Prediction of Lawro's Prediction - Match Day 1

Lawro, oh Lawro. He of the bland opinions on the BBC website. Every week, the former Liverpool defender plumps for home wins for the "Big 4", predicts 1-1 draws for anybody in mid table, and uses his weekly column to make largely inoffensive and stunningly obvious comments about the characters and circumstances in the weekend fixtures.




Oh, it's an early kick-off for "television"? That probably means that teams might not have woken up, and we never see the best of the players in these games. It's Champions League week? Managers may look to rotate their squads with "one eye" on the crucial fixture in Honved.


As a text of my copy writing skills, I offer my services as a ghost writer for this column. As a service to my reader(no s), I have put in Lawro's predictions - this was after I had compiled my prediction.


Saturday, 14 August 2010


 Tottenham v Man City, 12:45

This game is a repeat of the crucial Champions League decider from the end of last season. Since then, City have spent like they were the ones going into the top competition, adding Touré, Silva and Boateng amongst others, and I fancy them to have a very good season. These big names are in addition to the set Mark Hughes bought a year earlier, and therein lies the worry for Mancini - a run of poor results or any dressing room disharmony and he will be under threat like Hughes was last autumn.

Both sides will be looking to get off to a good start, but I fancy City to edge this one, as Spurs will have one eye on their Champions League qualifier.

Score 1-2. [Lawro went for 2-1]


Aston Villa v West Ham, 15:00

Manager-less Villa haven't had the best of pre-seasons and Martin O' Neill's are some pretty big shoes to fill. His team won't become bad overnight, but the new man will have to get in quick and make sure they don't get off to a stinker. Avram Grant tries something new after this thankless task at Pompey and has a bit of rag-tag team at West Ham to try and steer to safety this time around.

Score 1-1. [2-0]


Blackburn v Everton, 15:00

Blackburn improved last year and are a tough team to break down, particularly at home. Some of the fancy boys from London have problems on their trips to Lancashire, and Big Sam certainly has a few issues with many of the other managers in the division, but Everton under Moyes continue to chip away and should be a solid, if not necessarily thrilling match to open up their campaign.

Score 1-1. [1-1]


Bolton v Fulham, 15:00

I'm worried about Bolton this season. They did just enough to stay up, but looked like they were drifting downwards. Fulham won all the plaudits last year for their Europa League campaign, and will take some time to adjust to Roy Hodgson's departure for Liverpool. Mark Hughes has never stuck around too long in a job, and will be under pressure from the start to prove to himself and Al-Fayed that he can keep up Hodgson's good work.

Score 1-1. [2-1]


Sunderland v Birmingham, 15:00

Both teams did a good job at picking enough points up at home to not have to worry about relegation last season, but the real challenge for both is to get into Europe. Like a lot of the mid table teams, there haven't been to many notable ins and outs, so there may be a bit more continuity. Darren Bent will be looking to prove a point to Fabio Capello and I fancy him to get on the scoresheet in this one.

Score 1-0. [1-0]


Wigan v Blackpool, 15:00

Wigan Pier and Blackpool Tower are steeped in history, and may both have seen better days, but this will be a local Lancashire celebration on Saturday. You'd have been considered insane 10 years ago if you would have said Leeds, Wednesday and Forest would be struggling in the lower leagues and that these two would be in the top flight, but that's what can happen. This will be the first of 38 cup finals for Ian Holloway's side, but you have to fancy Wigan's experience will see them with the 3 points.

Score 2-1. [2-1 - man I am good at this]


Wolverhampton v Stoke, 15:00

Wolves flirted with the drop last season, but managed to steer clear, mainly due to the awfulness of the teams below them. I can't see them getting off to a ghreat start here either. Stoke don't always play the prettiest football, but this is a business, and Tony Pulis doesn't have the resources to bring in Xavi and Iniesta to the Potteries. 
Score 0-1. [1-1]


Chelsea v West Brom, 17:30

The first real gimme of the weekend. Champions Chelsea have lost Joe Cole, but brought in Benayoun, and with the improving Malouda to add to Lampard and Essien, there looks like there will be too much for any team - let alone West Brom.

Will the legs of the older Chelsea players keep going for the full season? Only time will tell, but its difficult to look further than them to retain their crown in May.

Score 3-0 [3-0]


Sunday, 15 August 2010

Liverpool v Arsenal, 16:00

These two teams have had some great encounters over the years, and you only have to look at Arshavin's 4 goal haul to sum up Premiership entertainment at its finest. Can the teams get to that standard on the first Sunday? Probably not, but look for lots of personalities with something to prove who will look to set down a marker for the season. 

Arsenal usually kick off the season with great style, but run out of gas in the Spring. Wenger will be looking to change this and bring some silverware back to the Emirates, but I can see them getting a point at best this weekend with Gerrard and Torres looking to show their new gaffer that they are committed to the cause at Anfield.
Score 2-2 [1-1]


Monday, 16 August 2010

Man Utd v Newcastle, 20:00

All eyes will be on Old Trafford on Monday as Man United kick off their campaign, and the Geordies return to the top flight.

Newcastle won the Championship quite comfortably last term, but weren't facing the likes of Rooney and Vidic week in week out. Like Chelsea, Man United are a team in transition with quite a few tired legs supporting some of the new players who are yet to really make their mark. Giggs and Scholes have been great ambassadors for the game, but may finally get displaced this year as the improving Nani and industrious Valencia look to mark their names in the folklore of the club.

Score 2-0 [2-0]


Note: A 10p bet with Coral on this stands to win me 112 MILLION pounds.


I think they would probably cap it before that amount of money.

Nintendo 3DS review

This is the Nintendo 3DS: video review from the Guardian's Tech team.

The Commuting Dilemma

I like to cycle to work, but it is not convenient every day of the week, especially on days when it is very rainy or windy, or I need a cleanly pressed shirt, or have something on in London afterwards.

So how do I not get hosed by the cost of commuting? These are the prices for an array of travel options over the course of a week.

Currently, Oyster is not available on South West Trains, a situation which may change in January, but this has been promised for quite some time (I registered my Oyster card back in 2003 and have commuted to Old Street, Putney, Farringdon, Embankment, and spent 3 years in Calgary since then).

The cheapest way to get between Earlsfield (or any other Zone 3 train network station) and Kings Cross (or any other zone 1 station) would be to take 2 buses on a daily basis. The 77 to Waterloo, then the 59 up to Kings Cross. At rush hour this weighs in at 90 minutes; 3 hours daily commute, at an average of about 11 miles per hour and total commute cost of £20.

There must be a faster option than this, but then you need to pay for it. A weekly Zone 1 to 3 travelcard currently costs £30.20, and this will increase shortly. The travelcard opens up the train and tube lines.

The frequency of both is good at rush hour, but the carriages of both are full at best, regularly packed, and around once or twice per week, a delay will make one or two travel legs overcrowded with some trains inaccessible.

Any sane person would only want to do this journey a few times a week, but then the issue again becomes cost.

From the above chart, it appears that the best 'hedging strategy' is to buy a fixed weekly train pass between Earlsfield and the Zone 1 hub Vauxhall. This 8 minute journey costs £2.10 as a single, £3.70 as a return and £13.20 for a week... The maths here is already slightly baffling, and I studied quantum physics. Buying a week's pass saves you at least £7.80 on single tickets - but, only if you use all 10 of those trips. Still with me?

That £13.20 would only get me as far as Vauxhall though, with another 3 or 4 central London miles to cross before I can sit at my desk and start to computer all sorts of other things.

In addition to that fixed cost, I then to have a "Pay as you go" Oyster card (PAYG) with money on it, and tap in at Vauxhall and out at Kings Cross. At £1.60 this is miraculously good value still.

Everything unravels if Vauxhall is having a bad day, as there is no plan B from there. A bus from Vauxhall heads loosely in the direction of north, but not particularly quickly.

In order to help myself out, I have used another chart... How do I make sure I don't pay more than the £30.20 travelcard costs or pay over the odds?

Now if I wanted to ride 1 day, I should probably go for then weekly Earlsfield to Vauxhall and then PAYG it from there to KX. This would cost £26.00, and save the hassle of buying tickets every day. The psychology of the "free ride when you've already paid" also comes into the picture, as often, the ticket barriers at Earlsfield are open. I don't condone paying without a ticket although I think my credit with TFL ticket buying karma is good.

Murphy's Law says that as soon as you get a week long pass, the clouds will part and the rest of the week will be blissfully sunny, and the Tubes will be subject to delays, strikes, passenger incidents etc.

To keep further bike riding still an option, daily returns with PAYG Oyster tickets are the best option. This does involve a calculated risk that the weekend will not require any trips into central London. The total weekly cost for one day bike ride, and 4 days train and tube would be £27.60

Riding can be very pretty, but does come at a slightly not free cost though, as inner tubes cost £4.50 each, and a bike, lock and helmet will set you back a few hundred quid too!

Charting this would then need to factor in my consultancy costs :)

The Lepki Chart - Autumn 2009 iTunes Play Counts

Spurred on by finding some The Farm on my iTunes... DELETE DELETE... I have put together the long awaited LEPKI CHART for Autumn 2009.

• Atlas Sound Logos burst onto the scene in September, racking up 130 track plays in little more than 2 months. The band look likely to overtake Fleet Foxes in the 2009 chart, as the bearded harmonisers struggle to maintain their pre-Glastonbury momentum.

• Perennially popular Yo La Tengo released a new album which includes a mixture of sticky and now overplayed songs. Some slower burners should make their way onto the work playlists and maintain the Hoboken trio's continued presence at the top.
• Luna by The Aliens has now become 2009's most played album, while the Neil Young Premium playlist draws songs from a range of albums, as do the Velvet Underground.
• As Spotify becomes a useful sample source, it is timely that a new "artistic impression" is launched, with the inaugural award being shared by David Bowie's A New Career in a New Town and Can's Vitamin C.

• Nirvana, Tosca, King Gheedorah and some lower quality Ian Brown songs have been and gone without troubling the scorers.
• Blur drop out of recently played artists table.

Autumn Most Played Artists (Sum of Tracks played)

Atlas Sound 130

Yo La Tengo 112

The Aliens 69

Angelo Badalamenti 68

The Velvet Underground 57

Radiohead 56

Neil Young 54

Pink Floyd 52

Broadcast 51

Stereolab 45

Broadcast & The Focus Group 40

The Beta Band 38

John Wyndham 37

My plans for the future of the Premiership

Rather than have a 2nd Premiership division, have a 30 team Premiership

Top 10 play each other home & away, then play the rest once each
11-20 play each other home & away, + 1 game against top 10, + 1 game against bottom 10
21-30 play each other home & away, + 1 game against top 10, + 1 game against middle 10

Getting into and staying in the Top 10 is the goal, and the league is printed in the blocks of 10, so Team 30 couldn't just have an easy draw, the highest they could get is 21.

2 teams up and down between blocks.
Slightly random element about who you get at home or away - gate attendance is shared.

Sky would probably like this as you could have a Sunday triple play of progressively more important games; one of the 5 games each week from the Top 10 would be a fairly juicy one, but you would often get 'improving' and on form teams who had won lots of games in a row against weaker opposition coming up against a Top 10 team.

Not that it is a great model, but NHL has teams playing each other slightly random numbers of times.

The image above shows how the league would have started this year.
One other benefit here is that the current Premiership end of season is focused around the top and the bottom; having nothing to play for once survival had been secured makes for a dull set of Bolton vs West Hams from March onwards; here they would be critical to survival.

Ludicrous?

Google Doodles

Part of my job is to look at fast moving search terms and try and figure out what the heck the internet is doing.

One huge source of traffic can be whenever Google puts up a 'Google Doodle' - a limited edition logo which is usually in celebration of somebody's birthday, Stravinsky, Hans Christian Orsted, Pac Man... It can be anything!

Today it is the 71st anniversary of the Wizard of Oz... What? It wasn't in your Google calendar?

To further celebrate, here is a picture from my gallery, of Dorothy's Ruby slippers from Washington's Smithsonian museum.



I specifically checked Google today, as this day last year, a ton of traffic came through Google due to the Perseids meteor shower, which is again tonight...

Sesame Street provided a rich seam of such logos late in 2009.

First up were Big Bird's legs seen representing the L of Google. Considering this logo was brought to us by the letter L and the number 2, it looks like someone in San Francisco needed to watch a little more of the educational show!

Next up in the UK was Cookie Monster, who got his own Google Doodle with some of the G's devoured by the anarchic blue biscuit fiend.

All this Sesame Street nostalgia, for a show which hasn't featured on UK TV since 2001 was quite suprising, but led to other aspects of the educational puppet show to come back to mind, like the fantastic pinball animation music.



Day 3 of the Google doodle series celebrated Bert and Ernie -the fuzzy haired couple who somewhat controversially co-habited happily for many years until many grouches (other than Oscar) found this politically incorrect.

In case you never figured it out, like me, Bert is the thin yellow one, Ernie is the friendlier orange one. Imagine me watching an episode of Lost...
Next up, it was Oscar, the grouch, himself adorning Google's search homepage.

.

Elmo took centre stage over the weekend,



And then for Monday morning, it was Count Von Count bringing a little maths into the equation.

And possibly finally, a selection from the cast, as first lady Michelle Obama made a guest appearance on the show.

Back in England this week, it was Happy Birthday Wallace and Gromit! Google celebrated the UK's favourite clay dog and Northerner turning 20. 20! Yes, that means that for roughly 19 Christmases, families up and down the country have been glued in a post-turkey slump which is enlivened by the charming stop motion animation. In a world of ridiculous CGI and noisy robots, Wallace and Gromit make for a charming hour.

About the only franchise untarnished by Mel Gibson's recent involvement (Chicken Run, the multimillion dollar grossing movie from 2000), Nick Park's deservedly Oscar winning Aardman studios continue to create happy productions, so cheers to you, and see you at Christmas.

London autumn colours

I've got a bike, and I'll ride it if I like... pictures taken on the journey home

Battersea Power Station, lit up due to some snowboarding rave thing here



Battersea Power Station and the dark side of the moon

Pictures from my bike riding in the autumn of 2009.

Chelsea Bridge


making Tooting look suprisingly ornate



apt, Haymarket.

More London.