footballgambler.co.uk

Arsenal take on North London rivals Spurs today at Emirates Stadium live on Sky Sports 1 in the dinner time kick off (12.45).

The corresponding fixture ended 4-4 last season and came a matter of days after Redknapp took the job, it is the perfect opportunity to see just how far Spurs have come under Redknapp’s leadership as in all honesty Arsenal were by far the better side last year and should have beat Spurs convincingly.

In the above mentioned game Spurs were helped by an early wonder goal (although I would call it a goalkeeping error) by David Bentley who has hardly been seen since and hung in there and at the end took advantage of a calamitous final 10 minutes to claim an unlikely draw.

This year should be different, the squad is now mainly a Harry Redknapp one and is there to be judged on its performance. Robbie Keane certainly rates it as he has already stated that the Spurs bench is stronger than the Arsenal bench, a remark I would imagine has been taken out of context and remixed by journalists, never the less not a wise one and it would already have done a large amount of Wenger’s team talk for him.

It could be said though that the Spurs squad isn’t as strong as the Arsenal one is, Luka Modric is still out with a long term injury and Harry Redknapp hasn’t been able to replace him. In Arsenal’s case if their main ball player – Cesc Fabregas – was out they have youngsters Aaron Ramsey and Jack Wilshere waiting in the wings to step in.

The loss of Modric has and will continue to be felt by Tottenham and last weeks match with Stoke is a perfect example were they dominated proceedings but couldn’t find that bit of craft or guile to open Stoke and surely the floodgates up.

In today’s game David Bentley looks set to come back into replace the injured Aaron Lennon after Harry Redknapp stated he has impressed in training lately and looks to have got his head down. Jermain Defoe is still suspended so Peter Crouch will continue up front in his absence.

For Arsenal goalkeeper Vito Mannone is set to be replaced by Manuel Almunia who has now fully recovered from a chest infection, Theo Walcott, Denilson and Tomas Rosicky are still out injured but Samir Nasri is available again but more than likely will only figure on the bench.

Arsenal are a best price of 4/7 with Totesport, Stan James and Ladbrokes.

Tottenham are 11/2 with Bet365 and the draw is 3/1 with Paddy Power.

A bet I like is both teams to score at 3/5 with Betfair.

The first of Sky Sports two Sunday Live Premier League games sees Liverpool take on Manchester United at Anfield.

Rafa Benitez is under pressure after 4 successive defeats, the latest of which came in the Champions League at home to Lyon (2-1) on Wednesday.

To make matters worse for Benitez, both Steven Gerrard and Fernando Torres are doubts for the game, as is Glenn Jonhson. The fact that Liverpool have looked lost without Gerrard and Torres this season shows a lack of strength in depth of the Liverpool squad, with Babbel, Voronin and Ngog in particular not able to fill the void left.

Steven Gerrard looked particularly annoyed when he went off injured against Lyon and his body language towards Benitez when shaking his hand spoke for itself as he barely looked at his manager suggesting his displeasure with Rafa, maybe Gerrard was asked to risk his injury against his wishes?

Manchester United who haven’t been in the greatest form themselves recently have a doubt over Wayne Rooney’s fitness, get the feeling that he will play though and that this is just another Ferguson so-called mind game.

This game has that stroke of irony about it with Michael Owen coming back to Anfield and he is in the position to deliver a knockout blow to Benitez.

Whatever the reasons why Owen left, be it that he was never going to stay and Liverpool had no option to sell him or Benitez didn’t rate him that highly and made it clear to Owen that he could leave, the fact remains that Benitez has consistently been reluctant to praise or show any interest in Owen when questioned about would he like to resign him on the occasions he has been available  in the past, indicating that he dosen’t rate him, therefore giving some substance to the theory that Rafa didn’t try that hard to keep him.

You can already see it coming can’t you, people think Owen is finished but when called upon in the big games Owen has a habit of delivering, like he did against Man City earlier this season. Owen is a best price of 13/5 with Paddy Power to score during 90 minutes and heap more pressure on his former boss.

Be interesting to see what kind of reception Owen gets, on one hand he has been a good servant to the Reds, but on the other he could be seen as someone who was trying to run down his contract to leave, and the one thing that can’t be denied is that he is now playing for the Liverpool fans arch enemies.

In the betting Liverpool can be backed at 9/4 with Sky Bet, Manchester United are a best price of 6/4 with Bet365 and not surprisingly big Man Utd fans Betfred.

The draw is 23/10 with Boylesports and Totesport.

Kick Off is at 2.00pm and it is live on Sky Sports 1.