Premier League predictions: Lawro v singer Paul Heaton
- Published
BBC Sport's football expert Mark Lawrenson is pitting his wits against a different guest each week this season.
Lawro's opponent for this weekend's Premier League fixtures is singer Paul Heaton.
Heaton is touring with former Beautiful South vocalist Jacqui Abbott
Heaton, a former member of The Housemartins and The Beautiful South, is now pursuing a solo career.
He supports Sheffield United and says: "I like being a Blade because I think it suits my underdog spirit.
"It is sort of how I am as a person, because I have always tried to be a bit different, so it means a lot.
"My two brothers are Sheffield Wednesday fans and I think I picked United to be different to them, because we were all taken to Wednesday first."
Heaton's favourite United goal was Alan Cork's against Wednesday in the 1993 FA Cup semi-final: "It really summed us up - it was hoofed from just outside the area and just trickled over the line. Cork also embodied what we were about at the time, and had a beard before they became trendy. We basically had a caveman up front, which was great."
Heaton has seen United play in the Premier League and every division of the Football League during the past 40 years and says he has a set of favourite players from every era.
He explained: "There have been several stages of my fandom - when I was a kid in the late 1960s and early 1970s, the players who made it worth going were people like Tony Currie, Geoff Salmons and Alan Woodward.
"When you are sat as a kid you need to be entertained to get into the match and I have found the same with my children when I take them - they are not interested in hard tackles, they want people who score goals and look good.
"We had plenty of that when I first started going but, by the time I was older and I started drinking, I liked a different type of player, like Joe Bolton or Paul Stancliffe.
"We were down in the old Fourth Division by then and, when I had had five pints on an away trip to Darlington, I needed a big centre-back to wake me up by shouting 'let's get stuck into them'."
Premier League predictions - Week 10 | |||
|---|---|---|---|
Result | Lawro | Paul Heaton | |
SATURDAY | |||
Aston Villa v Swansea | 1-2 | 1-1 | 1-1 |
Leicester v Crystal Palace | 1-0 | 1-2 | 2-2 |
Norwich v West Brom | 0-1 | 0-2 | 1-0 |
Stoke v Watford | 0-2 | 2-0 | 2-0 |
West Ham v Chelsea | 2-1 | 0-1 | 2-2 |
Arsenal v Everton | 2-1 | 2-0 | 2-0 |
SUNDAY | |||
Sunderland v Newcastle | 3-0 | 1-1 | 1-1 |
Bournemouth v Tottenham | 1-5 | 0-2 | 1-1 |
Man Utd v Man City | 0-0 | 1-1 | 2-1 |
Liverpool v Southampton | x-x | 2-1 | 1-0 |
Our scoring system has changed this season and a correct result (picking a win, draw or defeat) is now worth 10 points. The exact score earns 40 points.
Last weekend, Lawro got six correct results from 10 Premier League games, including one perfect score.
His score of 90 points saw him draw with boxer Amir Khan, who also picked six correct results with one perfect score, to go top of the guest leaderboard.
We are keeping a record of the totals for Lawro and his guests (below), and showing a table of how the Premier League would look if all of Lawro's predictions were correct (at the bottom of the page).
Make your own predictions now, compare them to Lawro and other fans and try to take your team to the top of the leaderboard by playing the BBC Sport Predictor game.
Total scores after week 9 | |
|---|---|
Lawro | 630 |
Guests | 430 |
LAWRO'S PREDICTIONS
All kick-offs 15:00 BST/GMT unless otherwise stated
SATURDAY
Aston Villa 1-2 Swansea
Leicester 1-0 Crystal Palace
Norwich 0-1 West Brom
Stoke 0-2 Watford
West Ham 2-1 Chelsea
Arsenal 2-1 Everton
SUNDAY
Sunderland 3-0 Newcastle
Bournemouth 1-5 Tottenham
Man Utd 0-0 Man City
Liverpool 1-1 Southampton
Lawro's prediction: 2-1
Paul's prediction: 1-0
Lawro was speaking to BBC Sport's Chris Bevan.
Lawro v Guests | |||
|---|---|---|---|
P9 | W6 | D2 | L1 |
SCORE | GUEST LEADERBOARD |
|---|---|
90 | Amir Khan |
70 | Lawro (average after nine weeks), Osi Umenyiora |
60 | Stuart Broad |
50 | Mark Radcliffe, Jack Whitehall |
30 | Darren Campbell, Mark Webber |
20 | Graeme Swann |
10 | Kelly Jones |
Lawro's best score: 140 points (week three v Jack Whitehall & week four v Darren Campbell)
Lawro's worst score: 20 points (week one v Graeme Swann)
ARROWS & +/- DENOTE POSITION DIFFERENCE BETWEEN LAWRO'S TABLE AND REAL TABLE | ||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
POS | TEAM | P | W | D | L | PTS | DIFF | +/- |
1. | Man City | 9 | 8 | 1 | 0 | 25 | 0 | |
2. | Arsenal | 9 | 6 | 3 | 0 | 21 | 0 | |
3. | Chelsea | 9 | 6 | 2 | 1 | 20 | +9 | |
4. | Southampton | 9 | 6 | 1 | 2 | 19 | +4 | |
5. | Liverpool | 9 | 4 | 5 | 0 | 17 | +5 | |
6. | West Brom | 9 | 4 | 5 | 0 | 17 | +7 | |
7. | Crystal Palace | 9 | 4 | 2 | 3 | 14 | -1 | |
8. | Man Utd | 9 | 4 | 2 | 3 | 14 | -5 | |
9. | Tottenham | 9 | 3 | 4 | 2 | 13 | -2 | |
10. | Stoke | 9 | 3 | 3 | 3 | 12 | +1 | |
11. | Newcastle | 9 | 3 | 2 | 4 | 11 | +7 | |
12. | Bournemouth | 9 | 3 | 1 | 5 | 10 | +5 | |
13. | Norwich | 9 | 3 | 1 | 5 | 10 | +3 | |
14. | Leicester | 9 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 9 | -9 | |
15. | Sunderland | 9 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 9 | +5 | |
16. | Swansea | 9 | 1 | 6 | 2 | 9 | -2 | |
17. | Everton | 9 | 1 | 3 | 5 | 6 | -8 | |
18. | West Ham | 9 | 1 | 2 | 6 | 5 | -14 | |
19. | Aston Villa | 9 | 1 | 0 | 8 | 3 | 0 | |
20. | Watford | 9 | 0 | 1 | 8 | 1 | -5 | |
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