Category Archives: Uncategorized

How good was Arsenal’s 2012/2013 finish?

Posted on May 20, 2013 by

Arsenal’s fourth place in this season’s Premier League table owes a lot to an impressive run after the transfer window closed at the end of January. The Gunners took 35 points out of a possible 42, losing only to North … Continue reading →

Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged , , | Leave a comment

PSV goal attempts the key this weekend

Posted on April 11, 2013 by

PSV play Ajax in the Eredivisie’s ‘title decider’ this weekend. It is the match between the Dutch league’s best home team and the club with the fewest away defeats. Ajax are currently three points ahead of PSV and will travel … Continue reading →

Posted in Uncategorized | Leave a comment

What is analytics? A response to Chris Anderson

Posted on March 20, 2013 by

The excellent Chris Anderson has posted a blog asking what analytics actually is. This struck me immediately as an important question, particularly given the way that the word has become so overused that it is perhaps difficult for people to … Continue reading →

Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged , , , , | 2 Comments

How can three of the world’s top five team be in the same RWC pool?

Posted on March 18, 2013 by

A few months ago, I wrote about the unfairness to some teams of the draw for World Cup qualification for football taking place more than a year before the European matches began. In rugby there is a similar situation, one … Continue reading →

Posted in Uncategorized | Leave a comment

Is 12 matches really enough to judge Mancini?

Posted on March 13, 2013 by

I have written about Manchester City’s Champions League campaign before here but twitter discussions today brought the subject back to me, not least this tweet: So, to attempt to answer Douglas’s question, I would like to refer to Michael Mauboussin’s book … Continue reading →

Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged , , , | 1 Comment

Can we expect more big shocks in later FA Cup rounds?

Posted on January 25, 2013 by

Having looked at the last five years of FA Cup surprises in one of my previous post on this subject, I wanted to expand and examine the surprise results in all rounds of the last five seasons of the competition. … Continue reading →

Posted in Uncategorized | 1 Comment

QPR amongst biggest shock winners in FA Cup third round

Posted on January 16, 2013 by

In my last FA Cup piece on giantkilling, I discussed why Brighton & Hove Albion’s victory over Newcastle could not be described as a giantkilling despite Brighton playing in a lower division. After Tuesday evening’s first batch of replays, I … Continue reading →

Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged , | Leave a comment

The Premier League battles laid bare

Posted on January 11, 2013 by

As a companion piece to the “Race to 38/68/87” article which blogger James Grayson published on the Premier League yesterday, I have looked at the current Euro Club Index assessment of the competition. The title race As I touched on … Continue reading →

Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

Is the Premier League title race all but over?

Posted on January 10, 2013 by

With the Premier League returning this week after taking a break for the FA Cup, the focus will be back on the  title race between the two Manchester clubs. However, it is well worth asking whether that title race is … Continue reading →

Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged , , , | 2 Comments

Why Brighton, Macclesfield and Luton are not the third round’s biggest giant-killers?

Posted on January 6, 2013 by

The opening match of FA Cup third round weekend ended with victory for Championship side Brighton & Hove Albion against Premier League Newcastle United. This was hailed at the time, and throughout the day, as a giant-killing. But was it … Continue reading →

Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged , , , , | 3 Comments