B1 Intermediate · 274 words · 2 min read

Sutton and Royal Blood Drummer Ben Thatcher Predict Premier League Week Two

The BBC Sport expert expects Arsenal to win at Aston Villa, while his guest backs Brighton to have a good season.

BBC Sport football expert Chris Sutton is predicting the scores of all 380 Premier League games this season, competing against AI, BBC Sport readers and a variety of guests. For week two, his guest is Ben Thatcher, the drummer of the rock band Royal Blood.

Sutton expects Arsenal to win at Aston Villa, who were heavily beaten by Brighton last weekend and have sold several important players. "There's only one winner with this," he said. "Aston Villa had a slow start last season, they have lost big players and I just think Arsenal are going to run all over teams this season. I think they are going to get better and better which is ominous for everybody else."

Thatcher, a lifelong Brighton supporter, said he was optimistic about the new season, even though the striker Danny Welbeck and the defender Jan Paul van Hecke left the club this summer. He said the team always found new players and recovered. He added that he trusted the Brighton owner, Tony Bloom, who has sold many world-class players and replaced them with others.

Brighton are back in Europe in the Europa Conference League. Thatcher said he did not expect the club to qualify again through its league position this time, because of the extra games. He said a top-10 finish and a good run in Europe would make a great season.

In the prediction game, a correct result is worth 10 points and the exact score earns 40 points. Readers can choose their own scores, and the most popular scoreline for each game is used in the tables. The AI predictions were generated using Microsoft Copilot Chat.

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