Everton v. Southampton: Writer Prediction League

It figures that Everton is just starting to round into form as the season draws to a close, right? Who likes consistent winning anyway?

Frustrations with the season aside, the Toffees’ recent form and quality of opposition in their final two matches has made predictions perhaps easier than they’ve been for most of the season. With relegation-threatened Southampton coming to Goodison Park on Saturday, Everton is the obvious favorite.

Only obvious, of course, because of another victory last week, this time against Huddersfield Town. Let’s review the picks from that one, before we move on to this week.

For the first time ever, we had two writers get perfect weeks. Both Mike and Zach correctly picked Cenk Tosun as the opening scorer and man of the match, and Everton to win by a 2-0 margin.

Those six-point weeks created new scenarios at both ends of the prediction league table.

Mike opened up a four-point lead at the top of the standings with just two matches to play -- while Zach’s big week lifted him from the foot of the table, three points clear of last-placed Tom.

Three or four point deficits may not sound insurmountable with two weeks still left to play, but you’ll notice that the nature of the Southampton picks this weeks might make it tough for our writers to make up ground.

All but one writer picked Everton to win — and six even predicted the same final score! There is good news for Calvin in there that Mike is the lone dissenter, meaning an Everton victory could very easily propel him toward the top of the table once more.

The news is less good for Tom, as those he has the best chance of catching to avoid a last-place finish largely went with the same predictions he did.

In fact, a whopping seven of 11 writers predicted Cenk Tosun to open the scoring and take man of the match honors this week.