..I do?
As I often do, I did a season prediction piece after last summer’s transfer window closed to include the whole league table, ‘win, draw & lose’ predictions for us in the league and how I thought we might do in the cups.
Here’s how I did…
The league finishing positions against my predictions
1st Manchester
City (predicted 2nd – just 1 place out)
2nd Manyoo (predicted 1st
– just 1 place out)
3rd Tottenham Hotspur (predicted 5th
– just 2 places out)
4th Liverpool (predicted 3rd
– just 1 place out)
. . . . . . . . . . .
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
5th Chelsea (predicted 4th
– just 1 place out)
6th Arsenal (predicted (7th
– just 1 place out)
. . . . . . . . . . .
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
8th Everton (predicted 6th
– just 2 places out)
9th Leicester City (predicted 11th
- just 2 places out)
12th AFC Bournemouth (predicted
16th – 4 places out)
13th West Ham United (predicted
18th – 5 places out)
15th Brighton & Hove Albion (predicted 17th
- just 2 places out)
16th Huddersfield Town (predicted
13th – 3 places out)
. . . . . . . . . . .
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
19th Stoke City (predicted
14th – 5 places out)
I’ve not done as
good as in previous seasons but, then again, if there were prizes for being just
1 or 2 places out then I suppose 9 isn’t bad!
Explanation time…
So why did I predict that
City would NOT win the league and also
dared to suggest that our neighbours from Trafford would? Well, putting it simply, I just
felt that they had strengthened some of the areas that they were both ‘desperate
for’ and ‘fell well short of’ the previous season and although we had most
certainly improved our keeper situation with the purchase of Ederson; had massively added quality to our left
& right-back slots with Benjamin Mendy &
Kyle Walker and even added to our creativity
with Bernardo Silva, I felt also that we
were leaving ourselves short, yet again,
in the out & out striker department.
And we did…in a way.
Predictably, Sergio Aguero (still achieving an excellent 30
goals / 7 assists) suffered
the occasional niggle as well as a seemingly ‘season standard’ length of time out or two and Gabriel Jesus (17 goals / 3 assists) continues to be unlucky
in-taking a couple of hefty season knocks that, once again, kept him out for
many weeks of the season too.
But what I didn’t predict (come on, be honest…did
YOU expect our midfield & wing departments to ‘pitch in’ with SO many goals
last season?) was just how lethal the
“support players” would be in front of goal.
-
Raheem Sterling: Despite
still not being able to score when he has too long to think about it, he scored
a very impressive 23 and got 12 assists
-
David Silva: The
ever-inspiring and seemingly improving Spaniard even found his shooting
boots with 10 goals (the only part of his
game you could have seriously criticised in the past) and chucked in 11 assists.
Then you’ve got the
likes of Bernardo Silva with 9 goals / 10 assists;
Ilkay Gundogan with 6
goals and 3 assists and Fernandinho with
5 goals and 3 assists…with the defence chucking
in 14 goals and 5 assists between them.
I also had some
central defence concerns but that’s all it was, really; I think I just felt that
we were going to suffer a little of what we did the previous season in not
being able to finish teams off. How VERY wrong I was, thankfully…and I resisted the
urge, in the end, to stick 10-quid on Manyoo to win the league!
Percentage of league results correct?
Pre-season: 68.42%
Pre-match: 71.05%
Surprises for me in the league?
Despite me going for
low-spending Burnley to not-only stay up but improve their league position from
the previous season by 1 place to 15th, I just could not envisage
them doing so very well to finish 7th and into a Europa League slot
by 5 points and 11 goals difference on the team in 8th.
The big 'head scratcher'
for me is seeing where Newcastle United finished. Despite a dodgy start to the
season with a lot of pundits having condemned them to relegation around
Christmas time and finishing it off with L L L L W, they SOMEHOW
managed to finish 10th! I had ‘em down as finishing last, following not only having just come up
but also a very poor, summer transfer window…
I’ve been a little shocked to see Swansea City’s slow implosion continue
to the point of relegation – I thought they’d pull ‘emselves together this
season and get back on course to where they were a few seasons ago. West Brom
crashing out as bottom club despite a late scrap - where they got 10 points
from the last 15 - raised my eyebrows also; I thought they too would stabilise. Watford also seemed to have lost momentum and have not pushed on as I expected.
City and the cups?
Outcome: Quarter finals (SPOT ON!)
Outcome: 5th
round (3 rounds off)
Outcome: WINNERS!
(it was a broad prediction that was sort of, mostly
right really).
Reminder / if you didn’t know…
·
The fixtures are out on Thursday 14th
June 2018
· The Premier League summer
transfer window has begun early (it started on Thursday 17th May
2018) and will also END early, following consultation with Premier League managers
last season. It finishes on Thursday (what is it with
that day?) 9th August, just a few days before the start of the 2018
/ 19 season.
Next up: My player and other ratings for last season along with my usual 'empty seats' report...
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