Congrats to +Allen Holden for winning December in a close finish. What about the FA Cup? CL knockout stages?

Thanks. We do need to figure out the CL at least. Maybe we should do something with the FA Cup as well.

Oof...

Attaboy Wilshire, take one for the team.

I Mock His Words.

This has been dead for too long. I'm happy to have the trophy back, however briefly it is likely to be. Caption this picture.

Adebayor -- thanks for sending me back to bed at halftime. An extra hour+ of sleep was good for me, I even stayed awake at the temple.

But, no, really. You ruined what was going to be a cracking game.

All of Zlatan's goals were quality in this game but the last one pegs the ridiculous meter. P.S.: How overrated is Hart anyway?

Michael Owen oofember

8th place is a trophy too, right?

October Comes to an End...

I can't complain really. Stretching the lead to 10 points feels nearly as good as Arteta snatching 3 points off QPR from an offside position.... nearly....

LULZ.

4th Place is BIGGER than the F.A. Cup

More awesomeness from the boss:

"For me there are five trophies: Premier League, Champions League, the third is to qualify for the Champions League, the fourth is the FA Cup and the fifth in the League Cup.

"A player does not want to know if you've won the League Cup."

http://www.goal.com/en-gb/news/2896/premier-league/2012/10/25/3477212/champions-league-qualification-is-bigger-than-winning-the-fa-cup-

Mickey Mouse

Bale.. more like Bail! Haha get it?

FLOP!

http://www.whoateallthepies.tv/wp-content/uploads/2012/10/suarezgif.gif

Shared Spoils...

September Tie ... wha?

I said it was going to come down to the last game. I was right, and thankfully Darren Bent decided to score in the 80th minute to give me a perfect to tie Derek for September.

To bad we weren't smart enough to see this coming before the season started because now we will have an awkward chat tomorrow about how Brett is going to send me the trophy instead of handing it over to Derek. Oh well.

It was an eventful September. It will mostly be remembered by Mark Halsey's inability to give good penalties, Suarez & Tevez, while being able to give penalties that aren't, Valencia & Riise. At least that is how I see it.

Suarez played brilliantly yesterday. Bagged his second hat trick in as many trips to Carrow Road. He had another clear cut penalty turned away because of his 'reputation'.  Of course, we had to have the customary Reina flap. What is going on with him? -- Next season's documentary title has been leaked - 'Suarez Dives & Reina Flaps: The Liverpool Story'

In the end they didn't affect the result of the game. Congrats to Brendan and the boys for getting their first win. If the team continues to play like this we we should have a fairly easy October save for a trip to Goodison.

Now I am off to watch some Being: Liverpool.

Awesome.

YES!!!!!!! I may have been atrocious at predicting outcomes, but a win at Old Trafford for the first time since 1989!!!!!!!

Woot!

Even Gary Neville agrees, sort of.

6 of one? Nah, just a 2 footer that goes unpunished.

Fall over before contact? PENALTY - Either way, soft

One camera captured Mark Halsey during the game.

Just Sayin

Anyway, enough of my ranting. Congrats to Spurs for the win and Arsenal for grabbing a point against City. This month will come down to the last game I can feel it. 

And Champions League is here again...

Besides Arsenal scoring 2 goals in 2 minutes to win it in France, my favorite moment from today has to be this:

Another angle:

Must share this due to pure bizarro factor. (Psst. He plays for Spurs now)

Yes! I am the winner (at least temporarily). I will let this console me while AVB drives the morale of a good squad down until they quit on him. Should be a nice conversation piece here at work.

Week #3

What happened?  

Seriously?

3, 6, 3?

I think this is my new favorite picture.

We're pathetic.  We're like Reina's current form.  We need some work.

I had been hoping desperately to be able to text everybody "RVP WHO?" after Sunday's match, but then he goes off against a resolute Southampton side.  I think he did that just to spite me.  

Edit: Allen - added a thumbs up!

End of August - One down, Eight to go.

Well after Skrtel's awesome back pass that had no bearing on our competition other than my feelings being hurt...

Tiki Taka is not for Skrtel

Congrats to Brett for his 18 points over the two weeks to win the trophy for a month.

Yay Brett!!

Since Arsenal is winning the Trophy for 4th .. I figured Derek should get a little something too..

Hopefully the one and only.

Pictures from Wednesday's game

For your anti-Chelsea viewing pleasure, gentlemen.

I don't know, he looks onside to me!

Week #2

Well, I can't think of a worse way for week #2 to start up than watching Chelsea come from behind on a clear offside Torres goal... Reading must feel violated.

Picks are in the bag as we anxiously await the weekend.  There's enough variation in our picks that Brett could surrender his lead or could rise above the fray triumphantly and shower guilty and shame upon those of us below.

I can't wait to score a perfect result on my Pool/City prediction...

August 18th

It is finally here.

The first weekend on the season.

Time to find out if City can repeat, or if United's new man can help them win #20. Will Chelsea's new boys fill out those gold lettered kits?

The real important question is, who will finish for the trophy of 4th?

Arsenal - Where the new motto has become, Captain today - Gone tomorrow. I'll take Vermaelen for 10million Wenger.

Tottenham - Why exactly did they hire AVB? I would say to fire him at the midway point just  to win the Champions League, but oof.

 or Liverpool - Tiki-Taka? I am not sure I like the sound of the "English Barcelona"



So here we go. We know the rules. We know what we are playing for..

And the added bonus to the overall winner..

I know I am hoping for a crazy season. Looking for some outrageous games to throw our picks out the window.

Good luck fellas. May the best picks win.

Formalizing points for picks each month

Second order of business: How to score monthly points.

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I know we've had a few conversations, but I've been working on a spreadsheet and I need a formula. I think it was 3 points for correct scoreline, 1 for correct result, and nothing for being wrong? Here is what I'm thinking. Each month someone duplicates the 'Month Template' sheet of the worksheet and names it the month in question. Postponed games get shifted to when they are played (I have a lot of space for extra games). We enter in who is playing for each match, and our picks. Then we publish the sheet for the current month so it shows up in the blog.

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I think there is a feature that we can use to then protect the columns that have our predictions so they can't be changed. It probably isn't necessary to do so.

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When the games are done, we enter in the scores and the points for each game and the month are automatically calculated.

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First order of business... Who is going to win the "all so important" Summer Olympic games?

This logo is awful.

Here are the men's groups:

Group A:
Great Britain
Senegal
United Arab Emirates
Uruguay

Group B:
Mexico
Korea Republic
Gabon
Switzerland

Group C:
Brazil
Egypt
Belarus
New Zealand

Group D:
Spain
Japan
Honduras
Morocco

How should we proceed?  Points for picking the teams that clear the group stages and points for those that pick the top 4?  And to the winner, what be the spoils?  This should obviously be separate of the EPL traveling trophy...

Rules for this round.

To be picked before group stages begin:
Pick group winner and runner up:  2 points for picking the right group winner and 2 points for picking the correct runner up.  1 point for picking a side that gets out of the group stage but you picked the wrong position.

To be picked before knock out round begins:
5 points for picking the correct gold medal winner, 4 points for picking the correct silver metal winner, 3 points for picking the correct bronze metal winner, and 2 points for picking the 4th place loser.  Bonus points for guessing the correct final four sides is 4 points.

To be picked before the final two games:
Tiebreaker.... if for some reason we get to this, picking the correct scores of the gold/silver match and bronze/loser match.