Sutton and Ipswich fan Fabio Wardley clash on Premier League predictions ahead of Wardley‑Dubois rematch

On 15 October 2026 BBC Sport football expert Chris Sutton and former heavyweight champion Fabio Wardley submitted rival forecasts for week seven of the Premier League on BBC Sport, with Wardley preparing for his rematch with Daniel Dubois at London's O2 Arena on Saturday.

Manchester United manager Michael Carrick faces mounting pressure after a poor start to the season and Sutton said of the upcoming Manchester United v Leeds game: "I cannot remember the last time Leeds were seen as favourites going into this fixture but I don't fancy Manchester United's chances at all." Sutton is producing predictions for all 380 Premier League fixtures this season, competing against Microsoft Copilot Chat, BBC Sport readers and invited guests. Wardley, an Ipswich Town supporter, can reclaim the WBO heavyweight title when he meets Dubois in the rematch of their May encounter, when Dubois stopped Wardley in the 11th round; the fight will be shown live on DAZN, with live commentary on BBC Radio 5 Live and a watchalong on BBC iPlayer.

Wardley compared Ipswich's current start to their previous promotion campaign, saying it previously took them 19 matches and until 30 December to reach three wins, whereas this season they have already achieved three victories in their first six games. He added: "Whenever you get promoted there is going to be a large amount of player turnover because, if you want to stay up, then you need to bring some players in who are going to be game-changers, and are going to offer you the different perspectives or different outlets you will need at this level." Wardley also praised the squad and new manager Gary O'Neil, commenting: "With a bunch of new players and a new manager in Gary O'Neil too, there was always going to be a question mark as to how well they would gel, or even how quickly, but the team are looking great."

Describing his match attendance, Wardley said his training camp has limited his availability but he had attended two of Ipswich's wins, including the opening-day 1-0 victory over Sunderland sealed by "Jack Clarke sticking that one in." He said of the Fulham game: "We went 1-0 down early on but clawed it back and then scored two goals in three minutes, with the winner coming in added time," and added: "Winning like that proves the team have got character. The boys are showing a lot of resilience and we are going to need it this season."

Sutton and Wardley have met on predictions before; Sutton recalled that result and taunted his guest, saying: "I beat Fabio last time - he's from Ipswich so he doesn't stand a chance of beating me," before adding: "But good luck to him on Saturday night and I hope he wins his rematch - he's got a better chance against Dubois than he has against me." The AI forecasts on BBC Sport were produced using Microsoft Copilot Chat after being asked to "predict this weekend's Premier League scores."

Sutton outlined a series of weekend assessments: he described Everton as unbeaten and consistently organised and suggested they could make things difficult for Chelsea, noting Bournemouth had a better xG than Chelsea but still lost 5-1 last weekend. He observed Liverpool's 3-0 Champions League win at LASK, where Bradley Barcola scored a hat-trick, but warned of Liverpool's defensive vulnerability and predicted they would not win or keep a clean sheet in their upcoming match. On Fulham, Sutton labelled the fixture "massive" for Alvaro Arbeloa as he seeks a first league victory and predicted Fulham would beat Hull despite Hull's positive start.

On Manchester City, Sutton said he had heard lessons from their loss to Paris St-Germain and praised City's second-half response when he was at Radio 5 Live: "For those teams to meet at this early stage of the Champions League it was always going to be a good game, but it was never going to be tense because neither side were going to be knocked out." He judged that Ipswich would find it hard at City, saying: "Fair play to Ipswich, for coming back to beat Fulham the way they did, but I don't see them getting anything here." Sutton also commented on Lisandro Martinez, stating: "I found Lisandro Martinez's outburst about Manchester United's recruitment very strange, especially after his mistake that cost his side victory over Tottenham. You'd think Martinez would keep his head down after making a mess of the cross that let Dominic Solanke equalise - If I am United's director of football Jason Wilcox then, in January, I am buying a big left-sided centre-half who can deal with crosses to take his place." He concluded he would back Leeds to beat Manchester United convincingly.

Sutton reported the weekly prediction tallies from week six: he achieved four correct results with no exact scores from 10 games for a total of 40 points; guest James Walsh had two correct results and 20 points; BBC readers collectively returned five correct results and 50 points; and the AI won the week with 80 points, credited to four correct results plus an exact score in Aston Villa's 2-2 draw with Brentford. Chelsea's 5-1 victory over Bournemouth was the only match where every participant picked the right outcome. From more than 35,000 user predictions, the most popular scoreline was a 2-1 Chelsea win, chosen by almost 9,000 people, while only four get that scoreline exactly right.

Wardley's rematch with Daniel Dubois is scheduled for Saturday at London's O2 Arena and will be broadcast live on DAZN, with live commentary on BBC Radio 5 Live and a live watchalong available on BBC iPlayer; supporters can also take part in BBC Sport's Match of the Day predictor game each week to submit their own score forecasts.