Everton vs Crystal Palace: Writer Prediction League

I like to joke about how bad our writers (myself included) are at predicting Everton matches, but last week’s showdown against Watford put on display just how difficult a job it is.

Adam Masina opening the scoring? Yerry Mina scoring twice? Theo Walcott actually scoring? C’mon, how can anybody actually do this with any regular accuracy?!

It should come as no surprise then that our writers didn’t pick up very many points this week.

Brian L., Matt A., Rachel, and Zach each correctly had Everton winning the match, and earned two points on Walcott’s late winner — though none by the correct scoreline.

That was it for the points this week, which gave us yet another shift in second place in our prediction league standings.

Rachel jumped back into second over Brian F., while I still lead despite three consecutive matches with zero points.

This week, our crew gets to try their luck with Everton hosting Crystal Palace, a club that hasn’t won across all competitions since Boxing Day. Given the Eagles’ poor form and Everton’s recent good run, there’s a lot of confidence in the Toffees heading into this weekend.

Only Brian F. has Everton not winning — he foresees a 1-1 draw. As for the rest of us, it’s Everton victories across the board.

2-0 is a very popular scoreline, with five writers predicting it. 2-1 and 1-0 also got multiple votes.

Dominic Calvert-Lewin dominates the first scorer category, with eight of the available 12 votes. Theo Walcott, Richarlison, and Bernard have the others.

There’s much more variety in the man of the match voting, where Calvert-Lewin also leads the way, along with Richarlison. Both members of the strike partnership earned three votes. Alex Iwobi was the only other player to earn multiple votes.