Everton at Arsenal: Writer Prediction League

An overly simplified version of this week’s Prediction League post could really be summed up in a paragraph:

West Ham is bad. Everton lost to West Ham at home, which was bad for our predictions because we thought Everton could not possibly be worse than West Ham. Everton plays away to a top-six side this week, where they literally never win. It’s probably going to be bad.

Of course, the scenario is more complex than that, but it’s a reasonable starting point for looking back at last week’s predictions and looking forward to this weekend’s match.

So, let’s (as quickly as possible as to minimize pain and suffering) look back at our predictions from the West Ham United match last week.

Well...we got nothing.

Nobody had a West Ham win, Andriy Yarmolenko scoring the opener, or Lucas Digne as Everton’s man of the match.

Nothing more to say about that, so let’s review our unchanged Prediction League standings.

It’s still quite tight at the top with most of the season still ahead of us. Even those at the bottom of the table still have plenty of time to catch up as nobody has quite been able to separate themselves from the pack.

This week, the Toffees take on Arsenal. The Gunners haven’t exactly flown out of the gates either, but they sit in seventh place with 9 points after five games. That record might be slightly flattering — they squeaked past West Ham, Cardiff, and Newcastle (arguably the worst three teams in the league right now?) and lost to Manchester City and Chelsea.

Even with that somewhat unimpressive resume, our writers have little faith the Toffees can get a result after the West Ham debacle.

Two writers picked a draw between the two clubs, with everyone else picking Arsenal to come out ahead. Faith in the defense is particularly low, with 9 of 13 participating writers predicting Everton will concede three or more goals.

It’s a pretty even split between Arsenal’s two most prolific attackers in the first goalscorer column — five votes for Alexandre Lacazette and four for Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang.

We do at least have faith that Richarlison will make good on his return to the lineup, with seven writers predicting he’ll be Everton’s man of the match.