BBC Sport football expert Chris Sutton has claimed his first win of the season in the weekly Premier League predictions, surpassing both artificial intelligence and a large pool of BBC readers. Sutton achieved seven correct results, including three exact scores, from the 10 matches in the second week of fixtures. This performance earned him 160 points, enough to edge out the competition.
After a slower start to the week, five of Sutton's correct predictions, two of which were exact scores, came from the games played on Sunday and Monday. This late surge was pivotal in securing his victory.
The collective efforts of the BBC readers resulted in six correct predictions and two exact scores, accumulating 120 points. The AI also managed seven correct results, but with only one exact score, it finished with 100 points. Royal Blood drummer Ben Thatcher, who joined Sutton as a guest predictor, secured four correct results with no exact scores, totaling 40 points.
Sutton commented on his win, stating, "It's not how you start the weekend, it's how you finish it. I am burying AI at the moment, which is a lovely feeling."
Across all predictions, three fixtures saw unanimous correct outcomes: Manchester City's win at Crystal Palace, Manchester United's victory over Ipswich, and Arsenal's success at Aston Villa. Conversely, only two fixtures had no correct predictions among the participants: Liverpool's draw with Nottingham Forest and Hull's victory at Coventry. For the latter, fewer than 5,000 of the nearly 37,000 predictions backed Hull to win, and fewer than 1,500 anticipated a 1-0 scoreline in their favor.