What a week it has been. The number of sports articles I came across has been great. I have to apologise for posting this late. This strange thing called life came in the way. The articles below are my favourite for the week gone by.

1) How the mind of a modern-day sports fan works by Debnath Roychowdhury: This article talks about the psyche of a sports fan and is a must-read. The analysis of sports fans usually can get extremely theoretical or very mundane. It is rare to find good articles on this topic that covers the spectrum of sports.

2) The Rules of Being an Arsenal Player by Chaz: I loved the style in which this is written in. The link between the tradition of the past and the hopefulness of what is to come is really good. For the record, I am not an Arsenal supporter.

3) CricViz Analysis: Good bowling or bad batting? by Freddie Wilde: I am a numbers guy and CricViz is at the forefront of cricket analysis. Getting the software to collate the data is easy. Analysing the data accurately is hard. Writing it so that it can be understood by all is extremely difficult. There has been a lot of debate with regard to tailoring the pitch to suit England. This article provides insight into whether the Indian batsmen got out to good bowling or bad batting.

4) CricViz Analysis: Ollie Pope Test Selection by Ben Jones: What can I say but that the people at CricViz are on fire!! If anyone (myself included) had, have or will have any doubts of why Ollie Pope is spoken so highly of or should question his place in the side then this is it.

5) From brewers to bookies: How Premier League kit deals map the financial world by Tim Wigmore: Another really good article about the Premier League. This one deals with the evolution of sponsorship of football teams.

Special Mention

Wickets, bats & Moeen Ali: Why I fell in love with Cricket by Marc Lamberts: The more we follow cricket the more we move away from remembering what caused us to fall in love with it in the first place. This really good piece made me remember why.

The full list can be found here.