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Sports Desk get it right with City, shocked by United and Norwich

Ten members of the Monitor Sports Desk rightly predicted that Manchester City would win the English Premier League that climaxed last weekend.
Only Abdul-Nasser Ssemugabi backed Liverpool for the title and he is not surprised that the contest went down to the last minute of the competition.
“I have no regrets at all,” Ssemugabi, a specialist on combat sport, said.

Going by all the predictions that run on August 14, only he and sub-editor Jacobs Seaman Odongo plus celebrated NTV Omumuli pundit Denis Bbosa can claim to have seen a tight contest between Pep Guardiola and Jurgen Klopp brewing last season.
All 16 of us had Manchester City and Liverpool in the top four but only the aforementioned three had the latter in the top two.

“At least my prediction lasted until the very last whistle of the season. More so that the Reds have been chasing an unprecedented four trophies. 
“Their endurance has given us one hell of a season. And I can already predict a repeat next season if Klopp gets his transfer maths well. And of course Heaven protects his squad from injury,” Ssemugabi added.
Keeping with wholesome top four predictions the entire desk had Manchester United in the mix.
But Odongo, rugby reporter Deus Bugembe plus NTV Sport Knights pundit and football reporter Andrew Mwanguhya stretched it by claiming United would win the title.
“Take away Man United and I have the order correct,” Mwanguhya joked.

“Anyway, going by the preceding season’s performance, in which United finished second, coupled with the addition of Rafael Varane in defence and Jadon Sancho up-front, I was convinced this was the season Ole Gunnar Solkjaer would finally land the Holy Grail.
“However, his failure to work around Cristiano Ronaldo, a late addition, could have thrown any plans out of the window. What happened to United had little to do with City, Liverpool and Chelsea, but United’s failures from top to bottom were proved even with mid-term change of coaches,” Mwanguhya explained.

Ssekamatte faces Russian blues
Score columnist Allan Ssekamatte and NTV reporter Collins Muhwezi predicted Chelsea would win the title and are taking solace in the fact that they were in the mix until that Russia and Ukraine war started to stir up.
Also eight members had Chelsea finishing second while only Bugembe and Elvis Senono rightly predicted it would be third.
“Chelsea had everything in control until things unravelled in December. That run of eight games in 16 days was not sighted and the club only managed to pick less than  five points. 
“I believe the biggest undoing was the spillover effect from the Ukrainian war which left everyone at the club guessing whether they had a future at Stamford Bridge,” Muhwezi said.

 Top four surprises
However, we will let Sports Editor Ismail Dhakaba Kigongo explain why none of his members could see Tottenham Hotspurs in the mix.
“I would never have picked Spurs to get into the top four until Antonio Conte took the job from the sacked Nuno Espirito Santo. Conte was a big plus because he is a great manager,” Kigongo said.
Talking what we never saw coming, how did our proofreaders not arrest Odongo’s prediction that Leeds would be in the top four?
That one should have been scrapped without consulting him but he says: “I thought Leeds played some good football (the previous season). Along with Liverpool, they were the only club taking a go at whoever they faced without sitting back. Ultimately, I realised theirs was just a wet brick in a wall and the second season syndrome is real.”

The drop
Odongo also had Wolves and Crystal Palace as relegation candidates alongside the fallen Norwich City.
No one else thought Wolves would go down but Bbosa was with him on Palace.
Surprisingly, only four others thought Norwich, which eventually became the first team to be relegated, was going down.
Muhwezi had Aston Villa in the mix while sub-editor Innocent Ndawula, the indefatigable George Katongole and Emanzi Ndyamuhaki, whose byline accompanies most basketball and volleyball stories, thought Southampton was a candidate for the drop.

Ssekamatte and NTV reporter Felix Manyindo felt they had seen enough of Newcastle. But that cash injection from Saudi Arabia in January changed things.
Burnley and Watford were favourites for 10 predictors but the same number got it wrong with Brentford and four will be thinking ‘what changed at Brighton?’.
“Brighton had struggled the previous season finishing 16th and hadn’t made significant additions at the time,” Senono, who is a panelist on Omumuli and KFM Sports, said.
“Brentford had too many players without Premier League experience at the time which could explain their mid-season wobble,” he added.

The battle of the golden boot was a close nine for Mohamed Salah against five for Harry Kane while Bbosa and Manyindo sat on the fence.
“He did not join City,” said Deus, who had backed Kane to hit the ground running if he followed through with his desire to join the sky-blue half of Manchester.
Our verdict is that overall, we hit so many shots on target but there were clearly some evident offsides. See you next season!

... and the excuses!
Andrew Mwanguhya
Take away Man United and I have the order correct... Anyway, going by the preceding season’s performance, in which United finished second, coupled with the addition of Rafael Varane in defence and Jadon Sancho up-front, I was convinced this was the season Ole Gunnar Solkjaer would finally land the Holy Grail.

Abdul-Nasser Ssemugabi
At least my prediction lasted until the very last whistle of the season. More so that the Reds have been chasing an unprecedented four trophies. 

Collins Muhwezi
Chelsea had everything in control until things unravelled in December. That run of eight games in 16 days was not sighted and the club only managed to pick less than  five points. I believe the biggest undoing was the spillover effect from the Ukrainian war which left everyone at the club guessing whether they had a future at Stamford Bridge.

Ismail Dhakaba Kigongo
I would never have picked Spurs to get into the top four until Antonio Conte took the job from the sacked Nuno Espirito Santo. Conte was a big plus because he is a great manager.