Tempting Fate

Back to the old routine again, and the holiday season ended in a loss for the XX Draws which had the Newcastle United v Everton match as a Classic selection. When Pete Nordsted pointed out on Twitter that...:

When Everton have been 1-1 away at HT since 2009/10 all 10 matches have ended level. Newcastle same period only three 1-1s at HT, two ended a draw and one a Home win.

I was quite excited. Well, maybe not. For me, such statistics are a curiosity, but nothing more than that.

Pete went on to say that "Strong trends can be broken especially one highlighted but I am laying 1-2 or backing Over 3.5 goals when and if it hits 2.0" and indeed, the game finished 1-2 with Everton scoring in the 60'. 

Incidentally, I'm not sure what was meant by "especially one highlighted". Sounds a bit like my Mum who thinks that talking about something, especially something bad, is 'temping fate' and should be avoided at all costs. Life's not like that, and it's hard to imagine the teams and coaching staff checking their Twitter accounts at half-time and deciding to put an end to the trend because 'it has been highlighted'. 

Some trends are certainly useful, but I do have trouble in accepting that there is any logic in believing that the result of a game from 2009 is somehow relevant to a game nearly four years later.

The other XX Draw selection so far this year was a winner, as Southampton held Arsenal to a 1-1 draw. I've not had time to update the FTL table yet, but I have kept all the emails and will try to catch up this week.

It does look as though I will need to beef up the security on comments. A few more spammy ones appeared while I was away, and while there are more annoying things in the world, it is still annoying.  We'll see how many this post draws, but now I have highlighted the issue, no doubt they will stop completely.