Lawro's Premier League predictions: Pundit beats fans & West Ham 'survive relegation'
Last updated on .From the section Football
It takes a knowledgeable (and brave) person to predict Premier League results in the very public forum of BBC Sport Online - especially this season.
That man is, of course, our own football expert Mark Lawrenson.
He may have consistently tipped West Ham to falter and - like almost everybody else on the planet - failed to forsee Leicester's incredible title-winning campaign.
Indeed, if Lawro's predictions had all been correct, West Ham would have finished 17th with 34 points - 10 places lower and escaping relegation by a single point.
And he also had Leicester and Newcastle finishing in mid-table.
But you cannot argue with the facts over a full season. Lawro - who makes his predictions on a Thursday morning - outscored every single Premier League club's supporters by a healthy margin.
His season average of 76 points after 38 game weeks dwarves even the top-performing set of fans, Stoke City, who averaged 64.8 points across the season.
Spurs fans were the least knowledgeable - finishing bottom of the table with a 61.4. And those unforgiving West Ham fans? A respectable fourth-placed finish with a score of 63.8.
| Find out where your team ranked in the fans' league on BBC Sport's Predictor game |
"The West Ham fans gave me some stick earlier in the season because of my scores," Lawrenson told BBC Sport. "They even sang about my predictions at one game, which I've never had happen before.
"I know I've annoyed Southampton and Swansea before, to name but two teams… and I'm sure Swansea fans have noticed that I have relegated them again, like last season.
"What I always say to anyone who asks me about my predictions is that if I could really seriously predict football results, I would be sitting on my ocean-going yacht, which would be moored off the Bahamas. But it is good fun, that is the main thing.
"It's nice to know I've done better than the fans but I would probably have a higher average score if I made my predictions as close to kick-off as they can.
"Some people have made a big deal about the league table based on my predictions, but when I am making them, I don't even look at it. I am trying to predict the right results that week, not balance it out so teams are closer to their actual positions.
"What Leicester have done in the Premier League this season shows how difficult it is to predict anything, really."
Lawro's end-of-season stats
| Lawro v Guests | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| P38 | W21 | D7 | L10 |
| SCORE | GUEST LEADERBOARD |
|---|---|
| 160 | Nathan Caton |
| 110 | Nick Bright, Steve Cram, Sam Tomkins, SAM Super Computer |
| 100 | Carl Frampton, Adrian Lewis, Wealdstone Raider |
| 90 | Ice Cube & Kevin Hart, Amir Khan |
| 76 | Lawro (average after 38 weeks) |
| 70 | James, Guy Mowbray, Osi Umenyiora |
| 60 | Stuart Broad, Tim Burgess, Idris Elba & Richard Madden, Ed Skrein |
| 50 | Ben Hardy, Mark Radcliffe, Jack Whitehall, Felix White |
| 40 | Nobby Butcher, Fatman Scoop, Neville, Mumford & Sons, Michael B Jordan & Tony Bellew. James Skelly |
| 30 | Darren Campbell, Luol Deng, Anthony Joshua, Blake Harrison & Daniel Mays, Mark Webber, Steve Wilson |
| 20 | Graeme Swann |
| 10 | Elis James, Paul Heaton, Kelly Jones |
Lawro's best score: 160 points (week 19 v Guy Mowbray and week 36 v Nathan Caton)
Lawro's worst score: 20 points (week one v Graeme Swann & week 23 v Ice Cube and Kevin Hart)
| +/- DENOTE POSITION DIFFERENCE BETWEEN LAWRO'S TABLE AND REAL TABLE | |||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| POS | TEAM | P | W | D | L | PTS | +/- |
| 1 | Man City | 38 | 29 | 8 | 1 | 95 | +3 |
| 2 | Arsenal | 38 | 26 | 11 | 1 | 89 | 0 |
| 3 | Chelsea | 38 | 22 | 13 | 3 | 79 | +7 |
| 4 | Liverpool | 38 | 19 | 17 | 2 | 74 | +4 |
| 5 | Tottenham | 38 | 19 | 13 | 6 | 69 | -2 |
| 6 | Southampton | 38 | 20 | 4 | 14 | 64 | 0 |
| 7 | West Brom | 38 | 18 | 10 | 10 | 64 | +7 |
| 8 | Man Utd | 38 | 16 | 15 | 7 | 63 | -3 |
| 9 | Everton | 38 | 13 | 12 | 13 | 51 | +2 |
| 10 | Crystal Palace | 38 | 14 | 8 | 16 | 50 | +5 |
| 11 | Newcastle | 38 | 12 | 9 | 17 | 45 | +7 |
| 12 | Leicester | 38 | 9 | 15 | 14 | 42 | -11 |
| 13 | Stoke | 38 | 11 | 8 | 19 | 41 | -4 |
| 14 | Bournemouth | 38 | 10 | 9 | 19 | 39 | +2 |
| 15 | Norwich | 38 | 12 | 3 | 23 | 39 | +4 |
| 16 | Sunderland | 38 | 7 | 14 | 17 | 35 | +1 |
| 17 | West Ham | 38 | 8 | 10 | 20 | 34 | -10 |
| 18 | Swansea | 38 | 6 | 15 | 17 | 33 | -6 |
| 19 | Watford | 38 | 6 | 8 | 24 | 26 | -6 |
| 20 | Aston Villa | 38 | 1 | 3 | 34 | 6 | 0 |
