Premier League predictions: Lawro v sprint star Darren Campbell
- Published
It has taken until the end of December, but Mark Lawrenson has finally predicted Huddersfield to win a Premier League game.
In reality, the Terriers are ticking along nicely in mid-table - but in Lawro's table (see bottom of this page), they took only six points from their first 20 games, all from draws.
Lawro thinks that will change in Saturday's game against Burnley and told BBC Sport: "Huddersfield are doing better than I expected and I have been getting a bit of stick about it for a few weeks now.
"But I was not just going to say they would win for the sake of it, and I do not pay any attention to my table when I make my predictions each week anyway.
Man City to draw? Sprint star Campbell takes on Lawro
"I am trying to get each score right, not balancing things out by picking results so teams are closer to their real position."
Lawro is going for a 1-0 Huddersfield win - do you agree? You can make your own predictions now, take on Lawro and other fans, create your own league and try to make it to the top of the table by playing the new-look BBC Sport Predictor game.
Lawro scored 120 points in week 20, which leaves him in 2,082nd place out of more than 340,000 users.
He will be making a prediction for all 380 top-flight games this season, against a variety of guests.
This week, Lawro takes on ex-Olympic sprint champion and BBC athletics commentator Darren Campbell.
Campbell, who won 4x100m gold at Athens 2004 and took 200m silver at the 2000 Games in Sydney, was a talented footballer in his youth.
He told BBC Sport: "I was at the same school of excellence as Ryan Giggs, so I think that was when I realised I was not going to be a footballer.
"I kind of got into athletics more and focused on that, but then went back to football aged 21 and went on trial with Derby and Millwall, and I nearly signed for Plymouth under Neil Warnock.
Darren Campbell (third from left) sheds a tear on the podium after the British team wins 4x100m relay gold at the Athens Olympics.
"By then I had already started playing in non-league with Weymouth, and I spent a year playing for them before going back to athletics and making it to the 1996 Olympics.
"I have no regrets - the reality is I was always going to be a better athlete than I was a footballer. Sometimes your path is already defined, you just need to get on it."
Explaining the reason he is a Manchester United fan, Campbell said: "I am a Manchester lad - so the choice was red or blue.
"My favourite colour was red as a kid so there was never much doubt there. My mum is a City fan, though."
Premier League predictions - week 21 | |||
|---|---|---|---|
Result | Lawro | Darren | |
SATURDAY | |||
Bournemouth v Everton | 2-1 | 2-0 | 0-1 |
Chelsea v Stoke | 5-0 | 3-0 | 2-0 |
Huddersfield v Burnley | 0-0 | 1-0 | 2-2 |
Liverpool v Leicester | 2-1 | 2-0 | 2-1 |
Newcastle v Brighton | 0-0 | 1-1 | 0-1 |
Watford v Swansea | 1-2 | 2-0 | 0-1 |
Man Utd v Southampton | 0-0 | 2-0 | 2-0 |
SUNDAY | |||
Crystal Palace v Man City | 0-0 | 0-3 | 1-1 |
West Brom v Arsenal | 1-1 | 2-1 | 0-1 |
*Tottenham's home game against West Ham has been rearranged for Thursday, 4 January, but will still count towards this week's scores once the fixture has been played.
A correct result (picking a win, draw or defeat) is worth 10 points. The exact score earns 40 points.
LAWRO'S PREDICTIONS
All kick-offs 15:00 GMT unless otherwise stated.
SATURDAY
SUNDAY
How did Lawro do last time?
In the last round of Premier League games, Lawro got six correct results, including two perfect scores, from 10 matches, for a total of 120 points.
He lost out to The Darkness singer Justin Hawkins, who got seven correct results, including three perfect scores, giving him a total of 160 points and putting him joint top of the guests leaderboard.
Total scores after week 20 | |
|---|---|
Lawro | 1,750 |
Guests | 1,520 |
Lawro v Guests | |||
|---|---|---|---|
P20 | W11 | D2 | L7 |
SCORE | GUEST LEADERBOARD |
|---|---|
160 | Chris Shiflett |
Justin Hawkins | |
130 | James Anderson**, Joe Johnson*** |
120 | Will Poulter, Moeen Ali |
100 | Cesaro & Seamus, Wretch 32 |
88 | Lawro (average after 20 weeks) |
80 | John Cena |
70 | Brendan Foster*, Mark Strong |
60 | Will Ferrell, Nish Kumar, Non Stanford, Rick Witter |
50 | Steve Cram, Michael Dapaah, Channing Tatum, Osi Umenyiora and Jason Bell, Joe Root |
40 | Craig David |
30 | Felix White |
20 | Richard Osman |
*Foster and Cram both provided predictions on week one, but only Foster's score contributes to the guest total.
**Anderson and Moeen both provided predictions on week nine, but only Anderson's score contributes to the guest total.
***Witter and Johnson both provided predictions on week 17, but only Johnson's score contributes to the guest total.
Lawro's best score: 150 points (week eight v Wretch 32)
Lawro's worst score: 40 points (week four v Umenyiora and Bell, and week five v Non Stanford)
+/- DENOTE POSITION DIFFERENCE BETWEEN LAWRO'S TABLE AND ACTUAL POSITION | |||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
POS | TEAM | P | W | D | L | PTS | +/- |
1 | Man Utd | 20 | 16 | 4 | 0 | 52 | +1 |
2 | Man City | 20 | 16 | 3 | 1 | 51 | -1 |
3 | Tottenham | 20 | 15 | 5 | 0 | 50 | +2 |
4 | Liverpool | 20 | 14 | 6 | 0 | 48 | 0 |
5 | Chelsea | 20 | 13 | 5 | 2 | 44 | -2 |
6 | Arsenal | 20 | 9 | 9 | 2 | 36 | 0 |
7 | Southampton | 20 | 8 | 5 | 7 | 29 | +7 |
8 | West Ham | 20 | 5 | 11 | 4 | 26 | +9 |
9 | Bournemouth | 20 | 6 | 5 | 9 | 23 | +9 |
10 | Leicester | 20 | 6 | 5 | 9 | 23 | -2 |
11 | Crystal Palace | 20 | 6 | 4 | 10 | 22 | +5 |
12 | Burnley | 20 | 5 | 6 | 9 | 21 | -5 |
13 | Stoke | 20 | 4 | 9 | 7 | 21 | 0 |
14 | West Brom | 20 | 6 | 3 | 11 | 21 | +5 |
15 | Everton | 20 | 5 | 4 | 11 | 19 | -6 |
16 | Swansea | 20 | 5 | 1 | 14 | 16 | +4 |
17 | Newcastle | 20 | 3 | 6 | 11 | 15 | -2 |
18 | Brighton | 20 | 2 | 6 | 12 | 12 | -6 |
19 | Watford | 20 | 2 | 4 | 14 | 10 | -9 |
20 | Huddersfield | 20 | 0 | 6 | 14 | 6 | -8 |
- Published27 December 2017
- Published26 December 2017
