Everton at Bournemouth: Writer Prediction League

The interminable first international break of the season is officially over, and Everton is back following its exciting win against Wolves two weeks ago!

The Toffees have been a tough unit to predict so far this season — they opened with a strong defense and anemic attack, then caught us all off guard with their performances against Aston Villa and Wolves. That puts our writers in a tough spot this week, as they try to make some sense of what Marco Silva’s side might do against AFC Bournemouth on Sunday.

But before we try to figure any of that out, let’s take a look back at the exhilarating victory against Wolves — and our predictions for that match.

A solid six of our writers correctly predicted that Everton would win the match, but certainly none of us foresaw the 3-2 goalfest that broke out at Goodison Park. Similarly, five of us correctly had Richarlison opening the scoring, though none of us picked him as our man of the match — an award he locked up by scoring the late match-winner.

With those results, we’re already seeing tiers form in our prediction league standings.

Pete and Rachel have continued their hot start to the season, while Chris and Geno are still on the hunt for a single solitary point.

They’ll have a chance to make up some ground this week when Everton heads to the Vitality Stadium to take on Eddie Howe’s AFC Bournemouth. It hasn’t exactly been a fortuitous start to the season for the Cherries, who have four points through three matches, with results including a 1-1 draw at home to start the season against Sheffield United, and a 3-1 loss at Leicester City before the international break.

But, we are talking about Everton away from Goodison Park here, so there’s always reasonable doubt to creep into the minds of our writers — let’s take a look at what they foresee from this one.

Seven of our 13 writers predict an Everton victory in this one, interestingly all by the score of 2-1. Only Matt A. has Bournemouth taking all three points, also by a 2-1 scoreline.

The opening goalscorer column is a pretty mixed bag. Richarlison leads the way with four votes, but Moise Kean and Bournemouth’s Josh King each have three votes, with Alex Iwobi, Callum Wilson, and Gylfi Sigurdsson also getting a vote.

The Everton MOTM voting is pretty split as well. Again Richarlison is atop the category, this time with three votes — tied with Kean. Fabian Delph got two votes after his strong performance against Wolves, with Alex Iwobi also picking up two votes. Lucas Digne, Andre Gomes, and Sigurdsson also appear.