LeeDixon

As a Manchester City fan, I'm still on a high from the frenetic end to last season. In my playing career, I was involved in some dramatic title races but I never experienced anything like that final day. City must now consolidate and dominate and, although I'm backing them at 2.3 to retain the title, I think Manchester United will push them close again. [b]Will Robin van Persie's transfer tip title race?[/b] Robin van Persie's move will have a huge impact on the destiny of the title. I always felt that it would be a bigger deal for United to land RVP than it would be for City because of the array of firepower that is already at Eastlands. If I was pricing up the Premier League market I'd have the Manchester clubs neck and neck. For now, I'm backing my Blues to make it Premier League...

[u]Match odds[/u] The stats all say Chelsea have their name on the trophy. And that they'll win in 90 minutes. What the stats don't necessarily reflect is that Liverpool go into this match much the fresher team. There was no ball-chasing at the Nou Camp for them last week and Kenny Dalglish rested most of his key players at home to Fulham. You could of course say it was a gamble that went wrong because with all due respect to Martin Jol's side, you don't see Manchester City, Manchester United or Arsenal lose at home to Fulham. I'm sure if Liverpool do win this game that will long be forgotten, though. The likes of John Terry and Ashley Cole have been playing pretty much non-stop for the past couple of weeks with Branislav Ivanovic suspended in the league and Gary Cahill and ...

These two teams experienced hugely contrasting weekends with Liverpool winning handsomely at Norwich shortly after Fulham had been embarrassed at Goodison Park. With Liverpool 1.68 to win the odds say there'll be more of the same on Tuesday, but the Merseyside giants have not it all their own way at Anfield this year and Fulham have shown themselves capable of pulling off the odd big win. Let's see if we can pick out some solid bets ahead of this Tuesday nighter under the Anfield floodlights... Match Odds As I mentioned, it's not been the finest season for Liverpool but Kenny Dalglish will be looking to round out a tricky campaign in style with wins in the league's remaining fixtures and more importantly next weekend's FA Cup final. For me, Liverpool's problems this season stem from...

The first FA Cup semi-final of the weekend is an intriguing fixture pitting together the two Merseyside giants with Everton holding a live chance of inflicting real pain on an out-of-form Liverpool side. These are strange times for the Reds. The Carling Cup is in the trophy cabinet, but league results have been woeful this year and this proud team find themselves 33 points off Manchester United in the table - that sort of total has kept teams safe in years gone by! Damian Comolli has taken the flak for this poor state of affairs by receiving his marching orders this week. Andy Carroll's last-minute winner at Blackburn in midweek earned Liverpool a first victory in five games but that's not enough to suggest they've turned a corner. By contrast, Everton arrive in fine fettle -...

A match between two sides who really need a win for very different reasons. Blackburn were extremely poor at the weekend and let indiscipline get the better of them both in terms of poor defending and a late red card. As for Liverpool, by hook or by crook, they need to start winning league matches. [b]Match Odds[/b] You could almost blindly lay Liverpool for every Premier League match they're involved in. They continue to be under-priced both home and away and the odds on offer about them winning games are based solely on reputation and some of the names in that squad. Ten days ago we took a huge price on Newcastle to beat them and they duly obliged in a game they pretty much dominated throughout. You can probably see where I'm going with this! I simply can't have Liverpool at...

What a week it's been for these two giants of English football. Liverpool won the first piece of silverware of the new Kenny Dalglish era after holding their nerve during the Carling Cup penalty shootout while five-star Arsenal destroyed Spurs to rise above Chelsea into fourth spot in the Premier League. It sets up a fine opener to a big weekend in England's top division. [u]Match Odds[/u] I was at The Emirates on Sunday and the Arsenal fans were nervous before the game. For the first 25 minutes or so it seemed their worries were justified as a disaster appeared to unfold before our eyes. But the Gunners showed incredible spirit to bounce back and putting five goals past Brad Friedel was like something out of a dream. Any result like that is a huge confidence boost but the defence...

Manchester United showed all their fighting spirit in coming from 3-0 down against Chelsea to earn a point. Who knows how significant it might become the end of the season? And whereas Sir Alex Ferguson could have been tempted to lambast his team for going 3-0 down against a side who is consistently under-performing, he'll be focusing on the positives instead, telling his players how it's comebacks like that which win you Premier League titles. When I was at Arsenal and we scored with late goals people used to say we were lucky. It's lucky if it happens once or twice. When you're consistently doing it it's because you're the team that has the belief that you can still get something from the game and the fitness to keep going. We did and so does this current United side. Next up are...

Before a ball had been kicked in anger, many were predicting that it would be Liverpool who would improve significantly on last year's finish (sixth) and that Spurs would probably finish in a very similar position to last year's fifth. But here we are, almost exactly two thirds into the season and it's Tottenham who have made all the progress, sitting pretty in third, not yet out of the title race and looking good for a Champions League place at the very least. As for Liverpool, they've had a strange sort of season. Steven Gerrard has been out injured for most of it; they lost the grossly under-rated Lucas to injury; Andy Carroll has spent most of the time on the bench; and other big money signings like Charlie Adam and Jordan Henderson are yet to find their best form. They've beaten the...

I suspect both these teams will have wished this fixture was away from home. That's how disappointing they've been in front of their own fans. But it's Bolton who will be playing hosts on Saturday. Let's try and predict how things will pan out. [u]Match Odds[/u] Right, some stats for you courtesy of Opta. Liverpool have won the last 10 Premier League games in a row against Bolton. Who have won just one of their last 12 Premier League matches at the Reebok Stadium (W1 D1 L10). In truth I didn't really need those stats to convince me Liverpool are going to win this match. Not only are Bolton on a horrendous run but the inevitable happened this week and they lost their best defender, Gary Cahill, who moved to Chelsea after refusing to sign a new contract. Liverpool are under-achieving...