Five of Seattle’s top and completely self-appointed experts in English football, including myself, were brave and perhaps foolish enough to predict the entire finishing league table before the season began. The others asked and volunteering were: Seattle Sounders captain Danny Jackson, Seattle Post Intelligencer soccer columnist Matt Gaschk, co-presenter of KJR radio’s Soccer Show Mati Bishop and Seattle Sounders Media Relations Officer David Wittstock. Now we know these are early days yet and that Manchester United and Fulham have a game in hand, so as Hughie Green used to say on Opportunity Knocks ‘this is purely hypothetical.' 

     The first thing of note is that the communal pessimism about the fate of Stoke City seems to be well placed. Four of the five predicted a last placed finish and Stoke are currently only propped up by Spurs. Three of the five predict a Chelsea title which looks a reasonable possibility even at this early stage. 

     Turning to the less obvious eventualities brings me to Liverpool whose 3-2 come from behind victory at Manchester City impressed even their sternest critics and sees them sitting second. All the respondents had them finishing in their traditional top four, but only Mati Bishop and Matt Gaschk saw them doing any better than fourth. None of us saw Hull coming and all had them in the bottom four. West Ham United have made a fair start to the season and sit snugly in sixth but eighth was the best anyone of us had predicted for them.  

     What of the three big crisis clubs, Everton, Newcastle and Spurs? Did any of our experts predict that turmoil? They sit 15^th, 18^th and 20^th at the moment, and rumors surround the tenure of all three managers, Davie Moyes at Goodison Park, interim manager Joe Kinnear at St James Park and most virulently of all Juande Ramos at White Hart Lane.  

     With Everton, I get my best smarty points with a prediction of a struggling season where they would finish 15^th.  Newcastle is an especially interesting case as it is the preferred club of both Mati Bishop and Matt Gaschk, something to do with Newcastle Brown Ale I think. All of us saw Newcastle finishing between 7^th and 12^th, with Matt Gaschk the most optimistic one. This brings us to Tottenham Hotspur who have made their worst start since the year the Titanic sank. None of us saw this coming with all of us predicting between sixth and tenth. 

     So Hull apart, where we have all been caught unawares, are there any other areas where one punter has been found spectacularly right or spectacularly wrong? Well, there’s promoted West Bromwich Albion who have made a great start with ten points from their seven games. This has secured them an early ninth place. Three of us saw them finishing 19^th and the other two just two places higher, so all five of us can metaphorically sit in a corner of the Hawthorns with a dunce’s hat on. Solace lies geographically nearby though in the fate of Aston Villa who sit fifth in the real world. Danny Jackson, David Wittstock and I all had them there with the other two guessing seventh and sixth. 

     Now, having all had a laugh at us, it’s your turn. Please send us your EPL finishing predictions and at the end of the season, we’ll give the best entrant a prize. Please send your 1-20 to newsletter@europeanweekly.net.

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