Obviously, the departure of The Special One^TM has helped the portfolio, though the benefits thereof have been attenuated by increasing the price of the Man Utd contract. With what's coming out about how Mourinho was run out of town, I have major doubts about whether Chelsea will even qualify for the UEFA Cup this year. The Pain from the Ukraine and John Terry are the only players who seem to be happy with the change; I expect a few players who came to play for Mourinho (Drogba, Essien, and Cole among them), not for Chelsea, to put in transfer requests in January and if Chelsea doesn't move them, they'll be the epitome of dressing room cancer. Roman's the manager now, is he even the equal of Sammy Lee?

The model continues to slant towards North London, despite current projections of Spurs being relegated and 5 points from safety (I do actually think that Spurs will turn it around... if nothing else, Jol will be fired and Levy's money will bring in a better manager than Roman or Avram). The upper end of the table is projected to have a distinctly Nowrth Western feel, with Manchester City, Manchester Home Counties, and Liverpool rounding out the top 4. Villa, Newcastle, and Blackburn are in the potential European places.

SELL 27 MAN UTD at 34.4. While United took the first 3 pointer in the top 4 league, they did it against the club with most tenuous hold on a Champions League place. They did more than triple their intrinsic value, but the spread between that and the price has widened.

BUY 12 ARSENAL at 25.1. Over the offseason, I thought that Arsenal were likely to fall out of the top 4. I was wrong. The model points to an intrinsic value greater than 60.

SELL 49 LIVERPOOL at 18.8. An even greater disappointment for the Scousers as they drop points at home to Small Heath. I'm sure there will be some extra hubcap-stealing over the next few days to make up for funds lost on betting on the Liverpool franchise to win on Saturday.

SELL 29 CHELSEA at 17.8. The collapse in Chelsea's price went through one of my hedge-out points, thus reducing my shorting.

BUY 17 MAN CITY at 0.6. Drawing to Fulham, even if it's away, isn't a good sign, but I still fancy Citeh as a longshot.

BUY 17 NEWCASTLE at 0.6. They're back in my good graces after soundly defeating a highly-rated West Ham side.

BUY 33 BLACKBURN at 0.2. Upward price momentum has been blunted by a home loss. Intrinsic value is still around 10x current price.

BUY 25 VILLA at 0.3. Over the weekend, the Villa market went one-sided (only offers to sell were shown on betfair), which would have rendered it an unpriced contract and unworthy of consideration. A sound defeat of Everton brought more bettors out of the woodwork.

BUY 33 WEST HAM at 0.2. A borderline play. But I'll still run with it.

In total, that's $847.61 risked this week. The positions now stand at:

• CHELSEA: short 127 contracts with $921.88 risked
• MAN UTD: short 147 contracts with $1078.24 risked
• ARSENAL: long 33 contracts with $54.06 risked
• NEWCASTLE: long 50 contracts with $2.67 risked
• VILLA: long 123 contracts with $2.71 risked
• BLACKBURN: long 110 contracts with $2.72 risked
• LIVERPOOL: short 95 contracts with $741.50 risked
• MAN CITY: long 39 contracts with $2.34 risked
• WEST HAM: long 76 contracts with $1.52 risked
• Cash balance: $192.36

If $TEAM wins the league

• Chelsea: loss of $387.64
• Man Utd: loss of $587.64
• Arsenal: gain of $1212.36
• Newcastle: gain of $1382.36
• Villa: gain of $2112.36
• Blackburn: gain of $1982.36
• Liverpool: loss of $67.64
• Man City: gain of $1272.36
• West Ham: gain of $1642.36
• Anyone not listed: gain of $882.36