clock menu more-arrow no yes mobile

Filed under:

Writer Prediction League: Everton at Burnley

RBM writers hope for easy points against recently-promoted Burnley

You heard right Rom, seven of our writers think you'll be man of the match this weekend!
You heard right Rom, seven of our writers think you'll be man of the match this weekend!
Alex Livesey/Getty Images

Last week, we saw a vast majority of our writers pick an Everton loss for the first time this season. The Toffees trip to the Etihad to play Manchester City was always going to be a difficult one, so Royal Blue Mersey's writers largely predicted failure for Everton.

Naturally then, Ronald Koeman's team put out an solid, if unattractive performance against Pep Guardiola's side and picked up a tough away point against the league's top team. For much of the season, our predictions have been very on or very off -- with this draw, last week was no different. Our mostly incorrect predictions are below, with correct guesses in bold:

Writer Opener MOTM Winner Score
Adam Sergio Aguero Seamus Coleman City 2-1
Brian Romelu Lukaku Ashley Williams Draw 2-2
Calvin David Silva Idrissa Gueye City 3-1
Darren Aguero Phil Jagielka City 3-1
Matt Raheem Sterling Kevin Mirallas City 3-0
Mike Aguero Maarten Stekelenburg City 2-0
Ryan Aguero Gueye City 3-1
Sean Fernandinho Gueye Everton 2-1
Tom Ross Barkley Gareth Barry Draw 1-1
Troy Coleman Gueye City 2-1
Tyler Silva Gueye City 2-0

Brian and Tom got awarded for their confidence in Everton by picking up two points for predicting a draw (unlike Sean, who picked up no points for his overconfidence in picking an Everton win!).

Brian also correctly chose Lukaku as the match's opening scorer, Tom picked the correct scoreline, and Mike chose the correct man of the match.

With those points awarded, the updated standings look like this:

Writer Points
Tom 19
Adam 18
Calvin 18
Tyler 18
Darren 17
Troy 17
Brian 16
Ryan 16
Sean 15
Mike 14
Matt 11

Brian had spent the last three matchweeks slowly sliding down the table, but with a successful week against Manchester City, he's right back in the thick of things. Similarly, Tom rode his big week to the top of the table, passing by Calvin, Tyler, and me, all of whom are tied for second. Darren, Troy, Brian, and Ryan are all also only within three points of a first-place tie.

Don't expect anyone to make up too much ground this week though, as you'll notice many of our picks for this week's match against Burnley share similarities...

Writer Opener MOTM WInner Score
Adam Yannick Bolasie Idrissa Gueye Everton 2-0
Brian
Calvin Ashley Williams Gueye Everton 2-0
Darren Lukaku Lukaku Everton 4-1
Matt Lukaku Lukaku Everton 2-1
Mike Lukaku Lukaku Everton 2-0
Ryan Lukaku Lukaku Everton 3-0
Sean Lukaku Lukaku Everton 2-0
Tom Bolasie Lukaku Everton 3-0
Troy Lukaku Lukaku Everton 2-0
Tyler Kevin Mirallas Mirallas Everton 2-0

A whopping six writers picked Everton's Belgian striker to both score the opening goal for the Toffees and be the man of the match! Tom also picked Lukaku to be the man of the match, despite picking Bolasie as the opening goalscorer.

Every writer picked the Toffees to win, with eight of ten participants predicting a clean sheet for Stekelenburg and the Everton defense. With such similar picks across the board this week, it is unlikely that anyone will get a big advantage from the results this week.

Of course, such confidence from us can mean only one thing: Lukaku will have a miserable match and Everton will concede three goals -- you heard it here first, folks!