ESPNsoccernet - ExtraTime - Premier Showdown

ESPNsoccernet: ExtraTime

Monday, January 23, 2006
Premier Showdown - Jan 21-23

The Rest of the World team, thanks to the talents of Nick Hill, reduced to deficit at the top of the table to just 4.5 points with a victory last weekend, but it was a win without glory due to a pitiful total of just six points!

null (Allsport)
The ROTW, together with Dale Johnson and Tommy Smyth, will be eager to pull something distinctly better out of the bag for this round of matches.

Our challenger for this weekend is Dev Prasad who is from Kuala Lumpur.

Dev, 30, is an ardent Liverpool fan attached to the largest port in Malaysia. He works as the Head of Container Clearance Department.

Rather grandly, he believes that football is the only thing that could unite the planet. 'It's by far the most widely spoken of language and it's powers are greatly underestimated,' he states.

Let's play!

Each week one of our readers, or an ESPNSoccernet Press Pass viewer, will get the chance to challenge our two experts. They, along with the challenger, will cast their eyes over weekend's top flight fixtures in England and predict how they think each game will turn out.

Soccernet's Premiership Editor, Dale Johnson, and Press Pass pundit Tommy Smyth take up the challenge from our team.

Points are then awarded as follows:

Three points for a correct result and scoreline

One point for a correct result

After the weekend's scores are in and the result has been worked out, the winning pundit will receive three points for their season's total. Should the challenger win, the total will be added to the 'Rest of the World's' tally. In the case of a draw, the points will be shared between those level on points.

Matches	Dale's prediction	Tommy says	Dev's pick	Result
Everton v Arsenal	1 - 1	1 - 2	1 - 1	1 - 0
Birmingham v Portsmouth	2 - 1	1 - 1	2 - 1	5 - 0
Bolton v Man City	2 - 1	2 - 1	2 - 1	2 - 0
Middlesbrough v Wigan	0 - 0	0 - 1	1 - 2	2 - 3
Newcastle v Blackburn	1 - 1	1 - 1	2 - 0	0 - 1
Tottenham v Aston Villa	2 - 1	2 - 1	2 - 0	0 - 0
West Brom v Sunderland	3 - 0	1 - 1	3 - 1	0 - 1
Chelsea v Charlton	2 - 0	2 - 0	1 - 1	1 - 1
Man Utd v Liverpool	2 - 1	1 - 1	1 - 2	1 - 0
West Ham v Fulham	1 - 1	1 - 1	1 - 2	2 - 1
POINTS TOTAL >>>	3	2	6

Dev's superb correct scoreline at Stamford Bridge saves the round being a completely embarrassing episode. But then again, winning with six points is no better than last week's dismal effort! It's a good job we've got a break for the FA Cup - I think everyone needs to recharge their batteries...

Overall score after 23 rounds:
Dale: 28.5
Rest of the World: 27
Tommy: 13.5

You can tune in to ESPNSoccernet Press Pass every Friday to see the picks revealed, and the previous week's results analysed. They will also be displayed here at Soccernet.

So do you think you can beat the best of the best? Now is your chance to find out!

Send us your picks for next weekend's fixtures, along with your name and a few details about yourself. We'll select one person each week to take on our experts for the right to be crowned the weekly winner!

Then log on to Soccernet on Sunday evening to find out who's taken the points.

Submit your entry for Premier Showdown:

Name:

Your e-mail:

City:

Country:

To:

Entry:	Sunderland v Middlesbrough Wigan v Everton Charlton v West Brom Fulham v Tottenham Aston Villa v Chelsea Man City v Newcastle Portsmouth v Bolton Arsenal v West Ham Blackburn v Man Utd Liverpool v Birmingham Games to be played January 31 and February 1. Remember, tell us a bit about yourself - who you support, your job etc... You stand a better chance of being selected from the hundreds of entries we receive!