Everton vs Manchester City: Writer Prediction League

When Everton’s schedule was released over the summer, the general consensus was “well, we’ll have it pretty easy until the Manchester City match at the end of September, but we should pick up plenty of points before that presumably rough match.”

We were half right.

Coming off the back of its 8-0 obliteration of Watford FC, a visit from Pep Guardiola’s side looks as intimidating as ever. But, Everton didn’t make good on the first half of that presupposition — with seven points through six matches, the Toffees sit in 14th place and just three points out of the relegation zone at this early stage of the season.

No one here is legitimately concerned Everton will get pulled into a relegation battle, mind, but we certainly wouldn’t have predicted results like last week’s 2-0 loss at home against Sheffield United either. Let’s take a quick look at our outlandishly incorrect predictions from that match.

Let’s spend as little time dwelling on that as humanly possible.

No points for us this week means no change in our prediction league standings.

Pete still leads the way, with Chris and Geno still hilariously devoid of points after six matches.

That said, this feels like maybe the easiest prediction of the season so far, with an in-form City on the fixture list with Everton looking anything but in-form. As a result, our predictions are not a pretty sight. Avert your eyes from the below if you’re faint of heart.

Three brave (stupid?) souls have predicted an Everton draw in this one — and I can in some ways see the appeal. City’s possession-based playing style will allow Everton to really commit to the high press, and Pep is so low on center-backs that his likely duo in the center of defense is Nicolás Otamendi and Fernandinho. Surely Everton can find a goal or two here?

The rest of us, though can’t get around the fact that City also have attackers like Sergio Aguero, Gabriel Jesus, Raheem Sterling, and Bernardo Silva — all of whom feature in the opening goalscorer column.

The Everton man of the match selection is a hodgepodge of guessing, given that for the most part we don’t expect the Toffees to show particularly well. Jordan Pickford leads the way with four votes (never a good sign), while Tom Davies, Moise Kean, Lucas Digne, Richarlison, and Alex Iwobi feature as well.