Writer Prediction League: Everton’s holiday fixtures

Somehow, though we are 17/38ths of the way through the Premier League season, we aren’t quite sure how good this Everton team really is.

The Toffees’ schedule to this point has been almost exclusively composed of two types of matches — away to the top six and home against mid-table or lower clubs.

We already knew that Manchester City, Liverpool, Chelsea, and Arsenal have more talent and will finish above Everton this season — so there wasn’t really an expectation to steal many points away to those clubs.

We already knew that Everton is better than clubs like Fulham, Southampton, and Cardiff — so picking up most of the available points in home matches against those clubs wasn’t exactly informative either.

Now, with the ludicrously hectic holiday period upon us, we’re going to get our first extended look at what Everton truly is. Can the Toffees win at home against top-six opposition, like the Tottenham Hotspur side that travels to Goodison Park this weekend? Can they win away to lower-table opposition like Burnley and Brighton and Hove Albion?

Over the course of the next few weeks, the answers to these questions will help us determine whether Everton is a legitimate top-six threat, or just working toward another mid-table finish.

But, before we look ahead at our predictions for that match, let’s take a quick look back at last weekend’s match against Manchester City.

There were a few moderately optimistic individuals among us heading into the City match — that optimism was thoroughly squashed. No one had Lucas Digne as the Everton man of the match, but Brian F. and I did correctly pick Gabriel Jesus as the match’s opening scorer.

Those who correctly picked the final score of the match were the biggest winners this week, as is reflecting in our standings.

Calvin actually widened the gap atop the table, despite Brian F. and I both picking up three points. At the bottom of the table, Rachel, Zach, Sean, and Tom are watching the mid-table writers slowly slip away.

This could be the last chance for some of the stragglers to get into a competitive position heading into the second half of the season — a staggering 24 points are on the table in the upcoming weeks.

Our picks for the next four matches are as follows.