Martyn Drabik's Blog (1 follower)

Introduction

Christmas Time, and more particularly the New Year is a time of year where you can typically predict how the season will end. The team at the bottom at the end of December usually is relegated, whilst the team that is top usually wins the league.

Therefore, perhaps this is the most important blog update of the Alphabetti League so far.

How it ended last time...

To set the stage for how the month began, the following was true...
- Team S topped the league with 33 points; 4 points ahead of Team D
- Team D were again the highest scorers (30), whilst Team S had again conceded the least (10)
- Team E remained bottom with 4 points; 8 points from safety
- Team PQ and Team N also remain in the relegation zone
- Top goalscorer: 9 - Olivier Giroud (Team G), Diego Costa (Team D)
- Most assists: 9 - Jack Wilshere (Team WXYZ)
- Most POTM: 5 - Sergia Aguero (Team A), Mesut Ozil (Team O), Leighton Baines (Team B)
- Best Rating: 7.92 - Leighton Baines (Team B)

End of December 2015

So... I have some bad news. Sit down first please. This is big. One of the Alphabetti League managers got sacked. Yep, it's true. Fortunately, it was not Team E's manager, but it's still sad. More frustratingly, he has been replaced by a manager with the wrong letter at the start of his name!!!!!



Screw you David Moyes. You've potentially ruined this experiment! If Team F do considerably better or worse than they were expected, you could be to blame! Shame on you. You've ruined science.

Well, enough of the overexaggeration. Let's get on with things...



All teams player 6 games in December, so there's a lot of points on offer (18!), and the fixture congestion could always spring some surprises.

Team S picked up 13 points to remain ahead of the chasing pack. Team V also earned 13 points and are now joint second with Team D on 39 points; 7 behind Team S. The rest of the teams are spreading out a bit now, so the qualifiers for the European competitions shouldn't be as much of a lottery as once thought.

Team D's blip is maybe not so surprising, seeing as their players sometimes lose control of their emotions. For example, how are you supposed to win a game if you are played 11 v 8? Admittedly, despite playing with less players for over 2/3rds of the game, a 3-2 loss is probably respectable. Even so...



Down at the bottom, Team E picked up 7 points from 6 games; a far cry from where they were two months ago. They have therefore reduced the gap to the safety positions to just 6 points (though admittedly not that much of an improvement).

Team E are also marginally closer to the teams in 18th (Team PQ) and 19th (now Team TU), owing to their slightly better form in comparison to those teams. Team F, which is now managed by David MOYES sit in 17th position.

In terms of players, we also have a little bit of a movement.



Diego Costa (Team D) scored 6 goals in the 5 games he played (he missed one of Team D's matches) to lead the way at the top with 15 goals, leaving Ayoze Perez (Team A) two goals behind. Giroud (Team G), Cuadrado (Team C) and Mata (Team M) all have 10 goals.

Alexis Sanchez is one of a number of players that have 9 goals, though 3 of them came in the following impressive game, where he ran the show.



In fact, he scored 7 goals in 6 games this month, helping Team S extend their lead at the top. Perhaps unsurprisingly, Sanchez won Player of the Month, with Willian (Team WXYZ) and Kevin De Bruyne (Team D) in 2nd and 3rd respectively.



Jack Wilshere (Team WXYZ) managed 1 more assist, but is now joint with Kevin De Bruyne (Team D) on 10 assists.

Leighton Baines (Team B) managed two extra Player of the Match awards, leaving behind Ozil and Aguero. However, Coutinho of Team C must have had a great month, as he has caught up with Baines on 7 awards. Coutinho also moved up the Average Rating charts, but sits in 3rd with 7.84, behind Memphis Depay in 2nd (7.85) and the new leader, Alexis Sanchez (7.91).

The League Cup progressed one further round, and much to my surprise, Middlesborough progressed against second placed Team D with a 2-0 victory. The semi finals in the new year as follows.



Questions?

Can Middlesborough provide a further shock and beat the current league leaders over two legs?

Will Team V now push past Team D and be the most realistic title challengers?

Are Team E capable of closing the gap even further now that they have won a few games?

TUNE IN TOMORROW (OR SOON AFTER)

It's January next. You know what that means? TRANSFER WINDOW! Oh wait, no. I gave all teams a transfer ban. Never mind.... Even so, do stop in for a read when the next issue comes out!

Cheers,

drabik