In recent weeks Jurgen Klopp has kept saying that Mo Salah is going to hit form sooner than later and Liverpool will hope that this is the round where he bounces back to his best, writes GARY LEMKE.

Last season, Salah hit 32 goals from 38 Premiership appearances in a remarkable stretch of form that saw him named as one of three finalists for Fifa Player of the Year, while he also won the award for goal of the year. This season the 26-year-old Egyptian has ‘only’ scored three times from six Premiership matches and hasn’t found the net in the club’s last three games (two against Chelsea) and in the 1-0 Champions League defeat to Napoli during the week.

There is no doubt that he is the central figure in the showpiece match of this EPL round, Sunday’s heavyweight dust-up between Liverpool and Manchester City. Both clubs have shown enough so far to suggest they will be title contenders, in fact, before a ball was kicked this season I called City to win the League, followed by Liverpool, Chelsea, Arsenal, Manchester United and Tottenham.

Results and form are backing up much of that prediction, with the exception of Man United, who are already nine points off the top and simply have to get back on track by beating Newcastle at Old Trafford. Defeat in that match, coming on the back of a 3-1 thumping at West Ham last week and a sterile midweek draw against Valencia will mean the end of Jose Mourinho, no matter what the circling media might say – that is he has been given a lifeline until December to turn things around.

But, this week it’s all about Liverpool and Manchester City and it’s a tough game to call. The easiest thing to do for a Superbru player is to sit on the fence, predict a 1-1 draw and hope that Pep Guardiola’s men will settle for the away point, just like Liverpool did at Chelsea last week.

That philosophy has been the cornerstone for many a title-winning campaign: win your home games and get the draw against your title rivals away from home. The bookies have Liverpool as the the slight favourites to win on Sunday at 15-10, and I reckon that the Superbru community will be around 35%-35%-30% (home win, draw and away win) by the time kick-off comes round.

Salah will be central to Liverpool’s chances – and I’m going to be betting that he gets on the scoresheet – but I’m going against the majority in this one and predicting a City win. But, each to their own. Worth noting is that in seven matches thus far, City average three goals a match while Liverpool average two, but both have only conceded three goals.

Remember what I said about the round immediately after a European week? In a nutshell, I warned that Chelsea could their first points of the season at West Ham, less than 72 hours after playing in the Europa League. The result was 0-0 and subsequent to that Chelsea were held 1-1 by Liverpool, so they have picked up two points from their last possible six. An away trip to Southampton looks like it’s back to winning ways for Chelsea, but, again, it comes 72 hours after a nervy 1-0 home win in the Europa League against Hungarian champions Vidi. And without two reliable strikers, Chelsea have been feeding off Eden Hazard’s goals.

The weekend’s round kicks off on Friday night with West Ham travelling to Brighton and the Hammers are coming off the highs of beating Everton (a), holding Chelsea to 0-0 (h) and beating Manchester United (h) last week. However, if Brighton are going to avoid relegation they are going to have it done based on their home form and I don’t think the Hammers are going to pick up three points in this one.

All in all it’s a tricky round, with the ‘bigger’ clubs not helped by the European action which has given them less chance to prepare for the League weekend and also for players to freshen up after the travelling. Manchester City, Liverpool and Arsenal were all involved in away action, while Tottenham were given a masterclass by Lionel Messi at Wembley.

In unpacking the week, I don’t think that Tottenham were as bad as the 4-2 defeat to Barcelona suggests – Leo Messi simply was different class – and Harry Kane looked a bit sharper. I can see Tottenham putting Cardiff to the sword this weekend, with Kane on the scoresheet.

There are some tricky encounters, such as Burnley at home to Huddersfield, Crystal Palace at home to Wolves and Leicester at home to Everton and ultimately I think that anyone getting 6/10 from this round will have beaten the average quite comfortably. It looks to be the toughest week of the seven rounds we’ve seen so far.

The bookies tend to agree, with only four matches having odds-on favourites, with Tottenham, Man United, Arsenal and Chelsea being in the ‘red’.

Scorelines so far this season:
16 times: 2-1
15 times: 2-0
6 times: 3-1
5 times: 0-0, 1-1, 3-0
4 times: 2-2, 1-0
3 times: 3-2
2: 4-2, 4-0
1: 4-1, 5-0, 6-1

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

Brighton vs West Ham
Gary Lemke (41/70): 1-1
Wade Pretorius (38/70): 1-1
Dylan Appolis (44/70): 0-2
Juandre Joubert (40/70): 1-2
Dean Workman (39/70): 1-2

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

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

Leicester vs Everton
Gary Lemke: 1-1
Wade Pretorius: 2-1
Dylan Appolis: 1-2
Juandre Joubert: 1-1
Dean Workman: 3-2

Tottenham vs Cardiff
Gary Lemke: 3-0
Wade Pretorius: 3-0
Dylan Appolis: 3-1
Juandre Joubert: 2-0
Dean Workman: 4-0

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

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

Fulham vs Arsenal
Gary Lemke: 1-3
Wade Pretorius: 0-2
Dylan Appolis: 0-2
Juandre Joubert: 1-2
Dean Workman: 2-4

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

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

Lemke is the 2017/18 EPL Superbru Global champion