Football: 2003 predictions

By Mark Lawrenson BBC Sport

Premiership winners
At the start of the season I tipped Arsenal to win the Premiership and as we go into 2003 I see no reason to change my mind.

Chelsea and Manchester United and Liverpool are all genuine contenders, but Arsene Wenger's side are superb going forward as well as having bags of resilience.

Your say: Who will win in 2003?

Academy: The stars of 2003

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Worthington Cup winners
Manchester United last won this cup back 11 years ago.

At the start of the season the Worthington Cup would not have been one of Sir Alex Ferguson's top priorities

But his side are now in the semi-finals and I expect Sir Alex to put out a reasonable side against Blackburn.

Out of the four sides, United look the strongest team.

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FA Cup winners
Chelsea have got a good record in the FA Cup.

Claudio Ranieri's side reached the final last season, but more importantly Chelsea are hard to beat.

They are excellent defensively and have plenty of strikers capable of nicking a goal.

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Champions League winners
AC Milan last won the European Cup in 1994, but Carlo Ancelloti's side have shown that an Italian club could win the competition for the first time in six years.

Milan disposed of Bayern Munich in the first group stage and before the winter break also beat holders Real Madrid.

Alessandro Nesta has tightened things up defensively and in Filippo Inzaghi they have a striker who cannot stop scoring.

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EURO 2004
It is going to be hard for England to top Group Seven.

Sven-Goran Eriksson's side are trailing Turkey - a team that has set the pace in the group.

But even if England come second in the group I still fancy them to reach Portugal via the qualifiers.

Wales are also looking good, but Scotland and the Republic of Ireland will have their work cut out to get through to the finals.

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