Forget Santa, forget Roast Turkey, and forget carol singers, Christmas is a time for football and that is that.
However, Christmas is also a time for football managers in the bottom half of the Premier League to start sweating on their jobs as chairman spy the January window as a last chance to drag themselves away from trouble.
This makes looking at those clubs currently in danger worth looking at in today’s football predictionsas we predict the three who are destined for the drop and three who is showing signs of a second half revival.
For the Drop
Huddersfield Town
The Terriers survived the drop last season largely thanks to an impressive start to the campaign and despite residing just out of the relegation zone (at the time of writing), already look as if their mini revival has come to a halt.
After going eleven games without a win at the start of the season, the Yorkshire outfit collected seven points from three games in November and the belief returned to David Wagner’s men.
Back to back defeats against beatable opponents in Brighton and Bournemouth has highlighted Town’s lack of overall quality and they look like finally getting caught out.
Cardiff City
Love him or hate him there is no denying that Neil Warnock is a man that can get the most out of an average squad.
Much like Huddersfield, Cardiff had a tricky start and failed to win a game until their tenth attempt.
The Bluebirds are a side trying to ‘do a Bournemouth’ with much of the side that earned them promotion but (again like Huddersfield) glaring gulfs in quality over their opposition and a lack of strength in-depth will only lead to a swift return to England’s second tier.
Southampton
The Saints are a side that have been in the decline for a number of seasons and rekindle memories of Leeds United and Aston Villa’s gradually slip into the Championship.
Sacking Mark Hughes was the only option but replacing him with Ralph Hasenhuttl who has no Premier League experience is an almighty risk and one that we think will backfire.
Second Half Revival
Fulham
Life is good back on the Thames now Claudio Ranieri has swung in to save them.
It may even be worth making an outside punt on the Cottagers to win the League, after all, Ranieri is a man who can achieve anything.
In all seriousness, Fulham may sit in the bottom three but have already improved significantly in Ranieri’s short reign taking four points from three games.
There is simply too much quality in the Fulham squad and time to gel looks like being the major factor in their current predicament, but when they fire, expect them to rocket up the league.
Burnley
You wouldn’t say it to Sean Dyche’s face, but his side have been truly terrible at times this season but have also been unlucky and played well at others.
Take their loss at home against Liverpool as an example, the Clarets looked calm and composed and despite losing will pick up more points than not if they keep that performance level up.
Crystal Palace
Roy Hodgeson is the manager of the Eagles and that means safety is assured even if it will bore most fans to death.
Palace have just enough to avoid the drop but they will spend a majority of the season in trouble and then probably smash Manchester City 4-0 to ensure survival.
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