A new year is upon us, the January transfer window is officially about to open and there are 18 rounds of English Premiership matches remaining, with Liverpool daring to believe, writes GARY LEMKE.

The first game of 2019 sees Everton take on Leicester, with the visitors arriving in better form than the hosts, who have won only one of their last seven games, while Leicester have won three in that period. Both lost at the weekend though, poor defeats at face value, losing 1-0 to Brighton and Cardiff respectively. I think home ground advantage will count an extra goal, and for that reason alone have gone for the 2-1 win to Everton.

The two other matches on the first day of January are Arsenal at home to a Fulham team that are now unbeaten in their last three games and steadily improving under the managerial skills of Claudio Ranieri. The Gunners are still reeling from the 5-1 shellacking at the hands of Liverpool, and after their own unbeaten streak it’s now apparent that all their troubles weren’t down to Arsene Wenger alone.

Arsenal’s problem is their defence, and only Manchester United have conceded more goals (32) than the Gunners (30) in the top half of the table from the opening 20 matches. Fulham, meanwhile, have the leakiest defence in the League (43), so there should be goals in this game.

However, we are tip-toeing around the big game of this round – and possibly match of the season to date. Log leaders Liverpool travel to the Etihad to meet a Manchester City side that was being touted as probable champions until the wheels fell off alarmingly in December. Heading into Wednesday’s night encounter, City find themselves seven points adrift of Liverpool, who have won 17 of their 20 fixtures. They have only conceded eight goals in those games and have a goal difference of 40, which is to say their average result is two goals better than their opposition.

It’s the crossroads for City this week. Should they lose at home, the gap will be 10 points and Liverpool will be hard to reel in from that distance. For Pep Guardiola’s men, who got back on the winning trail by beating Southampton 3-1, this game takes on a Cup-tie feel. The bookies have actually made them even money favourites to inflict a first defeat on Jurgen Klopp’s men, but there will be plenty betting against a home win.

Manchester United’s rebirth under Ole Gunnar Solskjaer continued with an impressive 4-1 win over Bournemouth, to add to big wins over Cardiff and Huddersfield. Newcastle present yet another soft touch for United, but for those already anointing Solskjaer as the real deal, it’s worth noting that he hasn’t had a clean sheet so far in games against out-matched opponents. Newcastle, however, have a pop-gun attack and only bottom-placed Huddersfield have scored fewer times, which is why I’ve gone for a more routine 2-0 win to United here.

The most common scorelines so far this season are:

33 times: 2-1
30 times: 2-0
29 times: 1-0
24 times: 3-1
17 times: 1-1
13 times: 0-0
10 times: 3-0, 3-2
9 times: 2-2
7 times: 4-0
5 times: 4-2
4 times: 5-1, 4-1
3 times: 5-0
2 times: 6-1
1 time: 6-2

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

Everton vs Leicester
Dylan Appolis (115/200): 2-2
Gary Lemke (112/200): 2-1
Juandre Joubert (109/200): 1-1
Wade Pretorius (108/200): 2-1
Dean Workman (103/200): 1-1

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Newcastle vs Man United
Dylan Appolis: 0-2
Gary Lemke: 0-2
Juandre Joubert: 1-3
Wade Pretorius: 1-2
Dean Workman: 1-2

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

Lemke is the 2017/18 EPL Superbru Global champion