:format(webp)/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_image/image/64987722/1139685826.jpg.0.jpg)
The Premier League is back, and with it Everton’s 2019-20 season is about to begin. As such, it’s time for your favorite Everton bloggers do what they do best — that’s right, it’s time for the highly inaccurate RBM Writer Prediction League to return.
Each week, our highly skilled crew will prove that though they’re great writers and analysts, prognosticating is not our strong suit (myself included). For each Everton match, our contributors submit the following, and receive the indicated number of points for guessing correctly:
- Opening goalscorer: 1 point
- Everton man of the match: 1 point
- Winning team (or draw): 2 points
- Final score: 2 points
That means a maximum of 6 points is available each week, though the perfect week is a pretty rare sight around this parts. With 38 Premier League games, the maximum possible season score is 228 — last year, Calvin won the league with 64.
What I’m trying to say is, don’t take us too seriously.
With all that said, let’s take a look ahead at our first set of predictions. This week, Everton travels to Selhurst Park to take on Crystal Palace — a club in no small amount of chaos after its biggest star, Wilfried Zaha, submitted a transfer request that was subsequently ignored.
Crystal Palace Predictions
| Writer | First Scorer | Everton MOTM | Winner | Score | Points |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Writer | First Scorer | Everton MOTM | Winner | Score | Points |
| Adam B. | Richarlison | Richarlison | Draw | 1-1 | 2 |
| Brian F. | Richarlison | Digne | Draw | 1-1 | 2 |
| Brian L. | Calvert-Lewin | Richarlison | Everton | 2-1 | 0 |
| Calvin | Richarlison | Richarlison | Everton | 2-1 | 0 |
| Chris | Calvert-Lewin | Digne | Everton | 1-0 | 0 |
| Geno | Sigurdsson | Calvert-Lewin | Everton | 2-1 | 0 |
| Matt A. | Sigurdsson | Sigurdsson | Everton | 2-1 | 0 |
| Matthew C. | Zaha | Richarlison | Draw | 2-2 | 2 |
| Pat | Sigurdsson | Digne | Everton | 2-1 | 0 |
| Pete | None | Digne | Draw | 0-0 | 5 |
| Rachel | None | Gomes | Draw | 0-0 | 5 |
| Tom | Sigurdsson | Gomes | Everton | 2-0 | 0 |
| Zach | Richarlison | Sigurdsson | Everton | 3-0 | 0 |
None of us have Palace winning, which I suppose is fair given the uncertainty surrounding the Zaha situation and that their biggest incoming transfers were Gary Cahill and James McCarthy.
Five of us do have the match ending in a draw though — a reflection on the yet-to-be-integrated status of Everton’s newest signings, I’d wager. For the rest, an Everton victory is in the cards, with 2-1 the most common scoreline.
Two of our writers who predicted draws foresee a 0-0 scoreline, meaning they’ve predicted the classic “none” as the opening goalscorer. Dominic Calvert-Lewin has two votes as well, with Richarlison and Gylfi Sigurdsson tied with four votes a piece.
Richarlison also leads the way in man of the match predictions, joint-top that group with Lucas Digne, who also has four votes. Calvert-Lewin, Sigurdsson, and Andre Gomes also received votes.