Oh come on who is being disingenuous now? Firstly you're conflating two of my predictions several weeks apart - the quote was my winning requirement not autos as I specifically said. I appreciate it confused you at the time, but surely you understand that 84 points needed to win means second place is on 83 points/84 points with a worse goal difference. Doesn't matter where first place finishes. They can have 100 points and if second place is on 83 it still means 84 points was needed to win.
My subsequent prediction of 83/84 required for autos is exactly the same prediction - it means 82/83 points for third place. It was a slight a revision upwards (or at least it would have been if you had asked me at the time of the prediction to also say how much was needed to win the league), but I'm not a politician - I'm allowed to change my mind without having an internet warrior getting pernickety over time-relative contradictions.
I did actually explain this on the thread - I do appreciate it's a slightly odd angle to look at it and merits explanation, but in my view as I have said on a number of occasions it's not important what total you finish on, it's only important what the guy one place behind you finishes on. That's why my predictions were phrased in an ostensibly confusing, but actually unambiguous, way.
Linear accrual remains incorrect, because accrual is not linear. We've been through this. Otherwise your estimate after match day one will be that the final winner will accrue 138 points. Which is clearly ludicrous. I appreciate you'll say that's not a reasonable time to pick it, but if you take (to pick an extreme example), say, the table after 18 games, the points accrual as 1.94ppg giving an estimated total of 90 points but then after 19 games, the accrual was just over 1.84 ppg, or a total of 85 points for the table. So that's a five point fluctuation over one round!
And that is the case for recently too. Just two matches ago the top of the table was on 75 points after 40 games. That gives a total of 86 on your linear prediction! And third place was going to end up on 84 points - just a point or so above my prediction for points needed for autos! To state the obvious, the linear prediction could even be inaccurate to three points by the final day of the season (e.g. if the top team loses, but stays in top place).
So surprise, surprise you're just going to pick the match round that suits your point of view with the benefit of hindsight. Of course, if it ends up being halfway in between you can pat yourself on the back and say your prediction was sound, but the fact is some teams accelerate away at the start and slow down, others are strong finishers. Nobody knows.
So you have to make a nuanced prediction based on matches to be played. Mine was that there would be a series of draws between the top teams which stifled points, but the accrual since my prediction has been incredible (channeled partly by our sensational form). I quite happy to admit I got the prediction wrong. But please don't patronise me or tell me I'm dishonest just because you didn't understand and got excited when you thought you could point out an error.