Sutton goes head-to-head with Waffle the Wonder Dog and James Merry in BBC Sport's week eight Premier League predictions

On 22 October 2026 BBC Sport football expert Chris Sutton issued his week eight Premier League predictions on BBC Sport, opposing Waffle the Wonder Dog and the dog’s owner, Simon (played by James Merry). The preview comes ahead of Manchester City’s trip to Aston Villa on Saturday, with City having won their first seven league games of the season.

Sutton, who is making predictions for all 380 Premier League games this season, opened by noting form around the top of the table: "Villa have beaten City in this fixture in each of the past three years under Unai Emery," he said, and added that Villa are "seven unbeaten in all competitions". The AI predictions used by the feature were generated using Microsoft Copilot Chat — "we simply asked the tool to 'predict this weekend's Premier League scores'" — and Sutton, Waffle and James Merry spoke to BBC Sport's Chris Bevan about their picks.

Waffle, a talking dog character whose show Waffle's After School Club is available on CBeebies and BBC iPlayer right now, provided several on-brand remarks: "I am an enthusiastic baller," he told BBC Sport. "But technically my best position is right-back... on the sofa." Waffle also said: "My favourite player is the England captain, Harry Kane-9, and I'm a Liverpool fan so my all-time hero is Kenny Dog-leash." James Merry explained his real-life Aston Villa connection: "I grew up in Sutton Coldfield, north Birmingham, and just about everyone is Villa there," he said, detailing family season-ticket history and his first job working in Villa's catering department.

On the headline fixture, Sutton assessed Villa's recent form and City's chances, noting Erling Haaland is fit and that City have lost their past three visits to Villa Park, while warning City are "a lot more streetwise" in tight games. Waffle predicted Villa 2-3 City, with the line: "Ross BARKley gets two for Villa, but Erling HOWLand to score a hat-trick. Sorry, dad!" James Merry opted for a 3-2 Villa win, calling it "a barnstormer" and citing Villa's growing momentum.

Sutton highlighted problems at both ends of the table when previewing Nottingham Forest v Ipswich, saying "Nottingham Forest can't score. That's their issue, and they have only managed five goals in their first seven league games." He noted Ipswich already have three league wins from seven games and recalled that "the last time they were in the Premier League, in 2024-25, they only managed four all season." Sutton said Ipswich had not drawn yet and that he was backing a draw for the fixture; Waffle and James both predicted a 1-2 scoreline.

For Arsenal v Everton Sutton observed Arsenal would be without the injured Bukayo Saka but expected the Gunners to hold sway at home; Waffle predicted 3-0 while James put it 3-1. At Coventry Building Society Arena (15:00) Sutton predicted a contest in which the loser might drop into the relegation zone and favoured Fulham; both Waffle and James forecasted a 1-1 draw, with James adding a personal note about his father being a Coventry fan.

Sutton commented on Chelsea’s mixed defensive record — their 2-0 win over Everton was "their first clean sheet of their campaign in the league" — and on Tottenham’s poor Stamford Bridge record, and he expected Chelsea to prevail. Waffle predicted 4-2 and James 3-1 for that match. On Palace v Newcastle, Sutton outlined the upheaval at Selhurst Park and Palace’s 14th-place position compared with 15th last season, and suggested Palace could trouble an open Newcastle side; Waffle went 1-2 while James chose 1-1. For Hull v Brentford Sutton said Brentford would be too smart for Hull if they kept 11 men on the pitch; both Waffle and James predicted 1-2.

Sutton argued Brighton’s style could trouble Liverpool at Anfield, even though Liverpool had an extra 48 hours of recovery; both Waffle and James nevertheless forecasted a 2-1 Liverpool win. On Manchester United v Bournemouth Sutton backed Bournemouth and warned that a United defeat would end Michael Carrick’s tenure, while Waffle tipped United 2-1 and James 2-0. Previewing Sunderland v Leeds Sutton noted Sunderland would have Brian Brobbey back and cited Nordi Mukiele suggesting the Black Cats may have become "arrogant", but he sided with Leeds; Waffle predicted 0-2 and James 0-0.

On week seven's outcome Sutton and BBC readers each achieved six correct results with no exact scores from 10 fixtures, scoring 60 points apiece; guest Fabio Wardley had four correct results including one exact score, Bournemouth's 2-0 win over Sunderland, for 70 points. AI won the week with eight correct results, including an exact Liverpool 2-1 victory at Brentford, totalling 110 points. One game — Brighton's 5-0 victory over Crystal Palace — produced the only universally correctly predicted outcome, while from almost 30,000 submissions the most popular exact scoreline was Brighton 2-0 (almost 8,000 picks) with 57 people getting that result spot-on.

These selections form part of Sutton's week eight Premier League predictions on BBC Sport ahead of Manchester City's trip to Aston Villa on Saturday.