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Remember the time that Everton played away against an already-relegated team that might wind up with the worse defensive record in Premier League history and lost 2-0?
Nope! Me neither!
But, if such a defeat were to have happened, it would have happened last week against Fulham at Craven Cottage. It would have somehow included goals from Tom Cairney and Ryan Babel. And it would have represented the Toffees somehow throwing away an incredible chance to make their Europa League dream a reality.
And, if such a match had happened, our predictions for it might have looked like this.
Fulham Predictions
| Writer | First Scorer | Everton MOTM | Winner | Score | Points |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Writer | First Scorer | Everton MOTM | Winner | Score | Points |
| Adam B. | Sigurdsson | Sigurdsson | Everton | 3-1 | 0 |
| Brian F. | Calvert-Lewin | Calvert-Lewin | Everton | 2-1 | 0 |
| Brian L. | Calvert-Lewin | Bernard | Everton | 2-1 | 0 |
| Calvin | Calvert-Lewin | Gomes | Everton | 2-1 | 0 |
| Chris | Richarlison | Richarlison | Everton | 3-0 | 0 |
| Geno | Calvert-Lewin | Calvert-Lewin | Everton | 3-0 | 0 |
| Matt A. | Coleman | Richarlison | Everton | 2-1 | 0 |
| Matthew C. | Richarlison | Calvert-Lewin | Everton | 2-0 | 0 |
| Pete | Richarlison | Richarlison | Everton | 3-0 | 0 |
| Rachel | Calvert-Lewin | Bernard | Everton | 2-0 | 0 |
| Sean | Richarlison | Gomes | Everton | 3-0 | 0 |
| Tom | Bernard | Bernard | Everton | 3-0 | 0 |
| Zach | Calvert-Lewin | Richarlison | Everton | 3-1 | 0 |
None of us would have predicted that Cairney would open the scoring, nor that Lucas Digne would be Everton’s man of the match. Why would we predict such a thing anyway? Fulham’s defense is horrid, and surely the forwards would put up goals in such a game, right?
Well, evidently not.
The good news for all Everton supporters is that this Fulham match definitely did not happen, though there is a weird two-hour gap in my memory from last Saturday. Weird.
At any rate, Everton takes on Manchester United at Goodison Park this weekend, still clinging to a faint Europa League dream. The Red Devils are coming off an elimination in the Champions League by Lionel Messi and Barcelona, meaning their only hope of securing Champions League football next season is via finishing in the top four.
United remain two points behind Arsenal for the last CL spot, and come to Goodison in decidedly spotty form. But, if you’ve got Paul Pogba, Anthony Martial, and Marcus Rashford, you’ve always got a pretty good chance to win.
These disparate factors heading into this match — especially Everton’s form following that weird bye week last week during which the club definitely did not kill all its momentum by losing to Fulham — have created a pretty wide spread of predictions among our writers.
Manchester United Predictions
| Writer | First Scorer | Everton MOTM | Winner | Score | Points |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Writer | First Scorer | Everton MOTM | Winner | Score | Points |
| Adam B. | Calvert-Lewin | Bernard | Draw | 1-1 | 0 |
| Brian F. | Lukaku | Davies | United | 2-1 | 0 |
| Brian L. | Pogba | Davies | United | 2-1 | 0 |
| Calvin | Rashford | Gueye | Draw | 2-2 | 0 |
| Chris | Pogba | Digne | United | 3-0 | 0 |
| Geno | Rashford | Gueye | United | 2-1 | 0 |
| Matt A. | Pogba | Digne | United | 2-1 | 0 |
| Matthew C. | Rashford | Gueye | Draw | 1-1 | 0 |
| Pete | Richarlison | Digne | Everton | 1-0 | 3 |
| Rachel | Pogba | Sigurdsson | Everton | 2-1 | 3 |
| Sean | Pogba | Gueye | Everton | 2-1 | 2 |
| Tom | Richarlison | Gueye | Draw | 2-2 | 1 |
| Zach | Rashford | Gueye | Draw | 1-1 | 0 |
Our 13 writers are pretty evenly split among all possibilities — five have United winning, five predict a draw, and three have Everton coming out on top.