Everton vs Chelsea: Writer Prediction League

In this space, I usually do some sort of creative introduction of Everton’s last match in a way that links to the club’s next match. You don’t want to think about the Liverpool match anymore than I do, so let’s do away with the pretense for this week.

We’ll look ahead to Duncan Ferguson’s first match in charge against Chelsea in a little bit, but let’s get the review of our picks from the derby out of the way first.

All of us but Zach had Liverpool winning the match, though none of us had a 5-2 scoreline. Klopp’s squad rotation destroyed our first goalscorer predictions, as none of us anticipated Divock Origi starting this match, much less scoring the opener.

Brian F. and Chris both correctly had Richarlison as Everton’s man of the match.

Those results didn’t create much change in our prediction league table.

That takes us to this weekend’s match against Chelsea at Goodison Park, where Duncan Ferguson will lead the Toffees. It’s a weird situation against a team that’s had some struggles of late, though has been pretty good on the whole this season.

The strangeness leaked into our predictions for this one, which were a little more optimistic than I’d anticipated.

Four writers actually picked Everton to win, with another two predicting a draw. It is worth noting that our more pessimistic writers are significantly pessimistic though — four of the seven who predicted a Chelsea win have Frank Lampard’s side winning by multiple goals.

Christian Pulisic is the most popular choice to open the scoring (betraying our staff’s largely American bias, perhaps). Tammy Abraham and Richarlison also tallied three votes.

Of course, my personal favorite selection comes from Brian L., who foresees Big Dunc inserting himself into the match, scoring the first goal, and coming out as Everton’s man of the match!

On the serious side, Richarlison again ran away with MOTM voting — he picked up five votes. Dominic Calvert-Lewin, Anthony Gordon, Moise Kean, Bernard, and Tom Davies each got one vote. Djibril Sidibe received two.