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For the 2016-17 season, we at Royal Blue Mersey are bringing you a new feature, which will give you some insight into the minds of this site's intrepid creative team!
Each week, our writers will make a series of predictions about Everton's upcoming match or matches -- for correct guesses, they will receive a certain number of points. We'll do this every week this season, and at the end of the year get to see who the brightest of our bunch is!
The scoring for this league will be as follows:
- 1 point for guessing the scorer of the opening goal (could be on either team)
- 1 point for guessing Everton's man of the match, as voted by RBM readers after the match
- 2 points for guessing an Everton win, loss, or draw correctly
- 2 points for guessing the correct scoreline of the match
So, a writer could get up to six points from a match, if they are quite bright (or perhaps more likely, quite lucky). In weeks with multiple matches, writers will make predictions on each match, and could earn as many as 12 or 18 points if there are two or three matches in the week!
We open this series with Everton's first Premier League match of the season, a home game against Tottenham. Spurs finished third last season and return with largely the same squad that propelled them to their best-ever Premier League finish in 2015-16. Can Everton compete with the London side? Our writers are skeptical.
| Writer | Opener | Everton MOTM | Winner | Score |
| Adam | Christian Eriksen | Gerard Deulofeu | Spurs | 2-0 |
| Brian | Harry Kane | Leighton Baines | Spurs | 2-0 |
| Calvin | Erik Lamela | Gareth Barry | Spurs | 3-1 |
| Darren | Christian Eriksen | Ashley Williams | Draw | 1-1 |
| Matt | Vincent Janssen | Ross Barkley | Spurs | 2-1 |
| Mike | Harry Kane | Gerard Deulofeu | Spurs | 2-0 |
| Ryan | Harry Kane | Romelu Lukaku | Spurs | 3-1 |
| Sean | Harry Kane | Ross Barkley | Everton | 2-1 |
| Tom | Ross Barkley | Ross Barkley | Draw | 2-2 |
| Troy | Gerard Deulofeu | Ross Barkley | Everton | 2-1 |
| Tyler | Harry Kane | Gerard Deulofeu | Draw | 1-1 |
Some notes on our opening week predictions:
- Only two of our writers, Sean and Troy, have Everton winning the match -- both by the score of 2-1.
- Another three, Darren, Tom, and Tyler, have Everton pulling out a draw to start the season. The rest of us have the Toffees coming up empty.
- Five writers chose Harry Kane to get the opening goal of the match. The only other player to receive two votes was Christian Eriksen, chosen by Darren and Adam.
- Ross Barkley (4) and Gerard Deulofeu (3) were the most frequently chosen players for Everton's man of the match.
What do you think of our writers' predictions? Are we right to be pessimistic? Or are there causes for hope against a tough opponent on Saturday? Give us your thoughts below!
If you'd like to prove you're brighter than us, by all means give us your prediction for the week as well.
Any readers who pick up more than 3 points in a week will get a shout out in the following week's RBM Prediction League post!