LeeDixon

Back in my playing days we always liked going to West Ham, the Arsenal teams I played in enjoyed some good results there and the short trip across town never held much fear for us. Times have changed though, and few are expecting Arsenal to get an easy ride at Upton Park in the late Saturday kick-off. The Premier League table offers a clue to the clubs' respective form: seventh plays eighth here, with the east Londoners one place above their north London neighbours after a strong start to the season. Accepted football wisdom has this down as big and strong versus creative and skilful, but it's not quite as simple as that. That assessment of Big Sam's teams is a little unfair on Allardyce. He's been around for some time now and has come up with a successful system. Sure, West Ham...

There was steely resolve about Manchester City's victories over Manchester United and Newcastle which makes me think that they aren't about to blow this golden opportunity to win their first league title for over 40 years. Earlier in the season, the Blues blew away opponents but, in recent weeks, they've ground out results with the focus and professionalism that gets titles won. Sir Alex is ruing United's defeat at Wigan and the draw against Everton but, if it comes down to goal difference, that 6-1 drubbing against City back in October can be seen as a major factor in the destiny of the title. Roberto Mancini changed the formation against Newcastle and showed tactical acuity when his side needed second-half goals. He's had a full in-tray to deal with this term, managing massive expectations...

[u]Match Odds[/u] Norwich are going through something that happens to a lot of newly-promoted clubs. Having guaranteed their stay in the Premier League a few weeks back, they've suffered something of a late-season lull. The Canaries have lost their last four and going back a bit further, it's just one win from their last 11 in the league. In fairness to them, it's not for the want of trying. I think it's just fatigue kicking in. Paul Lambert will be hammering it into his players that he wants to finish as high up in the table as possible and that two points from their last two matches could allow them to move a couple of places up the table which equates to some decent money in the Norwich coffers. I'm not too sure a trip to the Emirates is the sort of fixture they'd want up next though. As...

[u]Match Odds[/u] One of the keys to Tottenham's superb first half of the season was their strong defence. And no-one was more influential in that than Brad Friedel. The American keeps breaking records and is a credit to himself and the sport. There have always been younger keepers at all the Premier League clubs he's been at, knocking at the door to take his place. But Friedel just keeps on working at his game, training hard, looking after his body and is hungry to keep on playing. For my money he's right up there with the very best keepers the Premier League has had. Peter Schmeichel is normally regarded as the best this league has seen and it's hard to argue with that. But after him I'd probably nominate David Seaman. Yes, of course I'm a little biased! But I played in front of him...

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...

I'm not surprised that Sir Alex Ferguson has hailed Monday night's match as the biggest Manchester derby in his time as United manager. I grew up supporting City and, while local bragging rights were hotly contested around our way, I can't remember a match between the two clubs with so much at stake. So far this season, they've played three (including the Community Shield) with United winning two and City one, although I think the Blues' 6-1 rout at Old Trafford counts for a lot. Before Christmas it looked like this was City's title to lose, then they fell apart and Sir Alex's men seized the initiative. Like most pundits, I'd written City off. How wrong I was. Last Sunday's extraordinary 4-4 between United and Everton handed the initiative back to their rivals. The upshot is a mouthwatering...

As a top player you want the big games to come thick and fast at you and you don't want to miss out on any. Over the course of nine days Chelsea will have played Tottenham, Barcelona (twice) and Arsenal and you don't get too many bigger games in club football than those. Still, Roberto Di Matteo is a pragmatic man and now that he's in with a real chance of making the final of the Champions League, we may get a slightly unfamiliar starting XI for Chelsea Saturday lunchtime. And that could be a huge factor in this game. [u]Match Odds[/u] It's hard to explain how Arsenal lost to Wigan on Monday night. They had most of the ball, the lion's share of the chances and boasted a wonderful record against Wigan prior to that match. To an extentthat Chelsea can relate to because it was a pretty...

Everyone will have their own theories to explain Tottenham's recent struggles but the truth is they're not winning matches or playing that well. With QPR enjoying good home form, we need to take on Harry Redknapp's side. QPR must be feeling pretty hard-done by at the moment. They've done a good job of winning their own matches and some of those were tough, Liverpool and Arsenal for instance. What they didn't count on was that Wigan would perform some giant-killing acts of their own and beat Manchester United at home and Arsenal away. I think Wolves are definitely down (if not mathematically) and I'm not sure Blackburn have it in them to get six points or more from their last four matches. So it should be a straight shoot-out between QPR and Bolton and it's very much advantage for ...

There was nothing particularly surprising about the manner of Arsenal's win over Wolves on Wednesday night. They would probably have secured a relatively comfortable win anyway but the minute the Midlanders were reduced to ten men, that was pretty much game over. But as that was all going on, Wigan were doing something far more unexpected. They were beating Manchester United at home and whereas that re-opened the title race, that's something they couldn't care less about. What it did do was secure them an unexpected three points that could well end up being the difference between staying up or going down. [u]Match Odds[/u] You can say what you like about Arsene Wenger's transfer policy and something of a stubbornness as regards his beliefs. But there's no doubting the man's record....