Everton v. West Ham United, Huddersfield Town: Writer Prediction League

Against our better judgment, the RBM Writer Prediction League rolls on this week, following Everton’s underwhelming capitulation against Southampton on Sunday.

Unfortunately for us all, the Toffees play twice this week — against West Ham United on Wednesday and Huddersfield Town on Saturday. These are both matches we’d have guessed would be eminently winnable at the start of the season, but nothing is certain in the world of 2017-18 Everton.

The impending hiring of Sam Allardyce throws another wrench into proceedings, as he looks likely to replace David Unsworth at some point between the West Ham and Huddersfield matches. The uncertainty has put the staff in a tough spot heading into this busy week.

But first, let’s take a look at the predictions from last week against Southampton.

Five writers correctly predicted a Southampton win, though none by the proper scoreline. Callum and Chris earned an extra point via Dusan Tadic’s opener, and Matt correctly guessed that Gylfi Sigurdsson would put in a solid performance.

With those points, our standings look like this.

Calvin and Mike continue to put a beating on the rest of us, with Brian F. just barely hanging on to title aspirations. Beneath him, the mid-table writers are likely already out of serious title contention.

With uncertainty abounding, our picks for the West Ham match are spread across the board.

Seven different players got opening goalscorer votes, eight different Toffees got man of the match votes, and the winner predictions are as even as we’ve ever seen — five West Ham wins, four Everton wins, and three draws.

The Huddersfield match brings a little more predictability — Huddersfield’s striker situation is clearer than West Ham’s, and Oumar Niasse will be back from suspension, so things look a little more uniform.

Aaron Mooy and Oumar Niasse dominate the first goalscorer column, Niasse owns the Everton man of the match column, and seven writers have predicted the match will end in a draw.