It is own up time. Here are the predictions I posted last August along with the remarks made at the time. Also included are the actual 2006/07 Premiership positions.
Prediction Chelsea 1st - too strong. Actual position 2nd.
Prediction Liverpool 2nd - will push Chelsea hard but ultimately they will come up just short. Actual position 3rd
Prediction Manchester United 3rd - in the past those who written-off SAF have had to eat crow, but…… Actual position Champions.
Prediction Arsenal 4th – they will be great to watch again but a legitimate title challenge will have to wait. Actual position 4th.
Prediction Everton 5th – Simple stuff. Johnson + Beattie = more goals. The Toffees move up the Premiership. Actual position 6th
Prediction West Ham 6th – A side that showed last season that it has a great upside. Actual position 15th
Prediction Aston Villa 7th– The O’Neill factor. Actual position 11th
Prediction Tottenham 8th– Will they continue to build on last season’s progress or take a step back? The latter for me. Actual position 5th
Prediction Bolton 9th – More liable to slip back than to move forward. Actual position 7th
Prediction Newcastle 10th – Criticism of the Newcastle defence last season is not supported by the statistics. But where will the goals come from? Actual position 13th
Prediction Blackburn 11th – Europe plus loss of Bellamy and Rovers’ league position will slip. Actual position 10th
Prediction Middlesbrough 12th – Many expect Boro to struggle in the bottom four or five. They will have their problems early on but will settle into a mid-table position. Actual position 12th
Prediction Portsmouth 13th – Money, money, money it’s a ‘Arry Rednapp world. Actual position 9th
Prediction Reading 14th – Goals will not come as freely as last season but they will produce enough to guarantee season in the Premiership. Actual position 8th
Prediction Wigan 15th – Last season’s over-achievers will be given more respect this season – to their cost. Actual position 17th
Prediction Manchester City 16th – The second half of last season was a disaster and Stuart Pearce will be severely tested. Actual position 14th
Prediction Sheffield United 17th – It will touch and go and Neil Warnock’s wallet will be lighter by season-end. Actual position 18th
Prediction Fulham 18th – The Cottagers will be better away from home but they are unlikely to replicate last season’s form. Actual position 16th
Prediction Charlton 19th – Alan Curbishley got out in time. Actual position 19th
Prediction Watford 20th – Gap in class will be too much. Actual position 20th
At the same time we asked readers to submit their predictions for the top 5 Premiership finishers, the three sides to be relegated and who would be the most improved side and the most disappointing. I have defined “most disappointing” as the greatest number of points dropped from last season to the one just completed.
Only 5 people out of 70 picked Manchester United to win the Premiership. The most popular top 5 pick was Chelsea, Liverpool, Manchester United, Arsenal and Tottenham Hotspur. Nobody picked the top 5 in the correct order but the closest was roseboy64 and looneyrooney14 who both picked the first three correctly but flipped Spurs and Arsenal.
Ancanada and Pablo_Chicago actually picked the top four in order but opted for Everton to take 5th spot and they finished two points behind Spurs in 6th.
At the other end of the table the most favoured combination was in reverse order Watford, Sheffield United and Fulham. Eleven opted for Charlton which was only half of the number who picked Fulham. Five picked the correct three teams to be relegated but not necessarily in the finishing order. They were roseboy64, Gunning_Steve, Irish_Scouser, andregurov, and FirstTouch. Only one poster got it spot on and that was owenspapa who picked the three teams to go down and in the correct order.
Next up was the most improved team. Based on points gained the honour goes to Portsmouth who improved by 16 points. The next best performance was Everton with 8 more points. Everton had been the choice of most back in August. Nine correctly picked Portsmouth – crispygreasy00, Venti_Vidi_Vici, Pablo_Chicago, roseboy64, cubsfan05, Irish_Scouser, Goldice007, AlanV and ooohalberto.
As for the most disappointing team that turned out to be Newcastle which had been the pick of five people back in August. Picking correctly were d2cents, wickedzoot, buffytvs, Irish_Scouser, Frenchmansv31, and wja425. Roseboy64 came very close to making a sweep but chose Charlton who only finished just behind the Magpies in the disappointing stakes by gaining 13 fewer points.
Thanks to all of you that took part and we will try to do it again in three months time.
I also picked the four teams which would occupy the top 4 positions (not necessarily in the correct order ..... details!).
I picked Wigan to be the most dissappointing - they also gained 13 fewer points (I think!) and like Newcastle finished 7 places lower. They went from European hopefuls to the brink of relegation.
As it's the end of the season, I wanted to say thanks for taking up my idea of the whole speakers corner thing. Maybe it's degenrated into a chat room on match days but I think it's been very well behaved and often humorous. (I still like my aplication for the FSR job).
I suspect that you've been sucked in to writing even more than you intended. Next season might be more difficult to predict. Kind of a no-brainer, but I also got the top 5 (two wrong order) and picked Wigan and the wretched Man City to drop.
I do have this funny feeling that RA/Mourinho are playing down their planned spending to try and keep the prices down. Otherwise I wont be predicting a Chelsea win next season. Maybe, that despite the money, all the EPL will find it even harder to poach from Italy and Spain. We shall see.
Thanks
Last edited by LosAngelesChelseaFan on May 14th at 5:28 PM.
Bobby, Many thanks for all of the insights that you bring to us. I have not sent many comments during the season but I have enjoyed reading all of the comments. My predictions were pretty close. I have had a theory for some time that the season after the world cup see many of the players get injuries and it seems to be the case again this year. Both Chelsea and Man U at the end of the season looked very fatigued.. Kevin Nolan writes a very good column on the BBC sports website in which he states that he will have 6 weeks off but will start running again the first week of June. Do you think this is a very short time to allow for the body to recover and be fresh again for the next season
LosAngelesChelseaFan - The blog has certainly evolved since last summer. I had no idea what I was getting into when I wrote the first World Cup piece nearly a year ago. It has been fun and some excellent discussions. And there is still a lot more football to go.
The whole Arsenal over Spurs thing was really a bias against Arsenal. Coming down to the close of the season I din't expect my Sheff Utd prediction to hold up but am disappointed it did. Wanted West Ham to go down.
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