Everton at Manchester United: Writer Prediction League

What is this strange feeling that permeates the proverbial Royal Blue Mersey writers’ room? Is this... optimism?

Well, it might not be full-fledged optimism, but Everton’s 3-1 victory over Chelsea last weekend left us feeling feelings of joy for the first time in awhile. Do we think it’s sustainable long term? Well... let’s just enjoy what we have while we have it, okay?

The Toffees’ reward for that hard-fought victory is a trip to Old Trafford to face a resurgent Manchester United side which just this month has beaten Tottenham Hotspur and Manchester City, as well as winning their Europa League group. United remain a beatable side with clear flaws, but Everton’s away form is, as always, the elephant in the room.

But before we look ahead to that match, let’s bask in the glory of Saturday’s victory over Chelsea one more time.

Four hopeful writers predicted an Everton win in this one and were summarily rewarded — though none were so bold as to choose a 3-1 scoreline. Calvin, Pete, and Tom all got Richarlison right as the opening goalscorer, and Brian F. correctly predicted that Dominic Calvert-Lewin would be Everton’s man of the match.

With those results tallied, our prediction league standings are as follows.

Despite picking up no points, I remain atop the table, though Brian L.’s correct prediction of an Everton victory moved him into a tie for second place with Rachel. Tom and Matthew C.’s big weeks moved them into striking distance of the leader as well.

That brings us to this week’s match against fifth-placed Manchester United, which has a relatively unique set of predictions.

Of the 11 writers to make their predictions by the time of writing, seven predict a draw between the Toffees and Red Devils. In all the years we’ve done this, I can’t recall another time that a draw was the favored outcome by such a wide margin.

The other four writers have Manchester United winning, all by just a single goal. The takeaway, I suppose then, is that we are relatively confident about Everton’s overall form, but the away nature of this match will just be a little too much to overcome.

The opening scorer category contains primarily the usual suspects from among these two teams. Marcus Rashford leads the way with four votes, while Richarlison is right behind him with three. Alex Iwobi, Gyfli Sigurdsson, and Anthony Martial each earned a vote as well.

The Everton man of the match voting is also tilted pretty heavily toward two players. Richarlison leads the way there with five votes, while his strike partner from the last match, Dominic Calvert-Lewin, has three. Iwobi, Djibril Sidibe, and Jordan Pickford each were selected once.