FA Cup and Premier League predictions: Lawro v Benjamin Zephaniah
Last updated on .From the section Football
BBC Sport's football expert Mark Lawrenson is pitting his wits against a different guest each week this season.
Lawro's opponent for the four FA Cup quarter-final ties is dub poet, musician and actor Benjamin Zephaniah.
The Birmingham-born dreadlocked bard chose to support Aston Villa over West Brom as a boy, and is backing Tim Sherwood's side to continue their cup run at the Baggies' expense on Saturday and reach Wembley.
Zephaniah told BBC Sport: "It's obvious it's going to be Villa to win, but West Brom are going to try really hard, so I say 2-1 to Villa."
| FA Cup predictions | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| Result | Lawro | Benjamin | |
| SATURDAY | |||
| Bradford v Reading | 0-0 | 1-1* | 1-0 |
| Aston Villa v West Brom | 2-0 | 1-2 | 2-1 |
| SUNDAY | |||
| Liverpool v Blackburn | 0-0 | 2-0 | 3-1 |
| MONDAY | |||
| Man Utd v Arsenal | 1-2 | 1-2 | 2-3 |
There is also one Premier League game on Saturday - the match between QPR and Tottenham that was postponed last weekend because Spurs were playing in the Capital One Cup final.
England rugby star George Ford made the predictions last weekend and stands to improve on his current total of five points if he gets this result correct.
| Premier League prediction | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| Result | Lawro | George | |
| SATURDAY | |||
| QPR v Tottenham | 1-2 | 0-2 | 1-3 |
A correct result (picking a win, draw or defeat) is worth ONE point. Getting the exact score correct earns THREE points.
In the midweek Premier League games, Lawro got seven correct results from 10 Premier League games, including one perfect score.
His score of nine points was eclipsed by Circa Waves singer Kieran Shudall, who picked nine correct results with four perfect scores to earn 17 points and go five points clear at the top of the guest leaderboard.
We are keeping a record of the totals for Lawro and his guests (below), and showing a table of how the Premier League would look if all of Lawro's predictions were correct (at the bottom of the page).
After 28 games, Lawro has eight of the 20 teams matching their actual position, including the entire top six. However, he is 10 places out with Swansea, who are 19th in his table and ninth in reality.
| Total scores after week 28 | |
|---|---|
| Lawro | 193 |
| Guests | 194 |
LAWRO'S PREDICTIONS
SATURDAY
Bradford 0-0 Reading
Lawro's prediction: 1-1
Benjamin's prediction: 1-0
QPR 1-2 Tottenham (Premier League)
Lawro's prediction: 0-2
George Ford's prediction: 1-3
Aston Villa 2-0 West Brom
Lawro's prediction: 1-2
Benjamin's prediction: 2-1
SUNDAY
Liverpool 0-0 Blackburn
Lawro's prediction: 2-0
Benjamin's prediction: 3-1
MONDAY
Man Utd 1-2 Arsenal
Lawro's prediction: 1-2
Benjamin's prediction: 2-3
Lawro was speaking to BBC Sport's Chris Bevan.
| Lawro v Guests | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| P28 | W12 | D4 | L12 |
| SCORE | GUEST LEADERBOARD |
|---|---|
| 17 | Kieran Shudall |
| 12 | Mark Ronson |
| 11 | Steph Houghton |
| 10 | Liam Fray, Rachel Riley |
| 9 | Kelly Smith |
| 8 | Death in Paradise, Roddy Doyle, Tim Henman, Olly Murs, Henning Wehn, Benedict Wong |
| 7 | Miles Jacobson, Ossie Ardiles, Seann Walsh |
| 6.89 | Lawro (average after 28 weeks) |
| 6 | Carl Fogarty, Football Manager, Mark Wright & Karen Hauer, Steve Wilson |
| 5 | Joe Cole, George Ford*, Sarah Harding & Leon Fagbemi, Van McCann, Adil Ray |
| 4 | Kell Brook, Guy Mowbray |
| 2 | John Cooper Clarke, Neil Lennon, Jack O'Connell |
* Does not include scores for postponed game - Leicester v Chelsea
Lawro's best score: 17 points (week seven v Ossie Ardiles)
Lawro's worst score: 2 points (week 20 v Steve Wilson)
| ARROWS DENOTE DIFFERENCE TO REAL TABLE | ||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| POS | TEAM | P | W | D | L | PTS | DIFF | +/- |
| 1. | Chelsea | 27 | 24 | 3 | 0 | 75 |  | 0 |
| 2. | Man City | 28 | 23 | 5 | 0 | 74 | | 0 |
| 3. | Arsenal | 28 | 18 | 8 | 2 | 62 | | 0 |
| 4. | Man Utd | 28 | 19 | 5 | 4 | 62 | | 0 |
| 5. | Liverpool | 28 | 15 | 11 | 2 | 56 | | 0 |
| 6. | Southampton | 28 | 13 | 7 | 8 | 46 | | 0 |
| 7. | Everton | 28 | 11 | 8 | 9 | 41 |  | +7 |
| 8. | Tottenham | 27 | 9 | 10 | 8 | 37 |  | -1 |
| 9. | Hull | 28 | 12 | 1 | 15 | 37 | | +6 |
| 10. | Sunderland | 28 | 8 | 9 | 11 | 33 | | +6 |
| 11. | Stoke | 28 | 8 | 7 | 13 | 31 | | -3 |
| 12. | West Ham | 28 | 8 | 7 | 13 | 30 | | -2 |
| 13. | Newcastle | 28 | 7 | 10 | 11 | 31 | | -2 |
| 14. | Crystal Palace | 28 | 8 | 4 | 16 | 28 | | -2 |
| 15. | Aston Villa | 28 | 7 | 5 | 16 | 26 | | +2 |
| 16. | West Brom | 28 | 5 | 8 | 15 | 23 | | -3 |
| 17. | Burnley | 28 | 6 | 5 | 17 | 23 | | +2 |
| 18. | QPR | 27 | 6 | 3 | 18 | 21 | | 0 |
| 19. | Swansea | 28 | 5 | 4 | 19 | 19 | | -10 |
| 20. | Leicester | 27 | 5 | 3 | 19 | 18 | | 0 |
