Gameweek 9 Roundup

Gameweek 9 was another hard week to call. 38% of predictions got the right result, up from 32% in Gameweek 8 but a long way short of the 60% of Gameweek 7, and 10% landed the exact score. Seven of the ten results went against the crowd's favourite, the same as last week.

The biggest miss was Brighton's 1-0 win at Manchester City. 86% of players backed City, 12 of the 14, and the other two went for a draw. Not one backed Brighton, and half the pool, seven players, predicted exactly 3-1 to City, including two Golden Results. It was City's second defeat in a row after losing at Aston Villa, and the first game this season they have failed to score in. Aston Villa 1-1 Fulham also went against a lopsided crowd, with 11 of the 13 players backing Villa and only two calling the draw.

The other misses came all over the table. Coventry's 3-1 win over Sunderland went against the 62% who had predicted a draw, and only two of the 13 players backed Coventry. Hull 2-2 Ipswich went against the 46% who backed Ipswich, though five of the 13 did call the draw, and it was Hull's fourth home draw in a row. Liverpool 0-1 Arsenal split the pool three ways, with 46% going for a draw and 38% for Liverpool, and only two players called Arsenal's win. Newcastle 0-1 Everton went against the 62% who backed Newcastle, with just three players picking Everton, who won away for the first time this season. It was Newcastle's second 1-0 home defeat in a row.

The easier calls came in. Tottenham's 2-0 win over Crystal Palace was backed by 85% of the pool, with two players nailing the score, and it was their third win in a row after failing to win any of their first six games. Chelsea's 2-0 win over Manchester United was called by 79%, and three players got the score. Brentford's 2-0 win over Nottingham Forest was called by 62%, with two exact scores. Bournemouth 2-0 Leeds produced the most exact scores of the week, four, even though seven of the 14 players had predicted a draw, and Bournemouth have now won three in a row without conceding.

Arsenal's win at Anfield took them to 24 points, three clear of Manchester City on 21, with Brighton third on 19, Chelsea fourth on 16 and Liverpool fifth on 15. At the bottom, Sunderland are still last on 5 points, Nottingham Forest are on 6, and Manchester United and Crystal Palace are both on 7.

Our own calls in the Gameweek 9 preview got 5 of the 10 results right, with one exact score, against 38% for the crowd. That's our second-best week of the four previews so far, behind 6 of 10 in Gameweek 6 and ahead of 3 in Gameweek 7 and 2 in Gameweek 8, and ten games is a small sample. The right ones were Chelsea, Brentford, Hull v Ipswich, Coventry and Tottenham, and our 2-0 for Brentford was exactly right. We shared the crowd's view of a City win and a Villa win, we called a 1-1 draw at Anfield, and we had Newcastle beating Everton.

14 players made 133 predictions. cherryboy won the gameweek with 39 points, including 20 from a Golden Result on Bournemouth's 2-0 win over Leeds, one of four players to call the exact score, and takes the £25 prize. cherryboy was second in Gameweek 7. godfred12345 finished second on 36 points, with three exact scores, for the £10, and AdsGunnerWin was third on 29. Ten players set a Golden Result and five of them scored. Three put it on Chelsea v Manchester United and each took 6 points, while the two who put it on City v Brighton scored nothing.

In Last Man Standing, round four was the last. sjd took Wolverhampton Wanderers, who beat Cardiff 3-0 in the Championship, and goes through. sideshowbob took Aston Villa, whose 1-1 draw with Fulham was not enough, and is out. That leaves sjd as the last player standing, and winner of the £100 prize. A new pool will be announced on the site and by email.