Friday 24 May 2019

Predictions results


Just after the start of the season - after the incoming & outgoing, summer transfer windows have closed – I sit down and attempt to predict how our season will end. I also try to guage how our Premier League competitors will fair in the league.

 

Along with some ‘other stuff’, here are the results…


First of all, my league place finish predictions…




1st        Manchester CitySPOT ON!
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2nd       LiverpoolSPOT ON!
3rd        ChelseaSPOT ON!
4th        TottenhamHotspurSPOT ON!
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5th        Manyoo – (6th) – Just 1 out!
6th        Arsenal – (5th) – Just 1 out!
7th        Everton – (8th) – Just 1 out!
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8th        Fulham – (19th) – Oh dear…11 places out.
9th        WolverhamptonWanderers – (7th) – Just 2 out.
10th      Watford (11th) – Just one out!
11th      AFC Bournemouth – (14th) – Just 3 out.
12th      Leicester City (9th) – Just 3 out.
13th      West Ham United (10th) – Just 3 out.
14th      Newcastle United (13th) – Just 1 out!
15th      Southampton (16th) – Just 1 out!
16th      Crystal Palace (12th) – 4 out.
17th      Burnley (15th) – Just 2 out.
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18th      Huddersfield Town (20th) – Just 2 out and drop predicted.
19th      Brighton & Hove Albion (17th) – Just 2 out!
20th      Cardiff City (18th) – Just 2 out and drop predicted.

Hey…not flippin’ bad or what?! Especially the top 7! Chuffed with that.

Now for the cup predictions & results for our very own club.

Predicted – Quarter finals.
Achieved – Final (& winners)!
2 rounds out.

Predicted – Final.
Achieved – Final (and won it)!
SPOT ON!

Predicted – Quarter final.
Achieved – Quarter final.
SPOT ON!

And also…

At the same time, I do a W / D / L prediction for each of our games – one ‘pre-season’ (when those same transfer windows have closed) and the other is a pre-match; different because I can then look at current form. Here are those results…

-       Pre-season match result prediction: 71.05% correct.
-       Pre-match result prediction: 84.21% correct.

Empty seats


Now, of course, this isn’t a prediction but it is something regular readers might remember me-doing each year (and all of this record keeping isn’t a quick job, let me tell you!).

What is it and why do it?

Huhhhh…well, as I say each season in order to explain, as our wonderful football club got more & more successful, winning more & more silverware I noticed, more & more, that Manyoo fans (not exclusively as band-waggon jumpers / fans of other teams that I know locally joined in) started on the “empty seats” jibe at us.

Although I could clearly see these unoccupied, flip-up chairs at the Etihad I just thought, I bet the difference between us & Manyoo isn’t “all that” over a full season…and certainly not enough to keep bleating on about it much as they did and still do.

And do you know what, the results have mostly shown that very thing to be the case. In fact, there was one season in recent years where…guess what? The team from Trafford had more empty seats over the whole season and in all competitions than we did!

Anyway, here’s the results of 2018/19 (and explanations where needed).

Manyoo’s capacity:
74,994 in every competition.

Empty seats in all competitions: 36,690
Least empty seats in a game: 438 v AFC Bournemouth in the Premier League.
Most empty seats in a game: 19,767 v Derby County in the League Cup.

Manchester City capacities:
55,097 for league & domestic cup games, 53,000 for Champions League.

Empty seats in all competitions: 90,562
Least empty seats in a game: No empty seats v Spurs in the Champions League (*see below)
Most empty seats in a game: 25,582 v Burton Albion in the League Cup.

(* The Spurs game actually saw 348 seats filled over the apparently-allowed capacity for Champions League games of 53,000).

Difference between both clubs all season and in all competitions: 53,872 more empty seats at the Etihad than at Old Trafford all season and in all competitions.

As I say most seasons, a difference over a whole season worth bleating on about? And what about their 36,690 empty seats for a club whose fans often say they, “…fill their stadium every week”. Well, clearly not…

Anyhow, these are the figures from last season that I like to quote:

·         1 – The position we finished in the league.
·         3 (or 4) – the number of trophies we won.
·         5 – The number of places we finished in the league above our empty seat, sabre-rattling neighbours.
·         32 – The number of points we finished ahead of them; improving a LOT on 19 the season before.
·         4 – The number of times we went to Wembley (excluding games where Spurs were using it as their home ground).
·         98 – The number of points we achieved in the league last season.
·         198 – The number of league points we’ve amassed in the last 2 seasons!
·         0 – The number of times we changed our manager in the season-just-gone.
·         0 – The number of trophies they won.

And from Manchester City themselves just this morning…

·         169 goals in all competitions, which is a new record for a top-flight, English side.
·         6-0 – Biggest win in a cup final for over 100 years, equalling the all-time record too.
·         10-0 – Biggest ever semi-final aggregate win.
·         32 – Premier League wins for one player, Ederson; equalling our own, previous record.

I’m sure there are more we could think of from the season just gone; a season that followed an amazing record-breaking one the year before!

Thank you, as always, for taking the time to absorb all of that.

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