Premier League predictions: Lawro v Idles bassist Adam Devonshire
- Published
Liverpool legend Steven Gerrard is back at Anfield on Saturday, but can the Aston Villa boss mastermind an upset against his old side?
"Stevie will get a fabulous reception," said BBC Sport football expert Mark Lawrenson. "The best I can remember for a former Liverpool player is when Ray Clemence came back with Tottenham in 1982, but this is going to be up there."
"As good a job as Gerrard has done so far at Villa, though, it's hard to see him getting anything from the game. Liverpool are just too good at the moment."
Lawro is making predictions for all 380 top-flight matches this season, against a variety of guests.
This week's guest is Adam Devonshire, aka Dev, bassist with rock band Idles and a Newcastle fan.
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Idles feature in 6 Music's forthcoming Artist In Residence series and their episode - What Punk Means To Us - will be broadcast at 05:00 GMT on New Year's Day. You can listen to it here.
Musically, things are going well for Dev - Idles' fourth album, Crawler, was released in November and reached number six in the charts.
"We've just come back from the United States, which was probably the best tour we've done," he told BBC Sport. "The new record seems to have gone down pretty well with people too, so we are a very happy bunch at the moment."
Football-wise, things are looking up for him too - Newcastle won their first game of the season last weekend and are off the bottom of the table.
"I was really pleased when Eddie Howe got the manager's job," Dev added. "For three or four seasons before their form dipped and the team started to break up, his Bournemouth team were so exciting to watch.
"That's what I always want to see as a Newcastle fan - good football and a team that tries to win games.
"I love that we had the reputation of being the entertainers in the 1990s when we came close to winning the Premier League, because we played some blinding football. Yes, we are in a relegation fight now, but that doesn't change.
"That is what I think Howe will bring, but I think he will bring results too. He's a young, hungry coach who can help modernise the club's infrastructure and hopefully help catch up with the rest of the Premier League with that side of things, as well as keeping us up."
Dev (far left) and the rest of the band. Idles' third album, Ultra Mono, reached number one in November 2020 and was the fastest selling album of last year. They start the UK leg of their tour in January
Newcastle will get the chance to strengthen their squad when the January transfer window opens, so what would Dev like to see happen?
"We have some good defenders but I think we are missing a bit of balance in the side between attack and defence," he explained.
"It can be done, we just need one or two better players in there somewhere to make us more solid. Basically, if we had Chelsea midfielder N'Golo Kante in there, we would be all right. Sadly, I don't think he is for sale!"
Premier League predictions - week 16 | |||
|---|---|---|---|
Result | Lawro | Dev | |
FRIDAY | |||
Brentford v Watford | 2-1 | 2-1 | 2-1 |
SATURDAY | |||
Man City v Wolves | 1-0 | 4-0 | 3-1 |
Arsenal v Southampton | 3-0 | 2-1 | 1-1 |
Chelsea v Leeds | 3-2 | 2-0 | 3-1 |
Liverpool v Aston Villa | 1-0 | 2-0 | 2-1 |
Norwich v Man Utd | 0-1 | 0-2 | 0-2 |
SUNDAY | |||
Brighton v Tottenham | P-P | P-P | P-P |
Burnley v West Ham | 0-0 | 1-1 | 0-2 |
Leicester v Newcastle | 4-0 | 2-1 | 1-2 |
Crystal Palace v Everton | 3-1 | 1-1 | 2-0 |
Brighton v Tottenham has been postponed following a number of positive Covid-19 cases among Spurs' players and staff.
A correct result (picking a win, draw or defeat) is worth 10 points. The exact score earns 40 points.
LAWRO'S PREDICTIONS
Games kick off at 15:00 GMT unless otherwise stated
FRIDAY
Brentford 2-1 Watford
SATURDAY
Man City 1-0 Wolves
Arsenal 3-0 Southampton
Chelsea 3-2 Leeds
Liverpool 1-0 Aston Villa
Norwich 0-1 Man Utd
SUNDAY
Brighton P-P Tottenham
This game was postponed following a number of positive Covid-19 cases among Spurs' players and staff.
Burnley 0-0 West Ham
Leicester 4-0 Newcastle
Crystal Palace 3-1 Everton
Lawro's prediction: 1-1
Dev's prediction: 2-0
Lawro was speaking to BBC Sport's Chris Bevan.
How did Lawro do last week?
From last weekend's Premier League games, Lawro got four correct results from 10 matches, including one exact score, for a total of 70 points.
He was beaten by singer-songwriter Jamie Webster, who got seven correct results with two exact scores, for a total of 130 points.
+/- DENOTE POSITION DIFFERENCE BETWEEN LAWRO'S TABLE AND ACTUAL POSITION | |||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
TEAM | P | W | D | L | PTS | +/- | |
1 | Man City | 15 | 12 | 3 | 0 | 39 | 0 |
2 | Liverpool | 15 | 11 | 4 | 0 | 37 | 0 |
=3 | Chelsea | 15 | 10 | 5 | 0 | 35 | 0 |
=3 | Leicester | 15 | 10 | 5 | 0 | 35 | +8 |
=3 | Man Utd | 15 | 11 | 2 | 2 | 35 | +3 |
6 | Leeds | 15 | 11 | 1 | 3 | 34 | +9 |
7 | Tottenham | 15 | 8 | 5 | 2 | 29 | -2 |
8 | Aston Villa | 15 | 7 | 4 | 4 | 25 | +2 |
=9 | Arsenal | 15 | 6 | 4 | 5 | 22 | -2 |
=9 | West Ham | 15 | 6 | 4 | 5 | 22 | -5 |
11 | Brighton | 15 | 5 | 3 | 7 | 18 | 0 |
=12 | Newcastle | 15 | 4 | 3 | 8 | 15 | +7 |
=12 | Wolves | 15 | 4 | 3 | 8 | 15 | -4 |
14 | Southampton | 15 | 4 | 2 | 9 | 14 | +2 |
15 | Burnley | 15 | 4 | 1 | 10 | 13 | +3 |
16 | Brentford | 15 | 3 | 1 | 11 | 10 | -3 |
17 | Everton | 15 | 3 | 0 | 12 | 9 | -5 |
18 | Crystal Palace | 15 | 2 | 2 | 11 | 8 | -4 |
19 | Norwich | 15 | 0 | 4 | 11 | 4 | +1 |
20 | Watford | 15 | 0 | 3 | 12 | 3 | -3 |
GUEST LEADERBOARD 2021-22
Score | Guest |
|---|---|
130 | Jamie Webster |
110 | Friction, She Drew The Gun |
80 | Tom McFarland |
78 | Lawro (average after 15 weeks) |
70 | Ben Cajee, Elena Cole, Jelani Blackman |
60 | Haydn Craven |
50 | Aqib Khan, Shaun Thomas |
40 | Dan Haggis of The Wombats, Murray & Tav from FUR, Justin Young |
30 | Michael 'Venom' Page, Roger Taylor, Zuzu |
10 | Tom Hughes |
Total scores after week 15 | |
|---|---|
Lawro | 1,170 |
Guests | 900 |
Lawro v Guests | |||
|---|---|---|---|
P15 | W11 | D2 | L2 |
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