Revista Predictor: A rise up the ranks for Jon Driscoll after matchday 27
Monday 5 March 2018 08:38, UK
For a couple of weeks, he was languishing at the bottom, but a couple of good weeks have seen Jon Driscoll surge up the pundits' table on the #RevistaPredictor. David Garrido explains...
Some of the so-called experts are relatively consistent, others have short bursts of form, like myself before, then David Phillips recently and now Jon. The question is, who can do it often enough to get away from wooden-spoon position?
Aside from David P, everyone claimed at least one point somewhere in our chosen trio of games for matchday 27 of La Liga.
MATCH 1 - DEPORTIVO 1-1 EIBAR
Deportivo never make life easy for themselves, especially when their fifth different goalkeeper of the season, Maksym Koval, gets himself sent off 38 minutes into his debut. Still, the fight to stay at 1-1 could give confidence to Clarence Seedorf's beleaguered Depor.
There's still no win under the Dutchman, but he's had a couple of gutsy draws, especially at Riazor, and that might start to turn the tide.
Rob Palmer went for a 0-0 draw here, so he gets a point for having the right match outcome, but we all missed out on Takashi Inui as first goalscorer. Eibar will have been disappointed not to hold on to that lead or not to make the most of their numerical superiority, but eighth place and one point off sixth is not too shabby.
MATCH 2 - LEVANTE 1-1 ESPANYOL
This time, the home side took the lead and were on course for their first win in 15 La Liga games, courtesy of Jose Luis Morales (nope, no one had gone for him, even though he is Levante's penalty taker, which is sometimes a good shout), but they did not reckon with Leo Baptistao and his 91st-minute equaliser.
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The man who paid for it is Juan Muniz, Levante's head coach who was sacked hours later, and so Paco Lopez steps up from the B team until the end of the season.
Espanyol could no build on the midweek win over Real Madrid, but they look very safe, 13 points above the bottom three with 11 games remaining. We had correct scoreline predictions here from the top two - Palmer and Keatings - and Jon got a point for the draw.
MATCH 3 - BARCELONA 1-0 ATLETICO
Sometimes the best choices are the obvious ones, and Lionel Messi to break the deadlock is in that category for pretty much any game. His sublime free-kick at the Nou Camp, the 600th goal of his career, gave me and Jon six points, and then another point to Mr Driscoll for saying Barca would win, to go eight clear of Atletico in the table.
It has not totally killed off the title race, but we may well be looking back in a couple of months time saying that this was the result that effectively clinched it. And deservedly so, because Atletico were very timid and over-cautious in the first half particularly, and aside a Kevin Gameiro goal ruled offside, they did not have too many other chances.
Only the introduction of Angel Correa and Gameiro had an impact, with more direct running and an edge up front, but it was too late and Atletico may well just concentrate on the Europa League now.
Most of the movement in the overall standings this week has been in mid-table, as Jon climbs the table.
Next trio of games on the Predictor will be next Friday, and you'll see it on @SkyRevista on Twitter. Have a good week.
