Golden Boot Game Web Log

INTRODUCTION

The fixture changes for the Christmas and New Year period have now been released. If you have been following the Premier League you may have heard about this as it has caused some controversy. However, Christmas Eve matches are not a problem for the Golden Boot Game. Rather it is the match on December 21st which is causing us a problem. By the strict rules of the Golden Boot Game a Thursday night match should be tagged onto the end of the previous Week. Logically though, this match is the first of the double fix Week (a game Week that has two sets of Premier League fixtures) which covers the Christmas and Boxing Day period. We have decided to end Week #16 a day early at midnight on Wednesday to allow us to start Week #17 on Thursday 21st December. The deciding factor for the Controllers is that the last matches of Week #16 will be on Sunday afternoon which means we can get the weblog for Week #16 done early. This will make the busy Christmas Week a little less busy for us. I am not sure if this will cause as much controversy among our players as the Christmas Eve game has amongst the fans but, like the Premier League, we will be sticking to our decision regardless.

REVIEW OF WEEK #10

For a change it was Salah who was selected for most teams, 24, this Week although Haaland’s double brought almost twice as many points for the 22 teams who picked him. Unusually, a third scoring striker, Son, also had over twenty selections. With only six selections, Nketiah’s hattrick could not match the points contribution of the big three. Wilson’s double only brought the same points total as Nunez’s goal, though the Liverpool man had just one more than Wilson’s ten selections. In total thirteen strikers made a points contribution this Week and every team had at least one scorer.

The top score this Week was 38 points from BF Giants who had six scorers with both Haaland and Wilson. Pain in the Arsenal were next best with two goals and two points fewer from their five scorers. Both Sofy and Alabangers got 34 points with the former on seven goals thanks to Nketiah and the latter with just five. Magic Eight Balls were the only team with Nketiah, Haaland and Wilson which helped them to a Week high ten goals. They were level on 33 points with Molineux Marauders who had just six goals. Once again things were very congested at the top of the Week’s scoring with another six teams getting thirty or more points.

Thirty points was enough for All New Goal Monkeys Deluxe to stay on top in the overall standings. They even increased their lead to three points as Merrall’s Marauders moved into second place. Also moving up, into third place were fdringo who are now five points behind the leaders. Magic Eight Balls and Bury Wanderer are level on points in fourth and fifth. Goals scored determines the order. Their ten goals this Week makes Magic Eight Balls the first team to reach fifty for the season, overtaking 48 goal Bury Wanderer as top goal scorers in the process.

THE QUANTUM ACCELERATOR GAME

Last Week, when I wrote about teams getting two more goals than everyone else and stringing two good Weeks together, I was hoping this would be the teams chasing Magic Eight Balls for the top spot in the Quantum Accelerator Game. As it turned out it was Magic Eight Balls with ten goals and consequently a second good Week. Their lead is now thirteen points which seems significant as it equates to more than two goals even in the final Week of the contest. BF Giants have moved into second place after the Week’s second best goals total, eight. A couple of the teams who added seven goals this Week, Lancashire Rover and fdringo, are in joint third place eighteen points off the lead. Lancashire Rover have posted 55 of their 56 points over the last two Weeks to move from dead last into joint third. This sounds impressive but the leaders have posted 64 of their 74 points in the same period.

In Week #11 the quantum value increases to five. This means every goal your team scores will add five points to their score. I can’t see that any team can catch the leaders by next Week but teams can certainly put themselves back into a challenging position before the final Week of the game. Essentially, if you want to win this season’s Quantum Accelerator Game you need to do what Magic Eight Balls have done in the last couple of Weeks over the final two Weeks of the contest. That and hope that Magic Eight Balls slip up. Mathematically, any team in the top eight still has a fair chance and any in the top twenty has an outside chance. However, Magic Eight Balls have by far the best chance and must be odds on to take the second Hot Spot Game prize of the season.

COMING UP IN WEEK #11

The Premier League reverts to a Saturday lunchtime start in Week #11 when Fulham host Man Utd. This is the first of ten Premier League fixtures being played in Week #11 with all twenty clubs playing one match. The Saturday lunchtime match means the Week #11 selection deadline for the Golden Boot Game is at 11:00 am on Saturday 4th November.

There are seven matches in total being played on Saturday, with just two this Week being played on Sunday afternoon. This leaves the final match of the Week, which sees Spurs take on London rivals Chelsea, to be played on Monday night. As usual we will update our website shortly after the final whistle in this match. Our next weblog will be published on Wednesday 8th November and should contain the usual round up of news from the Golden Boot Game and the Quantum Accelerator Game.