Everton vs Fulham: Writer Prediction League

This week should, on paper, be a relatively easy one for Everton. The Toffees host 15th-placed Fulham on Saturday in the Premier League and 14th-placed Southampton in the League Cup on Tuesday.

Sounds good — except that Everton has already dropped points to 17th-placed West Ham United and last place Huddersfield Town.

Given that start to the season, it should come as no surprise that the Toffees lost to Arsenal last week too — an outcome many of us predicted. Let’s start by taking a look at those predictions in full.

12 of 14 writers correctly guessed Everton would lose to Arsenal, though only Rachel got the 2-0 scoreline correct. Rachel also correctly guessed that Richarlison would be the Everton man of the match, along with six other RBM staffers.

Five writers predicted that Alexandre Lacazette would open the match’s scoring, and they each received a point for that guess.

Everyone got at least one point this week, so there was a fair bit of movement in the Prediction League table.

Brian F. leads the way 3/19ths of the way through the Premier League season, with me the closest in pursuit. It’s still early, but those at the bottom of the table could be at risk of being out of the running soon if they can’t turn it around.

This week, our writers will have double the chances to make up ground in the table, as Everton plays twice. Despite the club’s struggles against some lower-table opposition this season, we appear to still be pretty confident about the Toffees’ chances.

The optimism surrounding the Fulham match surprised me, even though I too picked the Toffees to win. Only one writer didn’t pick Everton to win — Brian F., the current leader, picked a draw.

Confidence in Richarlison is at an all-time high — he picked up nine opening goalscorer votes and seven man of the match votes.

Against Southampton, things are a little more complicated. You can never quite be sure who teams are going to actually utilize in League Cup matches, especially still in these early stages. Throw in uncertainty about who Everton’s first choice striker even is at this point, and you get some varied predictions.

Three writers predicted Southampton victories, with Calvin foreseeing an Everton win in penalties. Everyone else picked Everton to win, but the players we anticipate having an impact are often different.

Interestingly, four writers have Dominic Calvert-Lewin opening the scoring in this match, while two have Cenk Tosun breaking out here. Pete also has Oumar Niasse getting on the board. In all likelihood, only one of these players will even start this match, meaning we’ll have some unhappy guessers even before kickoff!

The same holds true in the MOTM predictions. Bernard, Walcott, Richarlison, DCL and Tosun all feature — with at most only four of them likely to start in the same match.