Hull City lost again today. That shouldn't be surprising. They are winless in their last seven and have but one win in their last 19 league matches. That's a kind of competitive competence than can only be described Derby County-esque.
The Tigers were beaten 1-0 by an Aston Villa side that, a couple of months ago, was putting the fear of Europa into Arsenal. Villa, for their part, were hardly impressive in putting Hull out of their misery (or maybe closer to it in the form of relegation). It was Villa's first win in 11 league tilts.
If you had the misfortune of watching it, you could be excused for thinking it was a bottom five match-up. In fact, we thought, on form, it might have been. So we set the Wayback Machine* to the turn of the New Year and made a second semester table. Since December 31, this is what the EPL (suck it, Barclays) would look like.
It is surprisingly unsurprising (save maybe for Villa).
1 Manchester United 42
2 Arsenal 33
3 Liverpool 32
4 Chelsea 32
5 Tottenham 25
6 Manchester City 25
7 Everton 24
8 West Ham 23
9 Fulham 21
10 Aston Villa 20
11 Stoke City 19
12 Blackburn 19
13 Bolton 16
14 Portsmouth 15
15 Wigan 14
16 Sunderland 13
17 Newcastle United 11
18 Middlesbrough 11
19 West Bromwich Albion 10
20 Hull City 7
Yeah, Villa at 10th faired much better than we anticipated. But their slide didn't start until into February (although the drop in play maybe has its seeds when Laursen went down before Boxing Day). Only two other teams are more than three spots plus-or-minus their current position on the table. Tottenham are five spots to the good, and Wigan four to the bad.
There is still some shaking out to do at the top of the table as Arsenal play both United and Chelsea and, while they won't make up the gap to first, they might put some distance back to third, or fall to it. But the Big 4 are still the Big 4 with an unbridgeable gap back to the pack.
The bottom four here are also the same bottom four in the full season table. Oddly enough, the only team that is certainly going down, West Brom, is the only team in the group that is playing with any fight. Next week might settle who joins them in the drop. Hull host Stoke and Newcastle welcome Middlesbrough. A single point might be enough for Hull. But failing a positive result for them, a winner of the Newcastle v. Boro match would move out of the drop zone on goal difference.
Anyway, just something to peruse of mild interest.
Thank you for your continued support of Unprofessional F... Oh wait. That's someone else's coda.
[* 'We' here means The Fan's Attic as he did all of the necessary math. Also, apologies for the table not being easier to read. Blogger is fascist in the way it refuses to recognize tabs or even multiple blank spaces.]
TFA UPDATE: Here's the rudimentary table I created.
EPL Second Semester Table
Monday, May 4, 2009
Your Utterly Meaningless and Mildly Interesting 2009 Table **UPDATE**
Saturday, January 10, 2009
World Cup Football Comes to Nantes
Foosball: So easy Bush can handle it!*
World Cup football. A quarter-finals match between familiar foes England and Germany. But this is Nantes, France in January 2009, not J-Burg, South Africa in June 2010. The competition at hand is the International Table Soccer Federation's World Cup, and the best players can make up to £50,000 a year.
Make no mistake, this is serious business. In France, which (along with England and Germany) claims to have invented the game, there has been a push to register as an official sport and receive government aid. The argument is that:
“They train for six to eight hours a day, their abdominal muscles are powerful and their busts, arms, wrists and shoulders are in good shape. Everyone knows the game but they don’t know it as a top-level sport.”
Even the more staid Brits are looking to possibly make table soccer an official sport. Boris Atha, the chairman of the British Foosball Association, has noted that
“We are not as far advanced as the French but we are working on it...”(Ed. note - hey, he said it, not me)
It remains to be seen if the dream of babyfoot (or foosball, or table soccer) will finally receive the recognition it deserves.
*Photo Credit - Doug Mills (AP)
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Tuesday, September 16, 2008
Colaship Round-Up
Charlton players complain about the decision that started the Wolves comeback!
No I had not forgotten and yes it is Tuesday, but late is better than never, eh?
That's what Tony Mowbray was saying after Saturday's encounter with Zola's West Ham at the Hawthorns. Wait: this is about the Championship, so forget about the top flight for a few minutes and join me for a look-see at what happened in the Coca Cola Championship this weekend!
Business as usual at St Andrews on Saturday. Another 3 points for Bongo as Cameron Jerome scored their winner against Donny Rovers right before half-time. Ex-Sheffield United forward Steve Kabba scored the only goal of the game for Blackpool as the tangerines beat Barnsley. Cardiff shared the points with Bristol City. Charlton got 'done' a treat at the Valley by Wolves after taking a 3rd minute lead through Nicky Bailey. But the wheels fell off in the second half and with 30 minutes to go Ebanks-Blake scored from the spot before Sam Vokes hit a late double to leave Charlton on 6 points and near the bottom of the table. Wolves have had an excellent start to the new season and top the table, leading Bongo on goal difference.
Empty seats at Portaloo Rd.
Elsewhere Coventry and Preston finished goal-less, Palace beat Swansea 2-0 at Selhurst Park, Derby notched their first win of the season to lift some pressure from the shoulders of Paul Jewell, Forest lost at home to Burnley, Wednesday beat Watford 2-0 and the scummers beat Reading at Portaloo Rd.
Notice the empty seats in the picture above? Understandable...who would want to spend an afternoon at that dump watching Campo huff and puff all over the place.
So Bigus? What about Norwich? How did they do away to Plymouth?
Well readers, we hit the bar 3 times, had a goal disallowed but took all 3 points with relative ease after goals from the AA team: Arturo and Antoine. Arturo Lupoli put us in front after 15 minutes when a Sibierski (left) header put him through on goal, and then the big Frenchman with a shiny head scored himself from 30 yards with a free kick on the hour. Paul Gallacher scored a late consolation for Plymouth. Get in City! If we beat Q.P.R. on Wednesday, we could find ourselves where we belong, in the top 6!
Just one result left to mention. Wednesday's visitors to Carrow Road (Q.P.R.) stuffed Southampton 4-1 at Loftus Road on Sunday to leave the Saints second from Bottom with just 3 points. It's going to be a tough season for them. They flirted with the drop last term and I can see them going down this year...
To make matters worse former Saint Dexter Blackstock (above, spot a Southampton defender?) scored 2 of the goals. Plymouth are currently the strongest team in the league as they hold the other 23 teams up.
Click here for the table.
-Bigus
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