Premier League predictions: Lawro v This Country star Charlie Cooper
- Published
BBC Sport football expert Mark Lawrenson is used to taking on some of the world's finest football brains in his weekly predictions - so how will he fare against Lee 'Kurtan' Mucklowe from This Country?
This week, Lawro is up against actor Charlie Cooper, who plays Kurtan in the Cotswolds-based BBC Three mockumentary.
Cooper is also a co-writer of the show he says is about "being a sort of delinquent country bumpkin in a rural village in England, and the boredom and frustration of living somewhere where there is nothing to do".
You can watch the new series of This Country now on iPlayer, where series one is also still available.
This Country: Isn't it four lions on a shirt?
"If Kurtan was a professional footballer, he would play for Swindon Town and he would be a wiry winger," Cooper told BBC Sport. "He would not be very strong but he would have a quick turn of pace, a bit like me.
"He would be the sort of player who would throw a tantrum if he got subbed.
"Would he be any good? No, rubbish.
"But football is a massive influence when we are writing the programme. The characters are big football fans - Kurtan's cousin Kerry especially, because Swindon are our local team.
"Her character is based on a girl who would always wear Swindon Town shirts and there are a few other football references in the show.
"One of them (below) is about Swindon striker Luke Norris, where we say something about him not being very good - but I should point out that I have not actually seen him play - so, I'm sorry Luke if you are angry, but it is not my fault!"
When football banter goes wrong!
Kurtan is a Swindon fan - although he doesn't mention it at work any more - but Cooper grew up supporting Fulham.
"My dad [who plays Martin Mucklowe in This Country] took me to a random midweek game about 15 years ago," he explained. "I saw Craven Cottage under floodlights. I have been utterly obsessed ever since.
"My best memory has to be stuffing Juventus 4-1 at Craven Cottage in the Europa League in 2010. That doesn't happen twice in a lifetime - not as a Fulham fan anyway. It was amazing."
Fulham are seven points off the top two with eight games left
The Cottagers are battling to get back into the top flight after a four-year absence and Cooper feels it is "vital" they win promotion this season.
"We have to really, otherwise our team will get picked apart by Premier League clubs," he added.
"I think we can go up automatically, although Cardiff need to start losing for that to happen. I am not sure about getting through the play-offs, though.
"We are the in-form team at the moment, but they are such a lottery so I just don't know. I was confident last year and we lost in the semi-finals."
Premier League predictions - week 32 | |||
|---|---|---|---|
Result | Lawro | Charlie | |
SATURDAY | |||
Crystal Palace v Liverpool | 1-2 | 1-1 | 3-2 |
Brighton v Leicester | 0-2 | 1-1 | 1-1 |
Man Utd v Swansea | 2-0 | 2-0 | 2-1 |
Newcastle v Huddersfield | 1-0 | 2-0 | 2-2 |
Watford v Bournemouth | 2-2 | 1-2 | 2-1 |
West Brom v Burnley | 1-2 | 1-1 | 0-0 |
West Ham v Southampton | 3-0 | 2-1 | 1-2 |
Everton v Man City | 1-3 | 0-2 | 0-3 |
SUNDAY | |||
Arsenal v Stoke | 3-0 | 3-0 | 3-1 |
Chelsea v Tottenham | 1-3 | 2-0 | 1-2 |
A correct result (picking a win, draw or defeat) is worth 10 points. The exact score earns 40 points.
This Country star Charlie Cooper's Premier League predictions
LAWRO'S PREDICTIONS
All kick-offs 15:00 BST unless otherwise stated.
SATURDAY
Crystal Palace 1-2 Liverpool
Lawro's prediction: 1-1
Charlie's prediction: Mohamed Salah is my favourite Premier League player at the moment because he is great to watch. There is something about him that is so raw - he is a real street footballer.
But Liverpool won't win this one. Palace's ex-Fulham manager Roy Hodgson is a tactical mastermind. 3-2
West Brom 1-2 Burnley
Lawro's prediction: 1-1
Charlie's prediction: West Brom have no chance of staying up. Not with Alan Pardew in charge. Sorry. 0-0
West Ham 3-0 Southampton
Lawro's prediction: 2-1
Charlie's prediction: Saints to heap more misery on West Ham. 1-2
Everton 1-3 Man City
Lawro's prediction: 0-2
Charlie's prediction: City's Kevin de Bruyne or Liverpool's Salah for player of the year? I think it has got to be De Bruyne because City will win the league. 0-3
SUNDAY
Chelsea 1-3 Tottenham
Lawro's prediction: 2-0
Charlie's prediction: 1-2
Lawro was speaking to BBC Sport's Chris Bevan.
How did Lawro do in the FA Cup sixth round?
On FA Cup sixth-round weekend, Lawro got three correct results, with two perfect scores, from the four ties for a total of 90 points and a success rate of 75%.
He was up against comedian John Bishop who got three correct results, with one perfect score, for a total of 60 points and a success rate of 75%.
FA Cup leaderboard after round five | |||
|---|---|---|---|
Correct result | (Perfect scores) | Success rate | |
John Bishop | 3/4 | (1) | 75% |
Lawro | 39/60 | (10) | 65% |
Vuj | 7/16 | (2) | 44% |
Guz Khan | 12/32 | (2) | 38% |
Poet | 6/16 | (0) | 38% |
Tekkerz Kid | 3/8 | (0) | 38% |
Bishop also took on Lawro for the four Premier League games last weekend.
Lawro got two correct results, with one perfect score, for a total of 50 points.
Bishop got all four results correct, including one perfect score, for a total of 70 points.
They will both get the chance to add to their score when the games that were postponed because of FA Cup ties are played.
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.
Before the international break, Lawro scored 50 points from four Premier League matches in week 31, which leaves him in 558th place out of more than 420,000 users.
Total scores after week 31 | |
|---|---|
Lawro | 2,750 |
Guests | 2,390 |
Lawro v Guests | |||
|---|---|---|---|
P31 | W17 | D3 | L11 |
+/- DENOTE POSITION DIFFERENCE BETWEEN LAWRO'S TABLE AND ACTUAL POSITION | |||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
POS | TEAM | P | W | D | L | PTS | +/- |
1 | Man City | 30 | 25 | 4 | 1 | 79 | 0 |
2 | Tottenham | 30 | 24 | 6 | 0 | 78 | +3 |
3 | Man Utd | 30 | 24 | 5 | 1 | 77 | -1 |
4 | Liverpool | 31 | 20 | 11 | 0 | 71 | -1 |
5 | Chelsea | 30 | 19 | 6 | 5 | 63 | 0 |
6 | Arsenal | 30 | 14 | 11 | 5 | 53 | 0 |
7 | Leicester | 30 | 13 | 5 | 12 | 44 | +1 |
8 | Southampton | 30 | 11 | 7 | 12 | 40 | +10 |
9 | West Ham | 30 | 7 | 16 | 7 | 37 | +8 |
10 | West Brom | 31 | 10 | 5 | 16 | 35 | +10 |
11 | Bournemouth | 31 | 8 | 10 | 13 | 34 | -1 |
12 | Burnley | 30 | 8 | 9 | 13 | 33 | -5 |
13 | Stoke | 31 | 7 | 12 | 12 | 33 | +6 |
14 | Everton | 31 | 7 | 8 | 16 | 29 | -5 |
15 | Crystal Palace | 31 | 7 | 6 | 18 | 27 | +1 |
16 | Newcastle | 30 | 5 | 9 | 16 | 24 | -3 |
17 | Brighton | 30 | 3 | 12 | 15 | 21 | -5 |
18 | Swansea | 30 | 5 | 4 | 21 | 19 | -4 |
19 | Watford | 31 | 4 | 6 | 21 | 18 | -8 |
20 | Huddersfield | 31 | 1 | 11 | 19 | 14 | -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 | Arni and Justin from The Vaccines, Pete Wentz |
89 | Lawro (average after 31 weeks) |
80 | John Cena, Darren Campbell |
70 | John Bishop** 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.
** Shows weeks where guest total does not include rearranged games.
Lawro's best score: 170 points (week 30 v Arni and Justin from The Vaccines)
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)