Everton at Southampton: Writer Prediction League

In a lot of ways, Everton's season has mirrored the performance of the participants in the RBM writer prediction league -- a surprisingly good start followed by a series of disappointments.

Last week against Swansea City, our writers largely predicted success for the Toffees given the opponent's recent struggles, and we were promptly let down. Seamus Coleman's late equalizer gave Everton a draw that felt like a win...that upon further retrospection probably should have felt like a loss.

Without a doubt though, our writers definitely did loss in the prediction league last week. Our predictions from that match, with correct predictions in bold, are listed below.

Neither our faith in Everton nor in Romelu Lukaku was repaid, with only two writers picking up any points. Calvin earned two points for correctly predicting a draw. Sean earned one point for choosing Gueye as the Everton man of the match, who RBM readers chose as Everton's joint-best player in the match, along with Coleman.

The lack of points earned means we've not had a ton of movement in the standings this week.

Calvin's two points pushed him into a tie for first place, while Sean has joined group putting pressure on Calvin and I at the top.

This week, we've got another tough job in predicting Everton's fate against Southampton -- a side with reasonable talent, but its own fair share of struggles in recent months.

Ronald Koeman's return to St. Mary's Stadium will mark a first in the RBM writer prediction league -- a match in which the majority of our writers foresee a draw! The full predictions are below.

A staggering 75% of participating writers have predicted a draw against Southampton on Sunday, with three writers predicting 2-2 and three writers predicting 1-1. Matt and Sean have both predicted a 2-1 Everton victory.

Confidence in Lukaku remains high, with three writers picking him as the opening goal scorer and another three choosing him as their Everton man of the match.