Sourced from BBC article
Premier League predictions: Lawro v former world champion triathlete Non Stanford
Show/hide article…
Only two teams are yet to pick up any points in the Premier League this season - Bournemouth and Crystal Palace - but will that change this weekend?
BBC Sport’s football expert Mark Lawrenson thinks it will - he has tipped both the Cherries and the Eagles to pick up their first wins of the new campaign.
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 four, his lowest score so far this season. That saw him slip down the table by 4,061 places to 6,198th place out of a total of more than 190,000.
Lawro needs a big week or two to reignite his title push but time is on his side - 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 former world champion triathlete Non Stanford.
Stanford supports her hometown team Swansea City - after a brief flirtation with Arsenal because of Thierry Henry - and is backing them to beat Tottenham on Saturday, or at least she hopes they do.
You can hear more from Non on Football Focus at 12:00 BST on Saturday on BBC One and the BBC Sport website.
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.
All kick-offs 15:00 BST unless otherwise stated.
Bournemouth have lost all four league games so far but there has been no suggestion that Eddie Howe’s future is in doubt as Cherries manager, and rightly so.
Brighton got their first Premier League win last weekend after an improved attacking display, and it bodes well for them that they have a goal threat, because they will need it to have a chance of staying up this season.
But I am backing Bournemouth to win this battle of the south coast, and I think they will soon recover from their poor start.
New Crystal Palace manager Roy Hodgson did well at struggling clubs when he took over at Fulham and West Brom, and the Eagles are obviously looking for him to steady the ship in a similar way.
Southampton also need to pick up after a poor start, but they will have to offer more going forward than they did in their defeat by Watford last time out.
I am going for Palace to win this one, because of the Hodgson factor - I am expecting to see a big reaction from their players on Saturday.
Huddersfield suffered their first defeat of the season at the hands of West Ham on Monday and their manager David Wagner was right when he said they did not really get going.
I am sure we will see a better performance from the Terriers at home, but this is a game where I see Leicester using their nous to come out on top.
I am not sure what is going on with the goalkeeper situation at Liverpool but Simon Mignolet should play for them against Burnley.
If Loris Karius is picked instead, then I think the Clarets will be licking their lips and looking to put a lot of balls into the box, because Karius is not very convincing when it comes to dealing with them.
Liverpool’s attacking talent still means they should win this game comfortably but they will have to be on their toes at the back, and be much more solid defensively than they have been of late.
Burnley are well organised and work hard, but you know what to expect from them when they come forward - the outcome on Saturday depends on how well Liverpool deal with that.
Newcastle’s last two results - wins against West Ham and the Swans - will have lifted the mood and confidence at the club after a difficult start.
Stoke will be a much tougher test than either of those teams, though.
The Potters gave Manchester United a good game last weekend and showed again that they are hard to beat.
Watford’s excellent start to the season continued last week with their win at Southampton.
The Hornets will feel that, if they can get at Manchester City, they can cause them problems too, because City’s defence is still not the same when Vincent Kompany is not fit. We saw that last weekend when Liverpool had 11 men.
I still think City will be confident that their attack is good enough to get them the three points here again, though. Again, we saw how good they are against Liverpool.
Whoever Pep Guardiola picks, it does not look like scoring goals is going to be an issue for them this season and I don’t see it being a problem on Saturday.
West Ham got off the mark with their win over Huddersfield on Monday but they still do not look much of a threat in front of goal.
West Brom also don’t score too many, and I think there is a chance that both teams could cancel each other out. Hammers boss Slaven Bilic will probably be happy with that.
The way Tottenham dismantled Everton last week was very impressive.
In contrast, Swansea really struggled against Newcastle.
After seeing the Swans beat Crystal Palace, I was not too worried about Paul Clement’s side getting dragged into the relegation battle this season - but any more complete non-performances like that would be a real cause for concern.
Much has been made of Spurs’ poor record at Wembley until they beat Borussia Dortmund on Wednesday.
But even if they had stayed at White Hart Lane, it would have been a huge ask for them to repeat their results there last season when they won 17 and drew two of their 19 home league games.
This is the kind of game I would expect Spurs to win comfortably, regardless of the venue.
I fully expected Arsenal to beat Bournemouth last weekend, but that does not mean everything is rosy for the Gunners. Far from it.
Arsenal boss Arsenal Wenger only ever seems to be a game - or even a half - away from a full-blown crisis, and I think he will have another defeat to contend with this weekend, rather than a repeat of what happened at Wembley in the FA Cup final.
Since their opening-day defeat by Burnley, Chelsea have won four games in a row and I think the way they lost to the Clarets will actually have helped them focus.
Sometimes you need a game to go badly like that at the start of the season to realise you need to get back at it if you want to defend your title.
I am sure Everton forward Wayne Rooney will get a warm reception on his return to Old Trafford, but I don’t see him having much to smile about in terms of the result.
Even without the injured Paul Pogba, I think Manchester United will be too strong for Everton - United have such a strong squad to call upon.
Everton were poor at the back against Tottenham but the bigger issue for me is their lack of goal threat. United will find a way through, while I don’t think Everton will.
Last week, Lawro got four correct results, with no perfect scores, from 10 matches, for a total of 40 points.
He lost out to BBC NFL Show analysts Osi Umenyiora and Jason Bell, who got five results correct but with no perfect scores, for a total of 50 points.
*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)
Go to the original article…
...breathily devised by Optimus trousers...beta v1.9 - now with EXTRA pictures!