Predicting Premier League results is tough – no one’s kidding themselves about that.
None of us would have backed Leicester City to win the league back in August (well, almost none of us), while Newcastle United weren’t expected to go down after spending big last summer.
But when you have the chance to right wrongs by picking results on a weekly basis, there’s a little more room for manoeuvre.
Unless you’re Mark Lawrenson.
The BBC pundit has developed a reputation for bias against certain clubs. While that might not necessarily be the case, it certainly seems as though he overrates some teams and underrates others.
The evidence for this is a table shared by Digital Spy‘s Matt Hill, which shows just how wrong Lawro was by drawing up a league table based on his predictions over the course of the campaign.
The biggest disparities between actual and anticipated predictions come with Leicester City and West Ham United, who would be 12th and 17th respectively (instead of first and sixth) if Lawrenson had been spot-on every week.
Of course, for some clubs to be lower than their real position, others must be higher, and that honour goes to West Bromwich Albion (seventh instead of 15th), Newcastle United (11th instead of 18th) and Chelsea (third instead of ninth).
The Premier League table according to Mark Lawrenson's predictions is a wonderful piece of concept art pic.twitter.com/FPs1rzGoLh
— Matt Hill (@gethill) May 14, 2016
Some fans might be angry with the pundit.
Once again that arseeee lawrenson has put us down to lose tomorrow how has he still got a job he is so anti west ham it stinks
— Johnny Allen 🇬🇧🇬🇧🇬🇧⚒WHU (@essojohn) April 29, 2016
But others are just basking in his wrongness. After all, there’s only one table that matters.
Mark Lawrenson dismissed the idea of Leicester City winning the league out of hand in the autumn, said it was impossible. How foolish.
— Mark (@markblk9779) May 2, 2016
My memories of this season will always be the experts telling us that there is no way Leicester can win the title, especially Lawro
— Graham Lees (@glees5150) May 2, 2016
At least he was right about Aston Villa.
