuse them as they've been second to everything regardless of tactics. This is why most Everton fans are happy with the job Dyche has done but don't want to see his contract renewed after this season. He's done well to keep us alive despite having to sell important players every season, but we will remain absolutely allergic to going any higher than 14th while he's our manager.

That was fucking pathetic how far Smith-Rowe was allowed to run there. Wake up ffs.

Sloppy and casual so far. Just waiting for Fulham to take the lead.

DeadLinesman: NOR NOR SAI VER 13 Lec Ver

Whiskey: Pole: NOR Podium: VER, LEC, NOR Random: P14 Bonus: NOR/PIA

@Coma @MUFC @DeadLinesman @Whiskey don't forget

I think these teams are both really good value this weekend. Both not far below Evens for the outright win. I don't want to get stung by Villa after I backed them against Man Utd but they're a force at home and Bournemouth really haven't been anything special this season. They'll also be coming into this game feeling like they can afford to drop points after beating Arsenal last time out. Chelsea have obviously been in good form and banging in goals as well whereas Newcastle just aren't getting the results. I'm going to risk doing myself some damage here by putting a £20 stake. But because I'm going for Draw No Bet on these, either Bournemouth or Newcastle would have to win for me to go -£20. £20 > £37.20 max

Thanks I'll amend that bit.

Norris Norris Piastri Leclerc 13th Piastri & Leclerc

Predictions - Mexican Grand Prix Deadline is qualifying on Saturday. @RandoEFC @Stan @MUFC @Tommy @nudge @Whiskey @Dave @Coma @DeadLinesman @OrangeKhrush Pole Position - Which driver will post the fastest lap in Q3? [INSERT DRIVER] Podium - Which drivers will finish the Grand Prix in the top three positions? 1. [INSERT DRIVER] 2. [INSERT DRIVER] 3. [INSERT DRIVER] Random Driver - Predict the finishing position of this week's random driver, Kevin Magnussen. [INSERT POSITION] Bonus Question - Name a pair of drivers from the top four teams (McLaren, Ferrari, Red Bull, Mercedes) who will have an on-track battle at some point during the race. This will be classed as one driver overtaking the other from the pair, or one following another closely enough to at least get side-by-side. First lap shenanigans don't count! [INSERT DRIVERS]

Results - US Grand Prix Qualifying saw @RandoEFC and @Tommy lose points this weekend as they backed Charles Leclerc for pole. The rest of the field went for Lando Norris and were rewarded with 5 points for a pole position that looked out of McLaren's reach for most of the weekend. It was another difficult podium to predict. @RandoEFC and @Tommy cancelled out their qualifying losses, scoring 5 points each as the only two contenders to predict victory for Charles Leclerc. @Stan and @Whiskey picked up 2 consolation points for having the Monegasque elsewhere in their top three. @RandoEFC, @MUFC, @Tommy and @OrangeKhrush all pick up 5 points for having Max Verstappen accurately in 3rd place, while @Stan, @Dave and @DeadLinesman pick up 2 points for putting him 2nd. Nobody predicted a podium for Carlos Sainz at all, with a sea of Norris/Piastri predictions let down by McLaren's first absence from the podium for many races. @nudge's differential pick of George Russell to finish in the top three left her without any points on race day. The prediction that made all the difference this week was @Tommy's random driver pick, the only person to predict a points finish for the Williams rookie and he nailed it with 10th to pick up 5 points. Nobody predicted Max Verstappen to actually extend his lead in the standings ahead of the weekend, but @Dave predicted the biggest remaining gap out of everyone, so picks up the 2 consolation points for this prediction. Here's what a close weekend does to the standings: There's no change in position in either of the standings. Top scorer for the week @Tommy moves back within range of the top three who otherwise cancelled each other out this weekend. Everyone else is pretty much holding steady, with the main intrigue coming in the battle for 6th where a poor weekend from @nudge sees her now level with @Dave and @MUFC just two points behind the pair of them. With @Coma absent for three consecutive weeks, @Whiskey will have his eyes on climbing off the bottom of the table before the end of the season. Red Bull are the top scorers in this week's Constructors' standing, chipping away at McLaren's lead at the top. Mercedes still can't be ruled out while Aston Martin were awarded 4 insurance points to go with @OrangeKhrush's tally of 10 due to @Coma's no-show. Predictions for Mexico will be posted tomorrow.

It's mad to think Glasner could be one of the first managers to lose his job this season after being linked with Bayern in the summer.

That is bad from Henderson.

Saturday 26th October, 2024 Melbourne City 1-3 Melbourne Victory, 09.35 Plymouth 1-2 Preston Dusseldorf 2-0 Kaiserslautern, 19.30 Real Madrid 2-1 Barcelona, 20.00 Sunday 27th October, 2024 LA Galaxy 2-0 Colorado Rapids, 03.00 Brondby 1-1 Copenhagen, 11.00 Hibernian 1-1 Hearts, 12.00 Club Brugge 2-1 Anderlecht, 12.30 Marseille 0-2 PSG, 19.45 Inter Milan 1-0 Juventus, 20.00

Norris needs to look at this season as if he's Seb Vettel in 2009. Had the best car for most of the season but another driver dominated the first 6-8 races and built up an unassailable lead. Gets his ability questioned by people who refuse to take into account that while he had the fastest car on average, it was in a highly competitive field, he had thus far no experience of a race-winning let alone championship-winning car, and he had a competitive team-mate where his title rival didn't really. I'm not saying Norris will win the next four championships like Vettel did but it's somewhere to draw inspiration from. Vettel won a few races in 2009 but made lots of mistakes, had lots of crashes and bounced back with a dominant era in F1. A driver's ability to cope with this sort of pressure isn't fixed just because the likes of Hamilton, Alonso and Verstappen were just born with the right mentality.

I had a great start but the last two weeks have been naff for me. I wasn't expecting much from this weekend because my Arsenal and City players were all playing away games, Palmer was at Liverpool and my cheap Everton and Ipswich options were facing each other which is always awkward.

I agree. I think Red Bull and Mercedes have been around the block enough times recently to tell their driver to just get on with building a 5-second gap because there'll probably be a penalty. In terms of next season, I think Red Bull might be entering a period of decline. Their car will probably still be competitive next season but they've been falling off a cliff throughout the season and it's really hard to conclude that the loss of Adrian Newey and other key figures hasn't played a role. I've been assuming that McLaren will start next year with the fastest car but now I don't think you can rule out Ferrari. They should have done a lot better in Singapore as well with their pace but they messed up qualifying. At one point it looked like Ferrari surging ahead of Red Bull would help McLaren win both championships but now it doesn't look as "possible in theory" for Norris to win most of the remaining races and sprints because Ferrari are right in the mix and actually taking points off them too now.

I'm still of the school of thought that most of the drivers have some sort of "gentleman's limit". Plenty of drivers force their rivals to the outside and then run them out of track whilst keeping their own car within the white lines. It's all opinions but I think exploiting a rule in that fashion is over the limit even if, by the letter of the law, he might get away with it. I think the same when drivers cynically do an illegal overtake and try to build a 5-second gap when they should give the position back in a fair world. I think the FIA's experiment of "let the teams deal with it" has failed. If you do an illegal overtake you should either be asked to give it back or be informed that you'll get a post-race time penalty equal to the gap between you and the driver you illegally passed, with an extra 5 seconds added on top. The first lap battle between Sainz and Verstappen, in my opinion, was a clear one on one between two guys. If the stewards have dismissed this as "it's lap one" then I find that very disappointing because the same action could have happened at any point in the race and wasn't prompted by the nature of turn one being quite chaotic and many cars going 3-4 abreast. McLaren definitely could have done better. Between the incident and T1 the next lap, Norris was clearly driving in a way where he was uncertain whether to let Max back through or not. That may even have been the difference between him not getting a 5-second gap. I think Norris' instinct was that he'd probably have to give the place back but the team told him to hold onto the position probably thinking that it took Norris so long to get his nose in front already, he probably wouldn't get another great chance in the last 5 laps. Hindsight is 50/50 but yes, it's another example of McLaren not quite finding their feet in these situations as a front-running team with pressure and expectation. I'd hope from their perspective that they do a review of their race-day management and decision making over the winter, because chances are they'll have a championship-challenging package next season.

This is true. It would be interesting to see how Verstappen behaved as the pursuer in a title race and he was certainly a bit less gung-ho in the early stages of 2022 when it looked like it would be a season-long battle between him and Leclerc. McLaren have made plenty of mistakes though. Bad pit-stop decisions and wrong tyres at Silverstone after Norris had overtaken Verstappen and both Mercedes on track to take the lead. Got themselves into a complete mess in Hungary and should have allowed Norris the win for the championship points. Should have reversed the cars in Italy as well although I do have some sympathy with them getting caught out by Leclerc's one-stop as nobody expected him to be able to do that. There's other mistakes on McLaren's side as well. Red Bull don't make the same mistakes very often but it's easier for them to do so when they're effectively running a one-car team and Perez is never close enough to him to make their decision-making slightly awkward.

I also think this idea that Max can get away with pushing him off at the start is a farce as well. If Max can't keep at least 2 of his wheels on the track in that move then it's an illegal move. People say "it's lap one, turn one" but if he was 12th and he steamed into the first corner like that he'd lose a corner of his car and be out of the race. Hamilton did a start like that way back in 2008 where he just braked as late as he needed to to get on the inside of Raikkonen, went off but took Raikkonen with him. He got a drive-through penalty for it and rightly so. I'm not saying this is what went through Verstappen's head but he was probably perfectly happy to drop behind the Ferraris as long as he took his title rival down the standings with him. Norris needs to be stronger but we saw this happen to Hamilton, who is one of the best of all time, back in 2021, whenever he went wheel to wheel with Max in the closing stages of the season, because Max will throw his car in anywhere outside of the usual "rules of engagement" and doesn't get punished for it. Hamilton didn't know how to handle it and nor does Norris. Norris has made his mistakes throughout the season and that is one of a combination of issues that has stopped him winning the championship (probably) along with some bad luck and some poor decisions from McLaren. There's a few things to criticise about Lando but I think a lot of people are very harsh on him as well. People make out that he's had some sort of rocket-ship since Miami. They've had the fastest car on average and he/they should have got more points but some people make out as if he's had a half second car advantage for all of that time like Red Bull did before then. He needs to learn from it though. And if the championship goes begging with a race or two to go, if I was him I'd find an opportunity in one of the dead rubbers to punt Max off the track next time they go wheel to wheel just to show that if they have to go head to head next season, he's willing to get down and dirty as well. The Ferrari boost has made for some great and unpredictable races in the back end of the season. Leclerc is doing a good job of showing control and consistency. I don't have much hope for Mercedes properly joining the battle next year but it could be a mammoth scrap between Ferrari, McLaren and Red Bull. The ideal competitive balance is Red Bull having the 3rd best car but Verstappen has the benefit of being a clear number one driver while Leclerc/Hamilton and Norris/Piastri take points off each other. Could be a serious five-way battle for the title.