As someone who has made the last 10 of a Last Man Standing competition which started out with 322 entrants, the Ladbrokes Striker Manager looks like something else which could attract my attention.

I should come clean and admit that five of those 322 entries were mine (it was a fund-raiser, I was feeling generous) and that I got nowhere with my five entries on the previous installment of the competition (see note above) but with the competition to be decided in the next series of Premier League games, I am guaranteed at least 10 per cent of a prize fund of €2,900 if I can back a winning team the weekend after next.

As the only one of the ten with one of the top three left to use as a pick (I have Chelsea, who are away to Burnley), I am quietly confident that Iwill be taking a share of that prize and, so, make a decent profit on the €200 I put into the two editions of the competition.

Striker Manager is a pretty similar concept. Here, you back a player to score at the weekend. Clearly, it’s harder to back a winner in terms of a player scoring than a team being victorious. So Ladbrokes have adopted a three strikes and you are out concept so that the competition will run for a half-decent length of time.

To give the launch on Tuesday a bit of profile, that, eh, well-known Italian coach Gino Stromboli (aka Gary Cooke of Apres Match fame) was on hand to provide the humour with Ronnie Whelan there to offer some more deadpan opinions. And Whelan certainly wasn’t shy about expressing his feelings over the current Liverpool situation. He described his former club as having a bad team, a bad manager and being millions in debt, a predicament which he felt would take a lot of time and money to rectify.

Whether Rafael Benitez gets that time remains to be seen. A win against Spurs – who are in that final Champions League qualification spot, four points clear of Liverpool – would help to ease the pressure somewhat but, without the injured trio of Fernando Torres, Steven Gerrard and Yossi Benayoun, it’s hard to see where the goals will come from. I’m going to back the draw at 9/4 with €20. Robbie Keane and Peter Crouch will be both looking to put one over their former club but the England striker will probably have more time in which to do so so I’m going to back him with €10 each as first scorer at 7/1.

Elsewhere in the Premier League, Arsenal will go top if they defeat Bolton Wanderers at the Emirates by two clear goals. Having done so at the Reebok Stadium, they should be able to achieve a repeat at home. They’re priced at 3/4 to win with three or more goals in the game and I’m backing that as part of a €10 treble with Aston Villa to defeat Blackburn and MK Dons to beat Southampton which would pay out €68.75.

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