Can you imagine predicting every single Premier League match in a season?
With the summer transfer window in full swing and pre-season friendlies peering over the horizon, that's exactly the challenge that we've set ourselves to forecast how the 2022/23 campaign might pan out.
It's the time of year where fans, pundits, content creators and more all put their integrity on the line by predicting how the Premier League table will finish up, but this way of going about things is even more extreme.
Predicting every 2022/23 Premier League game
Using the table calculator over at worldfootball.net, your humble GIVEMESPORT writer trawls through every single tie in the now-confirmed fixtures to give my opinion on what the final score might be.
Yes, yours truly bases the decisions based on how I think the season will play out and who I think will win the title, qualify for the Champions League, suffer relegation and so on.
But by the same token, there has to be a self-awareness that this is football we're dealing with here and that outrageous results - we're looking at you, Aston Villa 7-2 Liverpool - do happen from time to time.
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Game-week 38
A crazy, but interesting method
So, yes, there were some wild and wacky predicted results in my run-through that will look silly out of context, but ultimately won't when games of tantamount strangeness inevitably rear their head next season.
The caveat to this entire method is that I only hit the 'calculate' button a handful of times throughout the process in order to ensure that I'm not subconsciously picking results to manipulate the table into the way I think it should be.
At the opposite end of the spectrum, you run the risk of ending up with some truly stupid and irrelevant placements if you never come up for air and spot potential biases or patterns that creeping in.
All this is to say is that it's a fascinating way of trying to predict the Premier League table and depending on your own feelings about it, you might consider it to either be a truer reflection of somebody's internal predictions or a frankly random, hope-for-the-best method void of worth.
What did the final table look like?
But no matter which side of the argument you're campaigning for, rest assured that it's all a bit of good fun and you can check out how our final 2022/23 Premier League table ended up down below:
Interesting... very interesting.
A weird and wacky season
Now, in the interest of transparency, my actual prediction is that I think Manchester City will ultimately win the league despite a legitimate charge from Tottenham Hotspur, while Manchester United will impress and Southampton will go down.
And although the predict-every-game-like-a-lunatic method hasn't deviated too far away from that gut feeling, there are certainly some head-scratching results that I wasn't expecting to see.
Clearly my deep, internal footballing consciousness thinks Newcastle United are going to come on leaps and bounds under their new leadership and that, frankly, Arsenal and Chelsea are set to endure pretty miserable seasons.
Soccer Football - Premier League - Arsenal v Everton - Emirates Stadium, London, Britain - May 22, 2022 Arsenal manager Mikel Arteta with Bukayo Saka after he was substituted REUTERS/Toby Melville EDITORIAL USE ONLY. No use with unauthorized audio, video, data, fixture lists, club/league logos or 'live' services. Online in-match use limited to 75 images, no video emulation. No use in betting, games or single club /league/player publications. Please contact your account representative for further details.
And the title race is clearly going to be one for the ages with City and Liverpool both finishing on 29 wins, five draws and four defeats with just three goals settling the destination of the trophy.
Elsewhere, I can't help feeling as though I've been a little harsh on Patrick Vieira's Crystal Palace and that backing Nottingham Forest as the only promoted team to stay up might age like milk.
But before you start calling for my head in the comments section, be sure to give it a go yourself because it's funny what weird and wacky things happen you predict 380 matches. I need a lie down.