Everton at Burnley: Writer Prediction League

Our writers didn’t have particularly high expectations of Everton heading into their match against Manchester City last weekend, and despite what was a reasonably well-received performance, our overall outlooks on the result were relatively accurate.

The Toffees lost 3-1 against Pep Guardiola’s side — a final tally with no shame in it given the strength of the opposition, and that City should probably consider itself lucky that it came away with a two-goal victory.

Playing Manchester City is an entirely different proposition than playing Burnley though, as Everton over the last 20 or so Premier League matches has wandered into this strange, Twilight Zone realm where less talented teams are actually scarier than the more talented ones.

Recent struggles in matches such as this one have significantly darkened our writers’ views on the upcoming match — but first, let’s review their picks from the Manchester City match.

Geno and I were the big winners this week, with each of us correctly predicting the 3-1 City victory. Calvin’s gamble on Gabriel Jesus paid off, as the Brazilian striker started ahead of Sergio Aguero and opened the scoring.

Seamus Coleman was voted man of the match, picked by none of our writers.

With those results, we’ve got a new face atop the prediction league table.

It’s me. It’s my face.

My four-point week just nudged me ahead of Rachel, who sits one point behind. Pete, both Matthews, and Brian L. sit just one good week’s results behind, so the race is still wide open in the early-going.

And anything could happen with Everton’s trip to Turf Moor to take on Burnley this weekend, as our predictions pretty much cover the entire spectrum of possibilities.

Our Winner votes are nearly as evenly spread as possible — five have an Everton victory, four a Burnley victory, and four a draw. 2-1 is the most popular scoreline for both an Everton and Burnley victory, with 1-1 the preferred outcome for those predicting a draw.

We’ve got a little more uniformity in the opening goalscorer column — Richarlison leads the way with five votes, while Burnley’s Ashley Barnes has three. No other player has more than one vote — and we’ve even got my favorite vote for this category in play this week as well, none!

Richarlison predictably leads the way in man of the match voting as well, with Jordan Pickford the only other player to pick up multiple votes.