Everton vs Arsenal: Writer Prediction League

On November 24, Everton defeated Cardiff City 1-0 and found itself sitting in sixth place 13 weeks into the Premier League season. It began to feel like maybe, just maybe, this could be the breakthrough season for the Toffees.

After taking 22 points from its first available 39, Everton hit a wall. From its next 42 available points, Marco Silva’s team took just 11, driving the pessimism surrounding the club to a season high.

And yet, after once again defeating Cardiff City, Everton has 10 points from its last 15, and optimism has been restored at Goodison Park, especially following a thorough dismantling of West Ham United last weekend. That optimism seems to have infected our writers heading into this weekend’s home match against Arsenal.

Before we look ahead to just how optimistic we’re feeling though, let’s take one last look at the glorious annihilation of the Hammers, and how our picks for that match came through.

It was a big week for our five optimists who picked Everton to win — especially Sean, who had the 2-0 scoreline correct as well. Unsurprisingly, no one had Kurt Zouma opening the scoring, but Chris did have Bernard correct as the Everton man of the match.

This result did lead to a bit of a mid-table shakeup in our prediction league table.

Sean and Chris both used big weeks to jump from the lower third to middle third, while Rachel’s meteoric rise from the foot of the table continued, with her now in a tie for second place.

The likelihood of anyone catching Calvin at the top is diminishing quickly though, as he still holds his 10-point lead with just six weeks to play.

Much like Rachel, Everton is in the midst of a hot streak that no one could have seen coming based on recent form — and the Toffees put that good form to the test against the top-six Gunners this weekend. Our picks for that match are below.

Three writers predicted an Everton victory, with another five calling a draw against Arsenal. That’s two-thirds of our writers predicting at least a point for the Toffees against a top-six team — a level of confidence that would have been incomprehensible just a month ago.