Everton v. Swansea City: Writer Prediction League

When we last left our writer prediction league, five of our writers guessed that Everton would earn at least a point in a tough match against Chelsea at Stamford Bridge. It feels like it was so long ago now -- how did that end up for them?

Oh yeah, I remember now.

The team's 5-0 loss to Chelsea was embarrassing and demoralizing, leaving the staff, players, and supporters two weeks to think about how so many things went wrong.

Our predictions weren't substantially better than Everton's performance either. Below are our staff's picks, with correct guesses in bold.

Darren, Tom, and I all correctly picked Hazard to score the match's first goal, though none of us suspected that it would be the first of five for Antonio Conte's side. However, Calvin, Matt, Mike, and I did correctly predict a Chelsea victory.

With those points taken into consideration, the writer prediction league table has a new leader...

I've jumped out to a two-point lead atop the table, with seven of our writers within two points of the top spot.

This week, a struggling Swansea City visits Goodison Park, with our writers almost unanimously picking an Everton victory and success from a few key players.

Only Calvin foresees the Toffees not taking all three points on Saturday -- his 2-2 draw prediction in the lone dissent among the group.

Three writers are predicting a 3-1 victory for Everton, while another two each picked 2-1 and 2-0. Tom is the most confident of the bunch this week, predicting a 3-0 thrashing at Goodison Park.

We're also nearly unanimously in picking big weeks for Lukaku and Barkley -- eight of ten participants this week picked one or both players as their first goalscorer and Everton man of the match. Historically, high confidence from our writers hasn't meant too much in terms of individual and team performances, so this should be an interesting week!