Poisson Prediction
To predict how many goals a team will score in a match we can use the Poisson Distrubution. The Poisson Distribution is a mathematical formula that describes the distribution of the number of discrete random events. It is applicable to almost any random event - for example the number of cars arriving at a red light, the number of customers entering a shop per hour, the number of goals scored in a match. The formula is written as P(k) = (lambda^k) * (e ^ -lambda) / k! Where P(k) mean the Probability of k goals, Lambda is the average goals per game. e is eulers constant (this is a known constant), k! is k factorial (eg 3! = 3*2*1=6). It's just mathematical notation. So we have quite a simple way of calculating the probability that a team will score 1 goal in a game, or 2 or 3. And we can calculate likewise for their opponent. We are then calculating the probabilities of football results! The only parameter of the equation tha...