My 2006/2007 Premiership Prediction Results

Nine months ago today, on August 14th, 2006, I impregnated a slip of paper with my predictions for the upcoming English Premiership season. And today, with the season having ended just yesterday, the fruits of my labor are born.

The first column of numbers in the chart below shows what I predicted the final standings would be; the second column, what they actually are; and the third, how many places off I was. Below the chart are some averages based on certain segments of the results.

I did pretty well on the order of relegation, though that's probably the easiest to guess, given that the most likely to go down are the ones who've just come up from the Championship.

I think I did okay picking who would end up mid-table, but the actual order of mid-table teams is probably an art unto itself. Actually, if I hadn't overestimated Newcastle and underestimated Aston Villa, my average would have been much better.

Thinking Manchester would not make the top 4 was, for me, wishful thinking, as was predicting Arsenal to be the champions. But I made the whole list on a lark to begin with, so not too shabby.

And for one last bit of rationalization, if you switch Arsenal with Man U and Villa with Newcastle, my average for the whole list drops to just 1.7 places off per club. I should be drawing a salary for this.

I'll likely make another set of predictions just before the start of the 2007/08 season; this time based on reality rather than my own prejudices, though. Having said that, I'll probably have Sunderland coming in at 6th.

Maybe I should just make two predictions then. One that I wish it would be (come on, Portsmouth!), and one where I'm honest (Berbatov could really help Arsenal out).