Either Fulham or Huddersfield will be bottom of the English Premier League at Christmas, which means that one of those teams will be relegated at the end of the season, writes GARY LEMKE.

At first glance, to those who don’t follow the EPL that closely, it might sound a wild statement, given only 18 of the 38 rounds – one short of the halfway mark – will have been played. However, history shows that in the 25 seasons of the League, only three teams who have been bottom of the log at Christmas have gone on to survive.

For Fulham not to be bottom at Christmas they need to beat Newcastle away from home and hope that Huddersfield don’t beat Southampton. But in assessing this weekend I can’t see any Christmas cheer for either struggler and have them both to lose 2-1 on Superbru. This would be an upset if Southampton did just that, but they have new momentum following the sacking of Mark Hughes as manager.

Fulham also have a relatively new manager, but Claudio Ranieri has been unable to plug a defence that has leaked an average of 2.5 goals per match. And Newcastle are a resilient if dull team at home and should be good enough to get the job done. I’ve got 1-0 in their favour.

At the other end of the table, Liverpool have a potentially tricky match away to Wolves, but the Reds are bouncing along at the top of the table and Jurgen Klopp can claim to have ‘sacked’ Jose Mourinho after the 3-1 shellacking last weekend. One can’t see Liverpool slipping up, given the momentum they have, while the same can be said for Manchester City who are home to Crystal Palace, and for this game it would again seem to be a matter of how many goals the home side are going to score.

Man United now start life without Mourinho. And Ole Gunnar Solskjaer couldn’t have wished for a gentler introduction away to Cardiff. In fact, United have a tasty looking four upcoming matches over the holiday period. Mourinho will be rueing the fact that he was shown the door ahead of this run of fixtures, but that’s the cut-throat nature of modern sport.

In terms of any upsets this round I’ve gone for Southampton to win away at Huddersfield, and Everton to hold high-flying Tottenham.

The most common scorelines so far this season are:

30 times: 2-1
26 times: 2-0
23 times: 1-0
19 times: 3-1
14 times: 1-1
11 times: 0-0
10 times: 3-0
9 times: 2-2, 3-2
6 times: 4-0
5 times: 4-2
3 times: 4-1
2 times: 5-0, 6-1
1 time: 5-1

Here are the SportsClub team’s predictions for this week’s round of fixtures.

Cardiff vs Man United
Dylan Appolis (97/170): 2-0
Gary Lemke (97/170): 0-2
Juandre Joubert (95/170): 1-2
Wade Pretorius (94/170):
Dean Workman (85/170): 1-3

Wolves vs Liverpool
Dylan Appolis: 1-3
Gary Lemke: 0-2
Juandre Joubert : 1-2
Wade Pretorius:
Dean Workman: 1-2

Arsenal vs Burnley
Dylan Appolis: 2-0
Gary Lemke: 2-0
Juandre Joubert: 2-0
Wade Pretorius:
Dean Workman: 3-0

Bournemouth vs Brighton
Dylan Appolis: 1-0
Gary Lemke: 2-1
Juandre Joubert: 1-1
Wade Pretorius:
Dean Workman: 2-1

Chelsea vs Leicester
Dylan Appolis: 2-1
Gary Lemke: 2-1
Juandre Joubert: 2-1
Wade Pretorius:
Dean Workman: 1-0

Huddersfield vs Southampton
Dylan Appolis: 0-1
Gary Lemke: 1-2
Juandre Joubert: 1-1
Wade Pretorius:
Dean Workman: 1-2

Newcastle vs Fulham
Dylan Appolis: 1-1
Gary Lemke: 1-0
Juandre Joubert: 2-0
Wade Pretorius:
Dean Workman: 2-1

West Ham vs Watford
Dylan Appolis: 0-1
Gary Lemke: 2-1
Juandre Joubert: 2-1
Wade Pretorius:
Dean Workman: 1-1

Man City vs Crystal Palace
Dylan Appolis: 3-0
Gary Lemke: 2-0
Juandre Joubert: 3-0
Wade Pretorius:
Dean Workman: 5-0

Everton vs Tottenham
Dylan Appolis:
Gary Lemke: 1-1
Juandre Joubert: 1-1
Wade Pretorius:
Dean Workman:

Lemke is the 2017/18 EPL Superbru Global champion