Premier League predictions: Lawro v Justin Young & Arni Arnason from The Vaccines
- Published
Manchester United manager Jose Mourinho was criticised for his defensive outlook when his side drew 0-0 at Anfield in October - so will his tactics be the same when Liverpool come to Old Trafford on Saturday?
BBC Sport football expert Mark Lawrenson says: "Mourinho will not be as cautious this time - he will get booed by United fans if he is.
"So he won't park the bus, but that does not mean he won't try to get the defensive aspect right to stop Liverpool's attack, because his side have looked frail at the back recently.
"He just needs to get the blend right and make sure United offer enough of a threat as well."
Lawro is going for a 1-1 draw at Old Trafford. Do you agree?
You can make your 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 29, which leaves him in 1,427th place out of more than 400,000 users.
He will be making a prediction for all 380 top-flight games this season, against a variety of guests.
This week he takes on have Justin Young and Arni Arnason from indie rock band The Vaccines.
Singer Justin is a Manchester United fan while bassist Arni follows Tottenham.
Arni is looking forward to seeing Iceland at this summer's World Cup. "To be honest, just qualifying is beyond the wildest dreams of any Iceland supporter," he explained. "Just through our enthusiasm we will probably win a game or two, helped by our beautiful brand of 1980s football."
Arni says he became a Spurs supporter by "osmosis" when a friend started taking him to games after he moved to London from Iceland.
"I love everything about the Spurs squad but it feels like this season is a little bit on hold," he explained.
"I am happy if we stay in the top four but the main thing is that we keep the core of this team together for when we move into our new stadium - then it is going to be incredible."
Justin says he has similar reasons for choosing United.
"My family supported Southampton and I didn't want to support the same team as them," he explained. "I was five, and United were the only other team I had heard of.
"I was lucky enough to start following them when their fortunes had just started to turn - I was 11 when they won the treble in 1999.
"I am a big Mourinho fan and I am also a big fan of being back in the top four. City are uncatchable this year and I know United are getting a bit of flak for the way they are playing, but I am enjoying being back in the race and back in the Champions League places. I am optimistic for next year."
Young grew up in the 90s supporting United and his favourite players are from that generation. "I remember when Paul Scholes came out of retirement I got quite emotional," he said. "I was lucky enough to watch United when we had some unbelievable players."
Premier League predictions - week 30 | |||
|---|---|---|---|
Result | Lawro | Justin & Arni | |
SATURDAY | |||
Man Utd v Liverpool | 2-1 | 1-1 | 2-1 |
Everton v Brighton | 2-0 | 2-0 | 1-2 |
Huddersfield v Swansea | 0-0 | 1-1 | 2-0 |
Newcastle v Southampton | 3-0 | 2-1 | 0-1 |
West Brom v Leicester | 1-4 | 0-2 | 0-1 |
West Ham v Burnley | 0-3 | 1-1 | 0-1 |
Chelsea v Crystal Palace | 2-1 | 2-0 | 3-0 |
SUNDAY | |||
Arsenal v Watford | 3-0 | 3-0 | 0-0 |
Bournemouth v Tottenham | 1-4 | 0-2 | 0-2 |
MONDAY | |||
Stoke v Man City | 0-2 | 0-2 | 0-5 |
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
MONDAY
Stoke 0-2 Man City
Lawro's prediction: 0-2
Justin & Arni's prediction: 0-5
Lawro was speaking to BBC Sport's Chris Bevan.
How did Lawro do last time?
From the last round of Premier League games, Lawro got five correct results, with two perfect scores, from 10 matches for a total of 110 points.
He lost out to Katerina Johnson-Thompson, who won pentathlon gold in the World Indoor Athletics Championships and also got her predictions spot on.
Johnson-Thompson also got five correct results but with three perfect scores, for a total of 140 points that puts her second on the guest leaderboard (see below).
There was some consolation for Lawro, however. He picked up 10 more points after correctly predicting Manchester City would win at Arsenal on Thursday 2 March, meaning his 50-50 draw with Margot Robbie and Allison Janney, stars of film 'I, Tonya', turned into a 60-50 win (Robbie and Janney went for a Gunners victory).
Total scores after week 29 | |
|---|---|
Lawro | 2,530 |
Guests | 2,230 |
Lawro v Guests | |||
|---|---|---|---|
P29 | W16 | D3 | L10 |
+/- DENOTE POSITION DIFFERENCE BETWEEN LAWRO'S TABLE AND ACTUAL POSITION | |||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
POS | TEAM | P | W | D | L | PTS | +/- |
1 | Man City | 29 | 24 | 4 | 1 | 76 | 0 |
2 | Man Utd | 29 | 24 | 4 | 1 | 76 | 0 |
3 | Tottenham | 29 | 23 | 6 | 0 | 75 | +1 |
4 | Liverpool | 29 | 19 | 10 | 0 | 67 | -1 |
5 | Chelsea | 29 | 18 | 6 | 5 | 60 | 0 |
6 | Arsenal | 29 | 13 | 11 | 5 | 50 | 0 |
7 | Leicester | 29 | 12 | 5 | 12 | 41 | +1 |
8 | Southampton | 29 | 11 | 7 | 11 | 37 | +9 |
9 | West Ham | 29 | 7 | 15 | 7 | 36 | +5 |
10 | West Brom | 29 | 10 | 5 | 14 | 35 | +10 |
11 | Burnley | 29 | 8 | 8 | 13 | 32 | -4 |
12 | Stoke | 29 | 7 | 11 | 11 | 32 | +7 |
13 | Bournemouth | 29 | 7 | 10 | 12 | 31 | -1 |
14 | Crystal Palace | 29 | 7 | 5 | 17 | 26 | +4 |
15 | Everton | 29 | 6 | 7 | 16 | 25 | -4 |
16 | Brighton | 29 | 3 | 12 | 14 | 21 | -6 |
17 | Newcastle | 29 | 4 | 9 | 16 | 21 | -1 |
18 | Swansea | 29 | 5 | 3 | 21 | 18 | -5 |
19 | Watford | 29 | 4 | 6 | 19 | 18 | -10 |
20 | Huddersfield | 29 | 1 | 9 | 19 | 12 | -5 |
GUEST LEADERBOARD
SCORE | GUEST LEADERBOARD |
|---|---|
160 | Justin Hawkins, Chris Shiflett |
130 | James Anderson*, Joe Johnson* |
120 | Russel Leetch*, Will Poulter, Moeen Ali |
110 | Aron Baynes* |
100 | Cesaro & Seamus, Wretch 32 |
90 | Pete Wentz |
86 | Lawro (average after 28 weeks) |
80 | John Cena, Darren Campbell |
70 | Brendan Foster*, Mark Strong |
60 | Jimmy from Django Django, Will Ferrell, Nish Kumar, Non Stanford, Rick Witter |
50 | Steve Cram, Michael Dapaah, Channing Tatum, Joe Root, Margot Robbie and Allison Janney, Dario Saric, Osi Umenyiora and Jason Bell, |
40 | Craig David, Ed Lay |
30 | Rhys James, Felix White |
20 | Richard Osman, Emmanuel Sanders and Josh Norman |
* Shows weeks where Lawro had more than one guest, and only the highest score contributed to the guest total.
Lawro's best score: 150 points (week eight v Wretch 32 and week 24 v Pete Wentz)
Lawro's worst score: 40 points (week four v Umenyiora and Bell, week five v Non Stanford, week 21 v Darren Campbell and week 23 v Saric and Baynes)