Premier League predictions: Lawro v Kingsman actor & Arsenal fan Mark Strong
Last updated on .From the section Football
We are five games into the new Premier League season and Crystal Palace are yet to score a league goal, let alone register a point.
Will that change when they travel to joint-leaders Manchester City on Saturday, or is that game a dead-cert for a home win?
BBC Sport's football expert Mark Lawrenson is going for a City victory, although he does have some positive news for beleaguered Eagles fans.
"Although City are full of goals and I think they will win convincingly, I don't see this turning into a battering," Lawro said. "Palace boss Roy Hodgson is not the sort of manager to allow that to happen."
Do you agree? You can make your own 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 picked up 40 points in week five, leaving him in 10,040th place out of a total of more than 205,000 users.
He will be making a prediction for all 380 top-flight games this season, against a variety of guests.
Lawro's opponent for this weekend's fixtures is actor Mark Strong, star of 'Kingsman: The Golden Circle'.
Strong, 54, is an Arsenal season ticket holder, starred in 'Fever Pitch', and says he did not have much choice when it came to becoming a Gunners fan.
He told BBC Sport: "I was born in Islington and grew up in Islington so Arsenal was all around me and supporting them was kind of unavoidable.
"The first season I started going to watch them was when we did the Double in 1971, so my first heroes were Charlie George, Ray Kennedy and John Radford.
"But since then I have loved watching Dennis Bergkamp, Robert Pires and Thierry Henry - and these days Alexis Sanchez is always the best player on the pitch.
"When I go to games and watch him, there is something about the electricity he generates when he is on the ball that is just fascinating."
You can hear more of Strong's thoughts on Arsenal on Football Focus on BBC One and the BBC Sport website at 12:00 BST on Saturday.
| Premier League predictions - week 5 | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| Result | Lawro | Strong | |
| SATURDAY | |||
| West Ham v Tottenham | 2-3 | 1-1 | 1-2 |
| Burnley v Huddersfield | 0-0 | 2-1 | 1-1 |
| Everton v Bournemouth | 2-1 | 2-2 | 2-0 |
| Man City v Crystal Palace | 5-0 | 3-0 | 4-1 |
| Southampton v Man Utd | 0-1 | 0-2 | 1-3 |
| Stoke v Chelsea | 0-4 | 1-1 | 1-1 |
| Swansea v Watford | 1-2 | 2-1 | 2-0 |
| Leicester v Liverpool | 2-3 | 1-2 | 2-1 |
| SUNDAY | |||
| Brighton v Newcastle | 1-0 | 2-1 | 2-0 |
| MONDAY | |||
| Arsenal v West Brom | 2-0 | 2-0 | 3-1 |
A correct result (picking a win, draw or defeat) is worth 10 points. The exact score earns 40 points.
Remember you can try to beat Lawro yourself by playing the BBC Sport Predictor game.
LAWRO'S PREDICTIONS
All kick-offs 15:00 BST unless otherwise stated.
SATURDAY
West Ham 2-3 Tottenham
Lawro's prediction: 1-1
Strong's prediction: I am going for a Spurs win - unfortunately. 1-2
Burnley 0-0 Huddersfield
Lawro's prediction: 2-1
Strong's prediction: 1-1
Everton 2-1 Bournemouth
Lawro's prediction: 2-2
Strong's prediction: 2-0
Man City 5-0 Crystal Palace
Lawro's prediction: 3-0
Strong's prediction: I was going to say 4-0 but come on, let's help Palace to get a goal. 4-1
Southampton 0-1 Man Utd
Lawro's prediction: 0-2
Strong's prediction: 1-3
Stoke 0-4 Chelsea
Lawro's prediction: 1-1
Strong's prediction: 1-1
Swansea 1-2 Watford
Lawro's prediction: 2-1
Strong's prediction: 2-0
Leicester 2-3 Liverpool
Lawro's prediction: 1-2
Strong's prediction: 2-1
SUNDAY
Brighton 1-0 Newcastle
Lawro's prediction: 2-1
Strong's prediction: 2-0
MONDAY
Arsenal 2-0 West Brom
Lawro's prediction: 2-0
Strong's prediction: 3-1
Lawro was speaking to BBC Sport's Chris Bevan.
How did Lawro do last time?
Last week, Lawro got four correct results, with no perfect scores, from 10 matches, for a total of 40 points.
He lost out to former world champion triathlete Non Stanford, who got three results correct but with one perfect scores, for a total of 60 points.
| Total scores after week 5 | |
|---|---|
| Lawro | 380 |
| Guests | 350 |
| Lawro v Guests | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| P5 | W2 | D0 | L3 |
| SCORE | GUEST LEADERBOARD |
|---|---|
| 120 | Will Poulter |
| 76 | Lawro (average after five weeks) |
| 70 | Brendan Foster* |
| 60 | Non Stanford |
| 50 | Steve Cram, Channing Tatum, Osi Umenyiora and Jason Bell |
*Foster and Cram both provided predictions on week one, but only Foster's score contributes to the guest total.
Lawro's best score: 120 points (week one v Foster and Cram)
Lawro's worst score: 40 points (week four v Umenyiora and Bell, and week five v Non Stanford)
| +/- DENOTE POSITION DIFFERENCE BETWEEN LAWRO'S TABLE AND ACTUAL POSITION | |||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| POS | TEAM | P | W | D | L | PTS | +/- |
| 1 | Man Utd | 5 | 5 | 0 | 0 | 15 | +1 |
| 2 | Tottenham | 5 | 5 | 0 | 0 | 15 | +4 |
| 3 | Man City | 5 | 4 | 1 | 0 | 13 | -2 |
| 4 | Arsenal | 5 | 3 | 1 | 1 | 10 | +8 |
| 5 | Chelsea | 5 | 3 | 1 | 1 | 10 | -2 |
| 6 | Southampton | 5 | 3 | 1 | 1 | 10 | +3 |
| 7 | Bournemouth | 5 | 3 | 0 | 2 | 9 | +12 |
| 8 | Liverpool | 5 | 2 | 3 | 0 | 9 | 0 |
| 9 | Crystal Palace | 5 | 2 | 1 | 2 | 7 | +11 |
| 10 | Leicester | 5 | 2 | 1 | 2 | 7 | +5 |
| 11 | West Ham | 5 | 1 | 2 | 2 | 5 | +6 |
| 12 | Burnley | 5 | 1 | 1 | 3 | 4 | -5 |
| 13 | Watford | 5 | 1 | 1 | 3 | 4 | -2 |
| 14 | West Brom | 5 | 0 | 4 | 1 | 4 | -4 |
| 15 | Everton | 5 | 1 | 0 | 4 | 3 | +3 |
| 16 | Huddersfield | 5 | 0 | 3 | 2 | 3 | -10 |
| 17 | Newcastle | 5 | 0 | 3 | 2 | 3 | -13 |
| 18 | Swansea | 5 | 1 | 0 | 4 | 3 | -4 |
| 19 | Stoke | 5 | 0 | 2 | 3 | 2 | -6 |
| 20 | Brighton | 5 | 0 | 1 | 4 | 1 | -4 |
