SWARMING THE EPL

For Week 28 of the Premier League schedule, things go from the weird to weirder. Unanimous A. I was as stunned as most of the soccer-watching world when a plucky Bournemouth side played an entire half down a man, surrendered a penalty kick, and still managed to keep afloat for a 1-1 draw. Despite that throwing last week’s UNU Swarm picks into a bit of a mess, the swarm’s predictions still managed to sort things out and finish with five wins.

This week is an even odder duck, at least as far as scheduling goes. Thanks to F.A. Cup ties, five league games this weekend have been indefinitely postponed (or, in the case of Man. City, moved up to today.) With only five to pick this week it presents some unique challenges for Unanimous A. I. and the weekly UNU Premier League Swarm. With the games that survived the scheduling purge all featuring mostly mid-table teams (excepting Man. City and Liverpool), there are some tough calls to be made.

Clicking the table above will take you to a sheet with links, where you can watch replays of how the swarm came down on the week’s matches. One match that looks especially interesting is the showdown at Goodison Park on Saturday between West Brom and Everton. With Man United and Liverpool both stumbling a bit, the door has certainly been left open for one of these teams to jump up into the top six in the table perhaps, important for possibly securing a Europa bid for next year.

This looks like a very tough match all around. As you can see in the first replay, the UNU definitely has faith that Everton have a lot at stake and will be ready to play for this match. However, the second replay is pretty illustrative of how much is on the line in this match for West Bromwich Albion as well. Man United will be without Ibrahimovic for three games on suspension, so the winner of here stands a reasonable chance at pressuring the Red Devils for that six spot. The UNU Swarm thinks Everton takes this, but is hesitant to go overboard with confidence on that pick.

Every week swarms on UNU pick the winners of Premier League games, NHL games, movie box office numbers, and even consider trends in politics and popular culture. If you’d like to get our predictions emailed to you weekly, please drop us a line below.