Kantar Media Premiership – September in review

Did you know: September begins on the same day of the week as December, every single year (don’t bother checking 2011 because I’ve already done it – Thursday). Interesting, I’m sure you’ll agree…

Just as interesting was September in the Premier League. The international break at the start of the month meant we had to wait a while to see some games, but when we did, it was business as usual – for Man Utd and Man City, at least, who both picked up from where they left off with big wins.

Not quite business as usual at the Emirates though, where Arsenal actually managed (to scrape) a first league win of the season – an improvement, definitely, but fans knew better than to get ahead of themselves after the Old Trafford nightmare a fortnight earlier.

And how right they were to stay reserved . That same weekend saw Man Utd prove that there is a definite gulf between them and Chelsea – helped just a smidgen by that Torres miss. And on the same day, Man City drew away at Fulham, thereby losing the “who’ll-slip-up-first?” battle of Manchester, and giving Utd a leg-up to the top of the league.

Luckily, though, the Premier League is good at making things complicated – cue Crouch and co, who held Utd 1-1 at the Britannia a week later. Naturally, Man City (before their Bayern Munich Teveztation) won their match, and it was all square again. There were convincing wins too for Chelsea and Arsenal (what the hell?).

So, September ended with Manchester ruling – and sharing – the roost. But September threw up a couple of other interestingtons: Newcastle and Bolton. Basically, one was good and one was bad; but the reason this is interesting is because you’d imagine that the good one would be the one you thought would be good, and the one who was bad would be the other one – but it turned out that it was the other one that was good, meaning they were actually the bad one. Too many ones? Here’s a two.

So an interesting (and confusing, apparently) month in the Premier League. And things weren’t entirely straightforward in Fantasyland either. As expected, there was plenty of transfer activity after the (real) window had shut: people seemed keen on Parker after he’d (foolishly) gone to Spurs, and Crouch once he’d (reluctantly) headed to Stoke. Barton going to QPR was popular too. Not so much buzz around Arsenal’s acquisitions though (except maybe Arteta).

But I bet what you really want to know is who the movers and shakers were? Well, after ending August on top spot, NMA’s Henry Vernon was down to 3rd in Gameweek 4, as Gareth Barr of BBC Trust continued his impressive August form to take pole position – helped a lot by a shrewd vice-captain choice in the hat-trick scoring Wayne Rooney (Dzeko didn’t feature that week). This first round of September matches were also kind to Alfredo Raydha, whose Gentel FC shot up to 2nd after posting a score of 83 – beaten only by Andrew Moffat of the NMA.

Gameweek 5 was capitalised on by Shortlist’s Mark Jefford, whose 69 points propelled him from 15th to 5th; Simon Johnson, of RSMB, top-scored with 70 to move from 9th to 2nd. As a comparison, Kantar Media’s Rachel Willshee scored a massive 9. Willshee win? No.

After that surprising Gameweek 6 (remember – when Arsenal were convincing and Man Utd drew), the league now looks in familiar shape. Slowly but surely, that familiar shape is becoming defined by Kantar Media’s managers* showing exactly what is meant by a “mid-table” team.

But there’s a bit of hope inside these walls: filter the league on only September’s results, and who do you find at the top? Our very own James Burke. If that isn’t enough to spur you on for the rest of October, I don’t know what will.

Good luck…

* Fantasy League managers, not actual managers (just in case…)