Lukaku loves scoring against West Ham

As Everton continues through a stretch of matches against bottom-half opposition, our writers are looking to continue finding success in their predictions.

Two weeks ago, seven of 11 of our writers picked up one or more points when Everton met Leicester City at Goodison Park; last week, every participating writer got at least two points.

This week? Well, if Romelu Lukaku continues scoring against West Ham United as he has throughout his career, our writers will continue to pick up points. Let’s quickly take a look at last week’s results though, with correct guesses in bold.

All nine participating writers picked up two points for correctly guessing that Everton would defeat Burnley at Goodison Park. Three of us got an additional two points for correctly picking a 3-1 scoreline.

A staggering six of nine correctly picked Ross Barkley as the man of the match — but no one foresaw Phil Jagielka’s goal streak continuing on for yet another match!

A successful week for those of us chasing Calvin atop the table has given us a tightly-contested top four with just five matches remaining.

Tyler, Mike, and I are all within five points of Calvin at the top of the table — a total that can be made up in just one match if things go well for a given writer. That definitely won’t be the case this week though, as our predictions (made anonymously) almost entirely have a common thread.

Romelu Lukaku has scored in nine straight matches again West Ham for Everton, not to mention four assists against the Hammers — his best total against a Premier League opponent. It should come as no surprise then, that all but one of us (Chris, ever the contrarian) picked the Belgian as the match’s opening scorer, and seven of us picked Lukaku to be Everton’s man of the match.

Nine out of 11 writers also have Everton defeating the Hammers away from home on Saturday, with Brian F. and Calvin the lone dissenters. Both of them are predicting a 2-2 draw.

An Everton victory will see me jump Calvin for the league lead, while a 2-1 Everton victory will put me three points in the lead and allow Tyler to tie Calvin in second place. A draw though, particularly a 2-2 draw, would give Calvin substantial breathing room at the top of the table with just four matches left to play.