Football

Accuscore’s season predictions right on track early on

Before every football season, Accuscore simulates the whole season ahead and predicts the final outcome of the league. Accuscore’s season preview can be found here: www.accuscore.com/soccer/soccer-picks. Of course the team’s rosters may have changed somewhat after the seasons have started (except for the English Premier League), but nevertheless the predictions have been historically quite accurate. How about this time around, after about a quarter of the season is behind us? Let’s have a look at couple of the big leagues.

In English Premier League Accuscore’s pre-season simulations put Liverpool and Manchester City at even odds to win the title. The other top spots were manned by Tottenham, Chelsea, Arsenal and Leicester City. The collapse of Manchester United was well predicted, as in the simulations they placed only 8^th – which caused quite a stir at the time. The suggested picks included Leicester City in top-6 with odds of 11.00 – they’re currently 4^thand Liverpool to win the league over Manchester City (winning odds of 1.53), with odds of 4.33 – they currently hold an 8-point lead on top of the league. The Spurs have been the letdown of the season, as they were predicted to make a challenge for the title at 3^rd place, but have now succumbed to 9^th. Overall, Premier League looks to be going very much as predicted.

In Serie A there’s not a lot of change historically, as Juventus has won eight scudettos in a row. However, Inter Mlan is now challenging with some seriousness, despite heart-breaking loss at home to Juventus over the weekend. They’re only one point apart on top, and there’s still plenty of football played. Accuscore’s season simulations had Juventus winning, once again, but the suggested picks included Inter with odds of 7.00 – which seems like a nice bet at the moment. Here’s hoping!

It has not all been a bed of roses, though. In French Ligue 1 everything else is topsy-turvy but PSG’s dominance. The top four at the moment include Nantes, Angers and Bordeaux, predicted 9^th, 14^th and 12^th in Accuscore season predictions. In all fairness, the betting companies had them pegged at 11^th, 17^th and 10^th, so it has been a surprising start. Moreover, the teams predicted to challenge PSG, namely Lyon, Marseille and Monaco are truly struggling: Lyon is 14^th, Monaco 16^th and Marseille a bit better at 9^th. In Accuscore simulations, St. Etienne was to continue from their successful last campaign, but have succumbed to 13^th. At least Dijon is dead last, as predicted and suggested pick for relegation at odds of 2.88.