Andy Burnham makes brilliant Dominic Calvert-Lewin prediction ahead of Leeds United vs Everton
Th Greater Manchester Mayor is a fan of Leeds United's Monday night opponents Everton.
Greater Manchester Mayor and Everton fan Andy Burnham has joked that a Dominic Calvert-Lewin hat-trick is ‘incoming’ to cap off a difficult week for himself.
Calvert-Lewin left Everton following the expiration of his contract in the summer, calling time on a nine-year spell with the Merseyside club. The 28-year-old eventually joined Leeds and has been in some of the best form of his career under Daniel Farke, with nine Premier League goals to his name this season.
Having missed the opening-weekend win against his old club, Calvert-Lewin was named in the starting-XI to face Everton at the Hill Dickinson Stadium on Monday. He’s one goal away from hitting double figures and will surely be desperate to reach that milestone against his former teammates.
One individual who will have a keen eye on Monday’s game is Burnham, the mayor of Greater Manchester and a well-known Toffee. Over the weekend, the 56-year-old was blocked by prime minister Keir Starmer from quitting his current job and making a return to the labour party as an MP.
Starmer said of the decision: “Andy Burnham’s doing a great job as the mayor of Manchester, but having an election for the mayor of Manchester when it’s not necessary would divert our resources away from the elections that we must have, that we must fight and win.
“And resources, whether that’s money or people, need to be focused on the elections that we must have, not elections that we don’t have to have. And that was the basis of the NEC (national executive committee) decision.”
And Burnham joked that it would be typical of his recent fortunes if Leeds’ main man tormented his former club this evening. In a post on X, he wrote: “Given the weekend I’ve had it feels very much like a Dominic Calvert-Lewin hat-trick is now incoming.”
Calvert-Lewin will be delighted with just the one goal, so long as it proves enough for Leeds to take three points from the Hill Dickinson Stadium. And Farke admitted that while his striker is motivated to score, his main focus is helping to get the result.
“He’s also experienced enough to not be over-motivated or just thinking about himself,” Farke told Sky Sports. “He’s an unselfish player anyway. Of course, like all strikers he is also always desperate to score but he’s more or less focused to help the team and this is definitely what we need tonight.”