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For Liverpool the season gets stranger and stranger. There is more silverware in the trophy room, an FA Cup semi-final at Wembley awaits, but league form lurches from bad worse. Were it any other manager at the helm, the natives would be getting restless, but as it is Kenny Dalglish who is in charge, normal rules don't apply. Once upon a time, any form of silverware would serve as job insurance for another season, but in an era in which the Champions League is the all-important money-spinning holy grail for Europe's leading clubs, the League Cup is small beer. Even the FA Cup has lost much of its lustre, last year's 1-0 victory for Manchester City against Stoke a lowlight in the calendar both in terms of the quality of the match and the outcome. There was a time when the FA Cup was ...

[b]After more than a decade of Top Four finishes, this could be the season that poor defending really catches up with them and allows a well-balanced and well-led Liverpool team to pip Arsene Wenger's side for fourth place.[/b] In my preview of the winner market I hinted that I thought the Premier League title was very much a three-horse race with [b]Manchester United[/b] my tip to finish top of the pile. Manchester City and Chelsea are hard to split as regards who will come second; it may well go down to the wire as regards who wins that particular battle. But we'll leave the prices on United (1.08), Chelsea (1.19) and Manchester City (1.27) alone as we go in search of bigger odds. So the tougher question is who will grab that priceless fourth spot which gives you access to...

Liverpool's headline-makers in Kenny Dalglish's latest reign have been the £57m strike duo of Andy Carroll and Luis Suarez, but the defence has been just as important to the Reds' progress under the new manager. And that aspect of their game, as well as their solid home form under Dalglish, might well be to the fore again on Saturday when Birmingham visit Anfield. Dalglish has achieved eyecatching results in big games with Premier League victories over both Manchester clubs and Chelsea, but in the main Liverpool's improvement since the departure of Roy Hodgson has been steady rather than spectacular. A key factor has been the tightening up of Liverpool's defence and there is some irony in that, as one of the reasons for Hodgson's unpopularity was a perceived safety-first mentality. There...

[b]Liverpool are a team on the up and look set for a Top Six finish when a relegation battle looked a more likely scenario earlier on in the season. But the Betfair Contrarian is pushing the boat out even more and predicting a Champions League spot for the Reds... The Betfair Contrarian: Why Liverpool will finish in the top four[/b] Four weeks ago, the Contrarian ignored Kenny Dalglish's losses to Manchester United and Blackpool in his first two games back in charge at Anfield to recommend backing Liverpool to finish in the top six at 3.9. Five matches and 13 points later, the Reds are in to 1.42 in that market and progressing at an even faster rate than the notorious champion of the underdog expected. So swiftly in fact, that he is now tipping them to qualify for the Champions League...

[b]Forget defeat at Old Trafford and Bloomfield Road, Kenny can turn it around! Here are five reasons why, thanks to the Betfair Contrarian[/b] There are plenty of statistics illustrating how far Liverpool have fallen, but the one that wakes the Contrarian at night is that two seasons ago he was arguing that they would win the title, a prophesy that came very close to fulfilment, whereas he is now left to explain why they will finish in the top six at 3.9 and secure a spot in the Europa League for the second successive season, something that would be greeted as a genuine achievement. Here's why he's backing King Kenny to turn things around... [b]They don't have much ground to make up [/b]The Premier League has been so tight this season that despite Liverpool's disastrous start, they...