Everton v. West Ham United: Writer Prediction League

You know, this is normally the time of year where I’d write some stock introduction about how the tedium of the international break is finally over, and Everton are back at it, but really I’m not sure most of our readers want to see Everton or their national team of choice at this point.

Most of our readers come from England or the United States, and well...not an international break to remember for either nation. England lost a Euro qualifier to Czech Republic last week, then obliterated Bulgaria in a match marred by unacceptable racist behavior by Bulgarian supporters. Meanwhile stateside, the USMNT lost to Canada for the first time in 30 years.

So now at least we have Everton back! *hand to earpiece* wait I’m being told that Everton are in 18th place and lost 1-0 at Burnley before the international break.

Hell — you mean that wasn’t just a terribly boring nightmare?

Nightmare or not, the return of Everton means the return of our prediction league as well — so before we look ahead to Everton’s match this week against West Ham, let’s quickly review our predictions from the Burnley match of October 5.

It was no doubt a bad week for Everton, but it was a good week for Rachel and I, who both got the final outcome of the match correct. Calvin and Brian F. both also had Burnley winning.

No one correctly predicted Jeff Hendrick to open the scoring or Yerry Mina as Everton’s man of the match.

Those results put a moderate level of separation into our prediction league table for the first time this season.

Rachel and I were atop the table heading into the week, so the 1-0 Burnley win launched us both well ahead of the rest of the pack.

To keep our place there, we’ll need to keep up our good form when Everton takes on West Ham. The Hammers have recovered relatively well from their 5-0 bludgeoning at the hands of Manchester City on opening day, currently sitting in eighth place.

What do our writers think of another visit from a mid-table team then? The answer shouldn’t really surprise you.

As has been the case for much of the season, we’re pretty evenly split between pessimism, realism, and optimism. This week, we’ve got five Everton wins, four West Ham wins, and four draws — doesn’t get much more even than that. A 1-1 draw and 2-1 Everton victory are the most popular results.

First scorer voting is pretty split. Richarlison and Gylfi Sigurdsson lead the way with three votes a piece, while West Ham attackers Andriy Yarmolenko and Sebastien Haller each have two votes. Lucas Digne, Dominic Calvert-Lewin, and Mark Noble each received one vote.

Man of the match voting is pretty divided as well. Richarlison is once again the clear leader with four votes, while Digne, Jordan Pickford, and Andre Gomes each have two. Alex Iwobi, last week’s winner Yerry Mina, and the fill-in right-back Djibril Sidibe each received one vote.