What a difference a week makes. Liverpool are going to win the English Premiership and Manchester United are top four certainties, writes GARY LEMKE.
That is, of course, not my opinion, but that of the armies of Liverpool and United supporters who are bouncing after results went their way at the weekend. United went from a straitjacketed, sterile XI to playing with a smile on their faces as Ole Gunnar Solskjaer ushered in a new era with a 5-1 victory over a hapless Cardiff City.
At the same time Liverpool, for whom Virgil van Dijk is now being lauded as a combination of John Terry, Rio Ferdinand and Nemanja Vidic all rolled into one, opened up a four-point gap at the top of the table after Man City lost 3-2 at home to Crystal Palace, while Chelsea’s top four hopes took a dent when losing 1-0 to Leicester, in London.
It was carnage before Christmas, but the one thing I managed to do was suggest that Fulham would be bottom at this stage of the season. Only three clubs have previously beaten the ‘Curse of Christmas’ and escaped relegation after being bottom of the log at this stage.
Which brings us to the traditional ‘Boxing Day’ round of fixtures. History has showed us that these are difficult times to get an exact score on Superbru and I can see plenty of red and green arrows on the various group leaderboards. History also suggests that there are plenty of goals, and perhaps United’s 5-1 win and the 6-2 victory by Tottenham over Everton in the last round were precursors to what to expect this round.
Fulham kept a clean sheet for the first time this season with a goalless draw away to Newcastle, and in terms of an upset I’m calling the bottom-placed club to do so again and actually get all three points off Wolves, while the majority will be looking for a comfortable away win.
Given that Man United hit five past Cardiff and are at home to Huddersfield, this is a match where the home side could bang home plenty at Old Trafford, although I’ve ‘only’ gone for 3-0. Cardiff actually were poor at the weekend, and travel to London where they face a Palace side brimming with confidence after their win at the Etihad. Surely, Palace to beat Cardiff must be a safe bet?
Chelsea face a potential banana skin away to Watford, but Tottenham should keep their momentum at home to Bournemouth.
All the while, however, Liverpool have that four-point cushion and should still have it because they face a Newcastle side which is struggling to find the goals, and can’t be expected to hold out against a free-flowing home team at Anfield for the full 90 minutes.
You will see below that in terms of the most common scorelines, four scenarios have started to pull away from the pack. As winter’s chill continues to sweep over Europe, the only other ‘danger’ to these scores in the second half of the season for me is the 1-1, so, Boxing Day apart, I think you should be packing your selections for the remainder with 1-0, 2-0, 2-1 and 1-1, and these will become even more the ‘norm’ – and you can be sure there will be more goalless draws in the second half than the 12 we saw in the first.
The most common scorelines so far this season are:
30 times: 2-1
29 times: 2-0
24 times: 1-0
21 times: 3-1
14 times: 1-1
12 times: 0-0
10 times: 3-0, 3-2
9 times: 2-2
6 times: 4-0
5 times: 4-2
3 times: 4-1
2 times: 5-0, 5-1, 6-1
1 time: 6-2
Here are the SportsClub team’s predictions for this week’s round of fixtures.
Fulham vs Wolves
Dylan Appolis (103/170): 0-1
Gary Lemke (102/170): 1-0
Juandre Joubert (97/170): 1-2
Wade Pretorius (94/170):
Dean Workman (89/170): 1-1
Crystal Palace vs Cardiff
Dylan Appolis (103/170): 1-1
Gary Lemke (102/170): 2-0
Juandre Joubert (97/170): 1-1
Wade Pretorius (94/170):
Dean Workman (89/170): 2-1
Leicester vs Man City
Dylan Appolis: 1-3
Gary Lemke: 0-3
Juandre Joubert: 1-2
Wade Pretorius:
Dean Workman: 1-3
Man Utd vs Huddersfield
Dylan Appolis: 2-0
Gary Lemke: 3-0
Juandre Joubert: 1-0
Wade Pretorius:
Dean Workman: 2-0
Liverpool vs Newcastle
Dylan Appolis: 3-0
Gary Lemke: 2-0
Juandre Joubert: 2-0
Wade Pretorius:
Dean Workman: 3-1
Burnley vs Everton
Dylan Appolis: 0-1
Gary Lemke: 1-1
Juandre Joubert: 0-1
Wade Pretorius:
Dean Workman: 1-1
Tottenham vs Bournemouth
Dylan Appolis: 2-1
Gary Lemke: 3-1
Juandre Joubert: 2-0
Wade Pretorius:
Dean Workman: 2-1
Brighton vs Arsenal
Dylan Appolis: 0-2
Gary Lemke: 0-2
Juandre Joubert: 1-2
Wade Pretorius:
Dean Workman: 1-2
Watford vs Chelsea
Dylan Appolis: 1-3
Gary Lemke: 1-2
Juandre Joubert: 1-2
Wade Pretorius:
Dean Workman: 1-2
Southampton vs West Ham
Dylan Appolis: 1-0
Gary Lemke: 1-1
Juandre Joubert: 1-1
Wade Pretorius:
Dean Workman: 2-2
Lemke is the 2017/18 EPL Superbru Global champion
