Predictions 2015-2016 (Round 35) With Magic Numbers, Relegation, and Other Stuff

This past mid-week I picked four games out of five correctly with no correct scores for 40 points.  Lawrenson picked four out of five correctly with two correct scores for 100 points.   Merson picked zero  out of zero correctly with zero correct scores for a total of 0 points.  However, I failed to give him credit for both of his correct weekend scores so his season point total increases by 30.

My current total for the season is 161 out of 339 with for 2390 points.  Lawrenson has picked 170 out of 339 for 2570 points. Merson has picked 152 out of 329 for a total of 2280 points

Lawrenson’s and Merson’s new predictions can be found here and here. 

PREDICTIONS

My system’s picking rules can be found here. (The uneven number of games played does not affect anything this week.) Based upon those rules here are my predictions for the next round of games:

Man City-Stoke                   2-1

Aston Villa-Southampton  0-1     

Cherries-Chelsea                 1-1

Liverpool-Newcastle           2-1

Sunderland-Arsenal            1-2

Leicester-Swansea              1-0

Tottenham-West Brom     1-0

RELEGATION AVOIDANCE

It still takes 44 points to guarantee relegation avoidance. That number will drop to 43 if Sunderland loses.  We can still finish as low as 14^th or as high as fourth place which seems unlikely. A win against Aston Villa guarantees us no worse than 10^th place.  Leicester, on the other hand, can finish no lower than third place so they are already in the group stage of the Champions League.

MAGIC NUMBERS

These are Southampton’s current magic numbers as explained here. I made some mistakes in the mid-week magic number post.  I apologize to the half dozen people who might have read them.  (Note that magic numbers don’t actually go negative because once they hit zero, you have clinched finishing ahead of the other club.  I am just making them go negative to keep track of just how far back some clubs are.) 

Leicester City                    35

Tottenham                        30

Arsenal                               25

Manchester City               23

Manchester United          21

West Ham                          18

Liverpool                            19

Watford                                3

Stoke City                             9

Everton                                 3

Chelsea                                 9

Crystal Palace                    -2

West Brom                           2

Bournemouth                     3

Swansea City                       2

Norwich City                      -6

Newcastle                           -9

Sunderland                         -5

Aston Villa                           -16