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Everton’s victory over West Ham United last weekend — a decisive one at that — has put our writers in a bit of a bind.
What do you trust more? Everton’s improved form, or their historical incompetence away from Goodison Park?
That’s the question as the Toffees hit the road to play away to Brighton & Hove Albion this weekend. Before we get to our predictions for that match though — maybe the most interesting set of predictions we’ve had so far this season — let’s quickly review the West Ham outcome.
West Ham Predictions
| Writer | First Scorer | Everton MOTM | Winner | Score | Points |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Writer | First Scorer | Everton MOTM | Winner | Score | Points |
| Adam B. | Digne | Digne | Draw | 1-1 | 0 |
| Brian F. | Haller | Digne | West Ham | 2-1 | 0 |
| Brian L. | Calvert-Lewin | Richarlison | Everton | 1-0 | 2 |
| Calvin | Richarlison | Richarlison | Everton | 2-1 | 2 |
| Chris | Noble | Sidibe | West Ham | 2-0 | 0 |
| Geno | Haller | Richarlison | West Ham | 3-1 | 0 |
| Matt A. | Richarlison | Pickford | Draw | 1-1 | 0 |
| Matthew C. | Yarmolenko | Mina | Draw | 1-1 | 0 |
| Pat | Sigurdsson | Gomes | Draw | 2-2 | 1 |
| Pete | Richarlison | Richarlison | Everton | 2-1 | 2 |
| Rachel | Yarmolenko | Iwobi | West Ham | 1-0 | 0 |
| Tom | Sigurdsson | Gomes | Everton | 2-0 | 5 |
| Zach | Sigurdsson | Pickford | Everton | 1-0 | 2 |
It was a good week for our resident optimists — chief among them Tom, who had the Everton man of the match and final outcome correct, netting him five points. Pat was the only other writer to successfully predict Andre Gomes would be voted man of the match, while several other writers had Everton winning by different scorelines.
That strong week has given Tom a major push up the prediction league table.
2019-20 RBM Prediction League Table
| Writer | Points |
|---|---|
| Writer | Points |
| Adam B. | 43 |
| Matthew C. | 43 |
| Rachel | 42 |
| Matt A. | 40 |
| Brian F. | 38 |
| Tom | 35 |
| Pete | 34 |
| Calvin | 34 |
| Zach | 32 |
| Brian L. | 31 |
| Chris | 26 |
| Pat | 26 |
| Geno | 17 |
Tom joins me, Rachel, Pete, Calvin, and Brian L. in the Land of Double Digit Points™, though Rachel and I still hold a reasonable lead over the rest of the pack. At the other end of the table, Chris remains in last with an impossibly bad two points through nine Premier League matches — his only two points were earned via predicting Manchester City’s victory over the Toffees.
He and the rest of our writers have a chance to pick up more points this week with Everton away to Brighton — those picks are below.
Brighton Predictions
| Writer | First Scorer | Everton MOTM | Winner | Score | Points |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Writer | First Scorer | Everton MOTM | Winner | Score | Points |
| Adam B. | None | Keane | Draw | 0-0 | 0 |
| Brian F. | Richarlison | Davies | Draw | 1-1 | 0 |
| Brian L. | Richarlison | Gomes | Everton | 1-0 | 0 |
| Calvin | Richarlison | Iwobi | Everton | 2-1 | 0 |
| Chris | Richarlison | Richarlison | Draw | 1-1 | 0 |
| Geno | Richarlison | Iwobi | Everton | 2-1 | 0 |
| Matt A. | Maupay | Pickford | Everton | 2-1 | 0 |
| Matthew C. | Richarlison | Digne | Draw | 1-1 | 0 |
| Pat | Iwobi | Digne | Everton | 3-1 | 0 |
| Pete | None | Pickford | Draw | 0-0 | 0 |
| Rachel | Bernard | Gomes | Everton | 1-0 | 0 |
| Tom | Richarlison | Iwobi | Everton | 2-1 | 0 |
| Zach | Richarlison | Richarlison | Everton | 2-0 | 0 |
Everton has exactly one away point this season, and you have to go back to March 30 for the last time the Toffees won away from Goodison, and yet, none of our writers have BHA winning this one. In fact, a majority of us (eight) have Everton winning the match.
The rest of us have a draw, including two 0-0 predictions.
Richarlison is the runaway favorite to open the scoring, a reasonable prediction given the Brazilian led the line last week. Man of the match voting is a little more scattered.
Alex Iwobi leads the way with three votes, while Andre Gomes, Richarlison, Jordan Pickford, and Lucas Digne each have two votes. Michael Keane and Tom Davies each also received one vote.