Everton plays Manchester City; RBM staff cautiously optimistic

Everton may be short on things to play for after dropping out of the FA Cup against Leicester City last week, but everything is still up for grabs in the Royal Blue Mersey Writer Prediction League! With still half the season to go, just about every writer on our staff still has a chance to win our little league — that is if any of us can finally start getting it right consistently.

Last week’s disappointment against the Foxes hurt all Everton supporters, but perhaps our writers a little more than most. All but two of us picked the Toffees to win, so points were in short supply. Let’s (painfully) review our picks for that match, with correct guesses in bold.

Mike, Scott, and I correctly picked Romelu Lukaku as the match’s first goalscorer, but things are pretty bleak outside that. Leighton Baines was chosen as the man of the match by EvertonFC.com’s commentary team; none of us picked that one right.

Matt was the only writer to predict an Everton loss, and he even got the score right too! The four points he earned as a result make him the week’s big winner, but he’s still got a long way to go if he wants to move up the standings.

Matt’s four-point week leaves him still five points away from escaping last place, while Mike and I both slightly closed the gap at the top of the table. Calvin and Sean remain the league’s top two, despite not picking up any points this week.

All but two of our writers are still within five points of the lead, a total that can feasibly be made up in the course of a week.

Our predictions this week against Manchester City are quite varied, not to mention slightly more optimistic than you might expect, so it could be a week of big movement in the writer prediction league.

More than half our writers have Everton getting at least a draw against Pep Guardiola’s side on Sunday — not a bad percentage given that the Toffees will be missing Idrissa Gueye and may not yet have Morgan Schneiderlin available.

As usual, Romelu Lukaku is a frequently selected opening goalscorer, while Seamus Coleman is a surprisingly popular pick for Everton man of the match.