Everton at Chelsea: Writer Prediction League

Thanks to a solid victory against West Ham United last week, Royal Blue Mersey's writer prediction league is now as close as ever!

Recall that each week, each of our writers submits the following for each Everton match:

• Opening goalscorer
• Everton man of the match (as chosen by the RBM post-match poll)
• Winning club
• Final score

Lukaku claimed the RBM man of the match by only 0.01 points (with players graded on a scale of 1 to 5), which made me, Calvin, and Mike very happy. The Belgian's opening goal, a head from less than a yard out, earned seven of ten participating writers points as well.

Darren, Mike, Sean, Troy, and Tyler were rewarded for their faith in Everton, while Sean picked up an extra two points for correctly picking a 2-0 victory.

With those points awarded, the writer prediction league scoreboard is as tight as ever!

Tyler's four-point week launched him into first place, while Sean's five-point week pushed him into a four-way tie for second place. Almost everyone is still pretty realistically in the running for a top spot, save for Matt, who would be well on his way to relegation if we had a second division!

This week, Everton will visit Chelsea at Stamford Bridge, a tough match against perhaps the hottest club in the Premier League right now. Despite that, we have perhaps the most varied predictions of the season thus far.

Five out of nine participating writers have actually chosen Everton to pick up at least a point this weekend, with three predicting that the Toffees will take all three points. In-form striker Diego Costa is the top choice for opening goalscorer, while Ashley Williams, Yannick Bolasie, and Maarten Stekelenburg each picked up two man of the match votes.