Lawro's Premier League predictions v You Me At Six's Josh Franceschi
- Published
BBC Sport's football expert Mark Lawrenson will be making a prediction for all 380 Premier League games this season against a variety of guests.
Lawro's opponent for the Boxing Day fixtures is You Me At Six, external singer Josh Franceschi.
When Arsenal fan Josh last took on Lawro, in February 2014, the Gunners were top of the Premier League and his band's fourth album, Cavalier Youth, was top of the UK album charts.
With Arsene Wenger's side fourth, nine points behind leaders Chelsea, it looks unlikely that they will be top of the table again by the time You Me At Six's latest album, Night People, comes out at the beginning of January.
Could Josh top Lawro's guest leaderboard as well as the charts this time, though? He will have to do a lot better than his last effort, when he scored zero points - although he did fare better when he returned to predict the outcome of that season's FA Cup final.
You Me At Six have had three top-five albums and start a UK tour in April
The Gunners have suffered two defeats in their past two games, at Everton and Manchester City, and also got a tough draw in the last 16 of the Champions League despite winning their group.
Franceschi told BBC Sport:"Getting Bayern Munich was classic Arsenal, really, and it has been a bad week but I am not sitting here like some of our fans thinking it is all doom and gloom for us.
"Everton and City were two tough away games but it is not the end of of our season. We have got three very winnable games over Christmas - against West Brom, Crystal Palace and Bournemouth - and it is important we do win them to get some momentum back."
You can make your Premier League predictions now, compare them with those of Lawro and other fans, and try to take your team to the top of the leaderboard by playing the BBC Sport Predictor game.
Premier League predictions - week 18 | |||
|---|---|---|---|
Result | Lawro | Josh | |
BOXING DAY | |||
Watford v Crystal Palace | 1-1 | 1-1 | 1-1 |
Arsenal v West Brom | 1-0 | 2-0 | 3-1 |
Burnley v Middlesbrough | 1-0 | 1-1 | 1-2 |
Chelsea v Bournemouth | 3-0 | 2-0 | 2-1 |
Leicester v Everton | 0-2 | 2-1 | 2-1 |
Man Utd v Sunderland | 3-1 | 3-0 | 3-0 |
Swansea v West Ham | 1-4 | 0-2 | 0-0 |
Hull v Man City | 0-3 | 0-3 | 1-3 |
TUESDAY | |||
Liverpool v Stoke | 4-1 | 3-0 | 2-0 |
WEDNESDAY | |||
Southampton v Tottenham | 1-4 | 0-2 | 2-1 |
A correct result (picking a win, draw or defeat) is worth 10 points. The exact score earns 40 points.
Last week, Lawro got five correct results, with one perfect score, from 10 Premier League matches. That gave him a total of 80 points.
He lost to tennis legend Boris Becker, who got seven correct results, with two perfect scores, for a total of 130 points.
Total scores after week 17 | |
|---|---|
Lawro | 1,480 |
Guests | 1,370 |
LAWRO'S PREDICTIONS
All kick-offs 15:00 GMT unless otherwise stated.
BOXING DAY
Watford 1-1 Crystal Palace
Lawro's prediction: 1-1
Josh's prediction: With the players they have, Crystal Palace should be doing better than they are. Watford are not in great form at the moment either, though, so I am going for a draw. 1-1
Arsenal 1-0 West Brom
Lawro's prediction: 2-0
Josh's prediction: West Brom are having a good season. Tony Pulis's teams might not play great football but they are hard to beat and they have got some excellent players like Nacer Chadli, Matt Phillips and Salomon Rondon.
But we are at home and, with the form Alexis Sanchez and Mesut Ozil are in at the moment, I do fancy us to win regardless of how well set up the Baggies are. 3-1
Burnley 1-0 Middlesbrough
Lawro's prediction: 1-1
Josh's prediction: Burnley are the sort of team that have a real go at a top-six side at home but lose to a lesser team. I can see them being beaten by Boro, especially with Alvaro Negredo looking sharp. 1-2
Chelsea 3-0 Bournemouth
Lawro's prediction: 2-0
Josh's prediction: Chelsea's confidence is through the roof at the moment and the other teams at the top need someone to come along and batter them. Either that or the Blues have to lose a couple of games at home that they are expected to win comfortably, to knock their self-belief a bit.
I am not sure Chelsea will slip up here but I think Bournemouth can cause them some problems. Cherries boss Eddie Howe is doing a great job and maybe their on-loan Arsenal midfielder Jack Wilshere has got an extra incentive to do us a nice little favour. 2-1
Leicester 0-2 Everton
Lawro's prediction: 2-1
Josh's prediction: Leicester will be feeling good after spanking Manchester City in their last home game and, overall, their form at King Power Stadium has been very strong.
I am going for a Leicester win but I think it will be a tight one. Everton are not the prettiest team to watch but, as they showed against Arsenal, they are another side who should be doing better than they are. The Toffees have got some great players but they don't always click. 2-1
Man Utd 3-1 Sunderland
Lawro's prediction: 3-0
Josh's prediction: Everyone was writing United off not so long ago but they are getting stronger and stronger and closing in on the top four. A big part of that is the quality of their midfield.
Paul Pogba, Ander Herrera and Henrikh Mkhitaryan have all been playing well, and Michael Carrick is important too. Our drummer Dan, who supports United, is probably Carrick's biggest fan of all time - he always complains Carrick never gets the credit he deserves for always playing the right pass whenever he gets the ball.
I feel a bit sorry for Moyes, but I get the feeling a big United win is coming. 3-0
Swansea 1-4 West Ham
Lawro's prediction: 0-2
Josh's prediction: West Ham have climbed up the table in the past few weeks but only on the back of a couple of jammy wins - I still think they are lacking that spark.
Swansea are even worse off, though, and have been all over the place in the last couple of weeks. I don't see this one being a very high quality game. 0-0
Hull 0-3 Man City
Hull played well in their defeat against West Ham last time out and created plenty of chances.
The Tigers might be bottom of the table but their manager Mike Phelan has got them playing - he does not lack organisation or tactical nous.
Phelan's team lacks a bit of quality, however, and I do not see them causing Manchester City too many problems.
City are finding it hard to keep clean sheets under Pep Guardiola - they have managed only three in 17 league games this season - but they should be able to keep Hull quiet.
Lawro's prediction: 0-3
Josh's prediction: Things are looking pretty grim for Hull and, after the way they beat Arsenal last weekend, I can't see anything other than a Manchester City win - unless they all have a heavy one on Christmas Day. 1-3
TUESDAY, 27 DECEMBER
Liverpool 4-1 Stoke
Lawro's prediction: 3-0
Josh's prediction: Even without the injured Philippe Coutinho, Liverpool look very dangerous when they come forward and I don't think Stoke have much of a chance here. The Potters keeper is going to be busy. 2-0
WEDNESDAY, 28 DECEMBER
Southampton 1-4 Tottenham
Lawro's prediction: 0-2
Josh's prediction: 2-1
Lawro was speaking to BBC Sport's Chris Bevan.
Lawro v Guests | |||
|---|---|---|---|
P17 | W10 | D0 | L7 |
SCORE | GUEST LEADERBOARD |
|---|---|
150 | Elis James |
130 | Boris Becker, Tim Vine |
120 | Robbie Williams |
110 | Michael van Gerwen |
100 | Joe Clarke |
90 | Colin Murray |
87 | Lawro (average after 17 weeks) |
80 | Nicole Scherzinger |
70 | Dave Bautista, Sam Burgess, Athletico Mince |
60 | Rick Astley |
50 | Charlie Sloth, Laura Kenny |
40 | Ed Balls |
30 | Blossoms |
20 | Lloyd Griffith |
Lawro's best score: 160 points (week thirteen v Tim Vine)
Lawro's worst score: 30 points (week four v Dave Bautista)
+/- DENOTE POSITION DIFFERENCE BETWEEN LAWRO'S TABLE AND ACTUAL POSITION | |||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
POS | TEAM | P | W | D | L | PTS | +/- |
1 | Liverpool | 17 | 13 | 4 | 0 | 43 | +1 |
2 | Man Utd | 17 | 12 | 4 | 1 | 40 | +4 |
3 | Arsenal | 17 | 11 | 6 | 0 | 39 | +1 |
4 | Chelsea | 17 | 12 | 3 | 2 | 39 | -3 |
5 | Man City | 17 | 12 | 3 | 2 | 39 | -2 |
6 | Leicester | 17 | 11 | 2 | 4 | 35 | +9 |
7 | Tottenham | 17 | 9 | 6 | 2 | 33 | -2 |
8 | Everton | 17 | 5 | 11 | 1 | 26 | +1 |
9 | West Ham | 17 | 7 | 4 | 6 | 25 | +4 |
10 | Crystal Palace | 17 | 5 | 5 | 7 | 20 | +7 |
11 | Stoke | 17 | 5 | 5 | 7 | 20 | 0 |
12 | Sunderland | 17 | 4 | 5 | 8 | 17 | +6 |
13 | Bournemouth | 17 | 3 | 6 | 8 | 15 | -3 |
14 | Middlesbrough | 17 | 4 | 3 | 10 | 15 | 0 |
15 | West Brom | 17 | 3 | 6 | 8 | 15 | -7 |
16 | Southampton | 17 | 3 | 4 | 10 | 13 | -9 |
17 | Burnley | 17 | 3 | 3 | 11 | 12 | -1 |
18 | Watford | 17 | 2 | 3 | 12 | 9 | -6 |
19 | Swansea | 17 | 1 | 4 | 12 | 7 | 0 |
20 | Hull | 17 | 0 | 1 | 16 | 1 | 0 |