24/25 Match Week 24 Preview

In Today’s CleanSheet:

• Headlines 📌

• Current Situation📈📉

• Hot Topic 🔥🔥🔥- Never Read the Book

• Off Island 🏝️ - Europe Leagues

• Best Bets 💰

Headlines 📌

• CS Match of the Week. Arsenal +110 v Man City+260 SUN 1030a - Still A LOT of time left for either side to make a run and close the gap on Liverpool but dropping points in any of teh remaining 15 matches will be problematic. Gunners got a great win last weekend scoring late with 10 men at Wolves and City took care of a solid Chelsea side after going down 0-1 early.

• 6.3.1 Week. 6 Saturday, 3 Sunday, 1 Monday.

• Spurs Going Young. During their Europa win Spurs played three young players from their developmental squad. Look for this to transfer to their EPL matches.

• Transfer Window. The window closes soon. More to come on last minute moves next week.

• Happy Birthday Magnum. Crazy to think - Tom Selleck, who played Thomas Sullivan Magnum PI, turned 80 this week. You may also know him as Francis Reagan from Blue Bloods.

What 2 Look 4 👀- Match Week 24

Ordered by Clean Sheet Interest Level 1️⃣2️⃣3️⃣4️⃣5️⃣6️⃣7️⃣8️⃣9️⃣🔟

Interested in all these matches as hot teams, cold teams and relegation battles are on tap this weekend - so here is a BIASED take on interest level knowing you will probably have a different order.

1. Bournemouth +360 v Liverpool -150 SAT 9a - HOT TEAMS - The Cherries have not lost in 11 matches and are coming off a THUMPING of Forest (5-0), in fact they’ve scored 9 goals in the last two matches. Meanwhile, Liverpool played mid-week in the Champions League in Eindhoven, Netherlands where they lost 2-3 to PSV.

2. Everton -125 v Leicester City +360 SAT 9a - RELEGATION sides coming off Wins - David Moyes has stabled the ship at Everton with back-to-back wins and now they get a struggling side fighting the relegation battle coming in with some momentum winning last week at Spurs 2-1.

3. Arsenal +110 v Man City+260 SUN 1030a - HEAVY WEIGHTS - See Above.

4. Wolves +230 v Aston Villa +110 SAT 1130a - MIDLANDS DERBY - EUROPE/RELEGATION - Villa had a nice win over Scottish side Celtic mid-week which moved them into the “bye” position of the Champions League. The question is do they have the legs to make the very short trip over to Molineaux to take on a Wolves side backed into a corner.

5. Ipswich Town -105 v Southampton +270 SAT 9a - RELEGATION BATTLE - Southampton have won ONE PL match in 36 and are clearly heading back to the Championship. Tractor Boys seem to be in a 3-way battle for one spot with Wolves and Foxes.

6. Brentford +105 v Tottenham +210 SUN 8a - LONDON DERBY (West v North) - GOALS INCOMING -Take away the names of the clubs and you have the 15th place team heading to the 11th place team, yet Spurs are such a big club the expectations are that they should be in this one but that has been no where the cast this season. The Bee’s and their Gtech Stadium had been seeing a ton of goals earlier this season but that has slowed.

7. Forest +140 v BHA +185 SAT 630a - LICKING WOUNDS. Trees need to forget about the 5-goal loss at Bournemouth and playing at home at City Ground may be just the ticket. Meanwhile, BHA lost for the first time in 7 matches last week home to Everton and seem to be struggling to get any consistency.

8. Newcastle -150 v Fulham +380 SAT 9a - GEORDIE ALERT - The Cottagers head north trying to stop a skid that has seen just one 2wins in their last 9. Newcastle have won 7 of 8 with their lone loss home to Bournemouth. Europe spots are on the line as both sides are in play.

9. Chelsea -260 v West Ham +650 MON 2p - LONDON DERBY (West v East) - COLD MATCHUP with Cold Palmer - Just 1 win in 7 against a struggling Wolves side for the Blues yet Europe is still in play for a side that has time to right the ship. No better time to do that against a struggling Hammer’s side at Stamford Bridge.

10. Man United +100 v Palace +250 SUN 8a - MEH - Both sides trying to work their way into the top 10 of the table. Palace had a disappointing loss home to Bee’s last weekend while United got a much-needed road win at Fulham.

Current Situation 📈📉

Hot Topic 🔥🔥🔥

Never Read the Book

Born in 1867, Laura Ingalls Wilder was an American writer who wrote a children’s series titled Little House on the Prairie that were published between 1932-1943. The books were based on her childhood as a settler and part of a pioneer family.

But Did Watch the Show

Most people have probably not read the book BUT did watch the television adaptation with the same title, Little House on the Prairie. In 1972 NBC acquired the rights to Wilder’s novels to write a 2-hour made for tv movie pilot. Michael Landon was asked to direct the pilot, and he agreed as long as he could play Charles Ingalls, Laura’s Dad. The Pilot aired in 1974, and the series ran to 1982.

ANSWER: 

• NBC & Peacock (the NBC streaming service) has the rights to the EPL.

• Comcast is the parent company of NBC and reported a record-breaking $31.9B quarter despite people dropping cable.

• Peacock is part of the reason for the financial results - UP 28% in subscriptions - and a solid sports lineup with the PL, NLF and the Big Ten of the NCAA, among others.

• AND - 50 YEARS after the pilot aired Peacock streamed 13 BILLION minutes of the show Little House on the Prairie in 2024. This translates to ~300,000 people watching the show daily. This puts the viewership on par with Yellowstone Season 1.

• In addition, it was announced this week NETFLIX is rebooting the series. It will be produced by CBS. Trip Friendly will be a producer on the reboot, his dad Ed was an Executive Producer on the original show. Trip recently said, “It has been a long-held dream of mine to carry on my father’s legacy and adapt Wilder’s classic American stories for a 21st century audience in a way that brings together fans of both the books and the original television series”.

Let’s hope they stick to the script and original writing, if they don’t you will see a big revolt. We’ll probably get an idea of the direction when we see initial casting.

Thanks to @helltownbeer on X for the research on the streaming numbers.

Off Island 🏝️

8 of 8 GROUP Matches Complete

The structure to the European Competitions are new this year. No longer 8 groups of 4, there are 36 teams in one group with the TOP 8 Finishers getting a bye the next round. The BOTTOM 8 Finishers are eliminated. The MIDDLE 16 finishers will have a home-away 2 match play-off to advance to the final 16.

Playoff opponents will be determined 1/31. The possible matchups are shown below.

Match 8 of 8 Results

3 of the 4 PL teams finished in the Top 8 and earned a bye into the Sweet 16.

• Liverpool 2-3 PSV Eindhoven (Netherlands) - Finished TOP of the table after Barcelona drew home to Atalanta.

• Man City 3-1 Brugge (Belgium) - Must win. Went down 1 but scored 3 2H goals to avoid being eliminated.

• Aston Villa 4-2 Celtic (Scotland) - Villa went up 2 at 5’ but were tied at HT. 2 2H goals moved Villa into a top 8 finish and a bye.

• Arsenal 2-1 Girona (Spain) - Down 1 at Girona found the net twice to earn a bye.

Tough result for Dinamo Zagreb getting eliminated on goal differential and a tough look for the Bundesliga with Leverkusen being the only top 8 side, Bayern and Dortmund having to go to the knockout round and Stuttgart and Leipzig being eliminated.

The Friday draw will decide which of the 9/10 seed will play the 23/24 seed, etc. Interestingly, we are guaranteed an all France match up as PSG will play another team from League 1, either Monaco or Brest. It’s also possible Milan could play Juventus, both from Serie A in Italy. AND, we are guaranteed a Man City matchup with either Real Madrid or Bayern Munich which recently would’ve been a Semi-Final or Finals matchup.

• Spurs 3-0 Elfsborg (Sweden) - Took til later in the 2H for Spurs to score and then add on 2 more for a solid home win and a spot in the Round of 16 with a bye.

• Man United 2-0 Bucuresti (Hungary) - Solid win in Bucharest for United that moves them solidly into the Round of 16 with a bye.

Another tough look for the Bundesliga as Hoffenheim are eliminated from the Europa League while the PL have both clubs move straight to the Round of 16.

EUFA Conference League played 6 matches to determine the knockout phase teams and the teams who went straight to the round of 16.

• Chelsea will wait for the knockout winners to be determined in February to see who they play in the round of 16.

The knockout phase has been determined. Chelsea will play one of two teams - the winner of Gent-Real Betis OR the winner of Copenhagen-Heidenheim.

Best Bets 💰

Match Week 24 - MBBGA

Up $30 in MW23. Keeping Big Cat and PFTC for the mojo.

Bournemouth to Win v Liverpool +360. $20

The Cherrie’s are too hot not to take the odds and Liverpool is coming off a road mid-week match.

Forest to Win v BHA +139. $40

Recency bias. Forest got drilled at Bournemouth and now are GETTING + odds at home. Yes Please.

Brentford Spurs O3.5 -126. $50

Gtech sees the goals again.

LCFC to Win at Everton +340. $20

Taking the + odds at a side that still struggles to score and have not put together 3 straight wins in a while.

Arsenal to Win v City +100. $50

Seeing City sit at +250 is so tempting but the Gunner’s will be Gunning for this one and they are just better.