FanPost

IKTS Week 24: At Aston Villa.

Arsenal could not deliver a decisive blow against Brighton but Trossard came in as a sub and converted on a glorious pass by Saka. Brighton could have scored at several occasions but their goal came as a VAR cock-up allowed an offside pass on Toney's headed target to stand for a final score of 1-1. The PGMOL issued a statement with some kind of an apology afterwards but it was farcical. The early game saw a 1-1 affair for West Ham versus Chelsea and (later on) the same score for Crystal Palace versus Brighton with another mistake by the officials denying Brighton a win. Fulham easily dispatched Nottingham Forest 2-0 while Leicester scored four and only conceded once against the noisy neighbors. In the derby of the Hamptons (LOL) Southampton went up 1-0 but lost 1-2 to Wolverhampton despite the visitors playing with only 10 men for most of the game, and this defeat prompted the sacking of Nathan Jones. A very well oiled Bournemouth team held Newcastle 1-1 and could have won. Leeds failed to convert several chances, losing 0-2 at home to Manchester United. Manchester City played at training pace and won 3-1 against Aston Villa. Liverpool punished Everton 2-0 to keep the visitors in the relegation zone. Finally, Arsenal played well for a half time and scored on a Saka spot kick after an egregious foul on Nketiah by Ederson but conceded on a defensive error early on and then twice as the defensive shape collapsed.

Overall, the thirteen active participants combined for 104 points (for an excellent average of 8 points per active participant) and there were 20 correct IKTS predictions. The eleven games for the Week ended up with four home wins versus three wins by visiting teams and there were four draws. Overall, 30 goals were scored for an average of 2 and 8/11 goals per game.

Scores for the week:

Ray from Norfolk 16 (4)
Purple & Proud 10 (1)
luismamontes 9 (3)
billvacation 9 (2)
hansdampf 8 (2)
rswansont 8 (2)
ben from portsmouth 8 (1)
AsemBuckets 7 (2)
ClevelandJames 7 (1)
Sonny from Suffolk 7 (1)
Geaux_HR 5 (1)
Seidman 5 (0)
skinnejay 5 (0)

Stars of the week: Ray from Norfolk is first on 16 points (and four IKTS predictions) with Purple & Proud in second on 10 points (and two correct IKTS predictions) followed in third by luismamontes on 9 points (with three correct IKTS predictions) but billvacation is also on 9 points albeit with only two correct IKTS predictions as compared to three for luismamontes.

Clever pick of the week: Only Ray from Norfolk had the exact score for Manchester City versus Aston Villa and only luismamontes had the correct score for Liverpool versus Everton while only ClevelandJames got a bulls eye prediction for Arsenal versus Manchester City. There were also three exact predictions for three fixtures: West Ham versus Chelsea, Fulham versus Nottingham Forest, and Southampton versus Wolverhampton. Finally, there were four correct predictions for two fixtures: Crystal Palace versus Brighton, and Leeds versus Manchester United.

Crisis pick of the week: A collective crisis as most participants expected the noisy neighbors to win their game but only one participant (Purple & Proud) predicted a win for Leicester, hauling a single point while the other participants ended up with empty round chocolate boxes.

Standings after week 23:

Ray from Norfolk 184 (22)
Geaux_HR 171 (26)
Purple & Proud 171 (23)
skinnejay 169 (24)
hansdampf 165 (23)
luismamontes 164 (20)
Sonny from Suffolk 162 (20)
ClevelandJames 162 (16)
Seidman 156 (18)
rswansont 156 (17)
ben from portsmouth 154 (15)
AsemBuckets 151 (13)
billvacation 145 (16)
Mulz 113 (16)
DustyGooner 9 (2)

After week 23, Ray from Norfolk leads Geaux_HR and Purple & Proud by thirteen points.

Upcoming schedule: Saturday February 18 and Sunday February 19:

Aston Villa - Arsenal
Brentford - Crystal Palace
Brighton - Fulham
Chelsea - Southampton
Everton - Leeds
Nottingham Forest - Manchester City
Wolverhampton - Bournemouth
Newcastle - Liverpool
Manchester United - Leicester
Tottenham - West Ham

COYG!