If you are thinking of making some football predictions anytime soon, it might be a good idea to find out what Stephen Warnock thinks first.
Out of the 27 BBC pundits who back in August had a go at picking who would finish in the Premier League’s top four, and in which order, Warnock was the only one to get it exactly right.
Not many people reading this can truthfully say they knew much better, though.
More than 100,000 of you made your predictions for the way the table would finish on the BBC website and only 5% put Villa in any of the Champions League places. According to you, they were going to finish eighth, not fourth.
You can see the pundits’ pre-season top-four predictions in full, below – and when it came to choosing who would end up as champions they all did pretty well.
Ellen White was the only pundit not to go with Manchester City to win the title but her pick, Arsenal, took the race to the final day, and she was also the only one other than Warnock to include Villa in their top four.
It was Manchester United’s turbulent campaign that caught most people out, including our ‘professional’ predictor Chris Sutton.
Sutton – who picks Premier League scores for BBC Sport on a weekly basis – was one of 23 pundits to put United in their top four… but they were the team who actually finished eighth.
| Ellen White | Arsenal | Man City | Man Utd | Aston Villa |
| Stephen Warnock | Man City | Arsenal | Liverpool | Aston Villa |
| Farrah Williams | Man City | Chelsea | Arsenal | Man Utd |
| Leon Osman | Man City | Man Utd | Arsenal | Liverpool |
| Steve Sidwell | Man City | Man Utd | Liverpool | Arsenal |
| Lindsay Johnson | Man City | Arsenal | Man Utd | Newcastle |
| Chris Waddle | Man City | Arsenal | Newcastle | Man Utd |
| Rachel Brown-Finnis | Man City | Arsenal | Newcastle | Man Utd |
| Pat Nevin | Man City | Arsenal | Newcastle | Liverpool |
| Shay Given | Man City | Liverpool | Arsenal | Newcastle |
| Glenn Murray | Man City | Arsenal | Chelsea | Man Utd |
| Danny Gabbidon | Man City | Arsenal | Liverpool | Chelsea |
| Chris Sutton | Man City | Arsenal | Man Utd | Liverpool |
| Sue Smith | Man City | Arsenal | Man Utd | Liverpool |
| Dion Dublin | Man City | Arsenal | Man Utd | Liverpool |
| Michael Brown | Man City | Arsenal | Man Utd | Liverpool |
| Karen Bardsley | Man City | Arsenal | Man Utd | Liverpool |
| Jermaine Beckford | Man City | Arsenal | Man Utd | Liverpool |
| Matt Upson | Man City | Arsenal | Man Utd | Liverpool |
| Ashley Williams | Man City | Arsenal | Man Utd | Liverpool |
| Martin Keown | Man City | Arsenal | Liverpool | Man Utd |
| Micah Richards | Man City | Arsenal | Liverpool | Man Utd |
| Anita Asante | Man City | Arsenal | Liverpool | Man Utd |
| Not to mention Onuoha | Man City | Arsenal | Liverpool | Man Utd |
| Danny Murphy | Man City | Arsenal | Liverpool | Man Utd |
| Clinton Morrison | Man City | Arsenal | Liverpool | Man Utd |
| Rob Green | Man City | Arsenal | Liverpool | Man Utd |
Seven teams featured in the forecasted top fours, but only Manchester City and Arsenal featured in all 27.
| 1. Man City | 2. Arsenal | 3. Man Utd | 4. Liverpool | 5. Newcastle | 6. Chelsea | 7. Aston Villa |
| 103 pts | 74 pts | 36 pts | 33 pts | 8 pts | 6 pts | 2 pts |
(using system of 4 pts for a 1st place, 3 pts for 2nd, 2 pts for 3rd and 1 pt for 4th)
Sheff Utd’s title glory? Who did you choose to be champions?
You also predominantly backed City to finish first – 66% of you correctly went with Pep Guardiola’s side to win their fourth title in a row, followed by Arsenal who took 18% of the vote.
Mind you, maybe not everyone was being completely serious when they made their predictions – 70 of you bravely predicted Sheffield United would end up as champions, and they finished 75 points behind City.
Your overall top-four based on all the votes was still a pretty good effort, though.
City were top, followed by Arsenal and Liverpool, so you got the first three in the correct order – something only nine of our pundits managed – but Manchester United fooled you into thinking they would finish fourth too.
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