Everton vs Cardiff City: Writer Prediction League

After facing a match away to a top-six side before the international break, Everton now faces a completely opposite challenge ahead of the Merseyside Derby.

The Toffees have largely taken care of business at Goodison Park against lower-table opposition this season, and without a doubt, Cardiff City fits that description. The Bluebirds have surprisingly exceeded most pundits’ expectations (myself included), but they still hold only 8 points through 12 matches.

If Everton is to make a serious run at the top six, these are the sort of matches that simply must be victories. Of course, the Toffees will probably have to pick up a few points against top teams to make such a run as well, and they did just that by drawing against Chelsea at Stamford Bridge before the international break.

Let’s take a quick look back at our predictions from that match.

Only three writers thought Everton would pick up a draw against Chelsea, though none foresaw the 0-0 result. Perhaps unsurprisingly, two of those who did predict a result also predicted that the Everton man of the match would be Jordan Pickford, who deservedly won the fan vote.

Those results pushed the current Prediction League leader even further into first place.

Calvin is absolutely on fire, having picked up 17 of a possible 24 points over the last four matches, and it’s propelled him well into the lead atop the table.

Just about everyone is still theoretically within striking distance with two-thirds of the season yet to play, but if Calvin continues his current form, he’s going to be very difficult to catch.

Cardiff City, Everton’s next opponent, you could say is in a relatively good run of form itself, at least by bottom-of-the-table standards. In Cardiff’s last four matches, the club has two wins — over Fulham and Brighton and Hove Albion, along with a close loss to Leicester and a drubbing at the hands of Liverpool.

Still, Cardiff is surely going to struggle to stay up this season, and our writers don’t seem particularly scared by them.

Only Brian L. has Everton not coming away victorious in this one, with most of our writers even predicting a clean sheet for the Toffees. Richarlison is easily the most popular choice to open the scoring and take Everton man-of-the-match honors.