10 games in... Am I A Clown?

Yes

Oh I guess that’s the end of the article then. See you next week.

You: Wait, why are there more words after this?

Photo by Mizuno K: https://www.pexels.com/photo/woman-looking-through-documents-and-making-a-confused-facial-expression-12911952/

We’re ten games into the 2022-2023 Cyta Championship. I made some predictions on how the whole thing is supposed to finish. I have also been chucking in weekly predictions on the scores on the Twitters. So, how well am I doing? 

Here’s a quick recap of how I said things will finish:

1. AEL

2. Omonia

3. APOEL

4. Apollon

5. AEK

6. Pafos

7. Anorthosis

8. Aris

9. Olympiakos

10. Nea Salamina

11. Doxa

12. ENP

13. Karmiotissa

14. Akritas

What do things look like after 10 games? A bit like this:

Transfermarkt!

AEL have started climbing the table following the sacking of Silas, with 4 wins on the trot before losing to Pafos. Long, long way to go to the top though, especially if they’re losing to Pafos.

Pafos are now 4 points clear at the top and their form does not show any signs of abetting. They’ve taken a few scalps already, beating teams that would have traditionally been the top 6 teams: Omonia, AEL and AEK and a draw away from home against APOEL. 

In my review, I said that Aris, along with Anorthosis will be the teams to fall out of the top six come time for the league split. Aris sit second. Anorthosis are 7th. 

Omonia have fallen off a cliff. Neil Lennon has not done well. Yannick Ferrera has come in, and so far he has been solid, if unspectacular, getting four points in the league vs Aris and Anorthosis and continuing the team’s losing streak in the Europa League. 

Talking of new managers, let’s look at the reject pile so far:

David Catala (Apollon)
Alexandr Khastkevich (Karmiotissa)
Neil Lennon (Omonia)
Silas (AEL)
Darko Milanic (Anorthosis)
Sofronis Avgousti (APOEL)
Dusan Uhrin Jr (Karmiotissa)
Alexander Zorniger (Apollon)

6 out of 14 teams, with two teams changing manager twice already. Two Watfords for the price of one in Cyprus. 

And what of the matchday predictions? Well, if I had predicted every score 100% correct, the table would like this instead:

AEL 🤝 Pafos

Ruining my life

I’m really paying for overestimating AEL and underestimating Pafos. The bank account is starting to get empty. Although to be fair to me, who would have predicted how Pafos have started?

Alright… except for him?