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Everton’s match against Manchester City this week feels weird.
Weird because the Toffees have little left to play for; weird because Manchester City has essentially locked up the Premier League title; weird because Everton’s last match against Stoke City feels as though it was months ago, given the World Cup preparations that went on over the last two weeks.
Yet, Saturday will bring us Everton’s 32nd Premier League match of an underwhelming season, which is quickly drawing to a close. We’ve made our predictions for that potentially enormous mismatch — but let’s first look at our guesses from Everton’s most recent match, a victory against Stoke.
Stoke City Predictions
| Writer | First Scorer | Everton MOTM | Winner | Score | Points |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Writer | First Scorer | Everton MOTM | Winner | Score | Points |
| Adam | Walcott | Walcott | Draw | 2-2 | 0 |
| Brian F. | Choupo-Moting | Baines | Stoke | 2-1 | 0 |
| Brian L. | Choupo-Moting | Rooney | Stoke | 2-1 | 0 |
| Calvin | Shaqiri | Pickford | Stoke | 2-1 | 0 |
| Chris | Rooney | Rooney | Everton | 2-0 | 2 |
| Matt | Tosun | Tosun | Everton | 2-1 | 6 |
| Mike | Shaqiri | Rooney | Draw | 1-1 | 0 |
| Sean | Tosun | Bolasie | Everton | 1-0 | 3 |
| Tom | Tosun | Baines | Draw | 1-1 | 0 |
| Tyler | Tosun | Walcott | Everton | 2-1 | 5 |
| Zach | Tosun | Pickford | Everton | 2-1 | 5 |
The big news out of that match was Matt getting full points — only the second six-pointer in Prediction League history! Tyler and Zach got close as well, as they correctly predicted Cenk Tosun would open the scoring and that Everton would win by a score of 2-1. Both missed out on the Turkish striker taking home man of the match honors as well, though.
Impressive though those results were, they had little impact on the overall league standings.
Prediction League Standings
| Writer | Points |
|---|---|
| Writer | Points |
| Mike | 79 |
| Calvin | 75 |
| Brian F. | 56 |
| Matt | 55 |
| Brian L. | 54 |
| Sean | 54 |
| Chris | 52 |
| Adam | 50 |
| Tyler | 49 |
| Zach | 49 |
| Tom | 46 |
Mike and Calvin both went blank in the Stoke match, leaving our two-way race for the title in the same place it was before — with Mike holding a one-point lead.
He’ll put that lead to the test again when Everton hosts Manchester City on Saturday. The predictions, on the whole, are slightly more optimistic than I expected.
Manchester City Predictions
| Writer | First Scorer | Everton MOTM | Winner | Score | Points |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Writer | First Scorer | Everton MOTM | Winner | Score | Points |
| Adam | Bernardo Silva | Davies | City | 2-1 | 3 |
| Brian F. | Jesus | Pickford | City | 3-1 | 4 |
| Brian L. | Tosun | Tosun | City | 3-1 | 4 |
| Calvin | Sterling | Pickford | City | 3-2 | 2 |
| Chris | Sane | Coleman | City | 4-0 | 3 |
| Matt | Sterling | Tosun | City | 4-1 | 2 |
| Mike | Sane | Pickford | City | 3-0 | 3 |
| Sean | De Bruyne | Pickford | Draw | 1-1 | 0 |
| Tom | Sterling | Pickford | Draw | 1-1 | 0 |
| Tyler | David Silva | Pickford | Draw | 2-2 | 0 |
| Zach | Tosun | Pickford | Everton | 2-1 | 0 |
Three writers picked a draw, while Zach took optimism to a new level by picking the Toffees to defeat the soon-to-be champions!
Jordan Pickford was easily the most popular choice for Everton MOTM (usually an indication that we don’t foresee great play from the Toffees). Cenk Tosun was the only Everton player to get first scorer votes, with City players Bernardo Silva, Gabriel Jesus, Raheem Sterling, Leroy Sane, Kevin De Bruyne, and David Silva all getting on the board in that category.