Lee Dixon exclusive interview – Rice is not worth £100m; I’m not lying awake at night thinking about Mudryk; I bet Arsenal will win the league +more

Arsenal legend Lee Dixon gives his honest & exclusive opinion on all things Arsenal.

Speaking to BettingSites.co.uk, Dixon reveals his prediction for the league title, why he thinks Arteta’s team are not at the levels of The Invincibles & his thoughts on the £100m rumoured Rice deal.

My heart & my head say Arsenal will win the league

Asked if Arsenal will win the league, Dixon said;

“If I had to put a bet on, I would probably still stick with Arsenal, and that’s my heart and my head. But there’s a huge part of my head knowing what’s coming for this team, and they’ve jumped over all the hurdles so far, stumbled a bit here in there, but then got back on the horse. And that’s really admirable. But the last 7, 6 to 7 games, are terrifying.”

Rice is not worth £100m, Arsenal using him as ‘smoke screen’ for other targets

Asked on whether Arsenal should go all in for Rice, Dixon remarked;

“I don’t think Arsenal will pay 100 million. I don’t think Rice is worth 100 million to be honest. I think West Ham are going to want even more than that. I don’t know who Arsenal are looking at. But based on the way they’ve recruited so far I would suggest that they’ve got alternatives. Might be Rice is a bit of a smoke screen, and they’re not really that interested. I think he’s a really good player but I’m not convinced he will be at Arsenal next season.”

Arsenal should go for £90m Caicedo

Quizzed on who Arsenal should sign in the summer, Dixon stated;

“I like Caicedo. I think the Brighton model in terms of what they’re doing with their replacement of the players that they sell is brilliant. I’m a big admirer of what Brighton are all about and Caicedo certainly fits in at Arsenal. I think he’s a really good player.”

Saliba is on the same level as Van Dijk & will overtake him

Speaking about Saliba’s current level & his ceiling in the PL, Dixon said;

“I don’t know Saliba as a person and I don’t know Van Dijk as a person. But we’ve seen enough of them to know what type of characters they are, how mentally strong they are and what the weaknesses are. With Saliba, he’s so young. He’s had some good education away from the club and at the moment you wouldn’t really be able to guess his age because of his impressive positional play. He still makes the odd mistake positionally sometimes but compared to other really top class centre backs like Van Dijk, he is up there with them at the moment. It’s such a tender age, 21, so he can only get better also.”

I’m not lying awake at night thinking about Mudryk

Quizzed on whether Arsenal will regret missing out on Mudryk, Dixon replied;

“I think Trossard is a brilliant signing. I think he’s the epitome of an Arteta player, in respect of his work rate, his understanding, his intelligence, his ability to just fit in and play numerous positions. Trossard is having a bigger impact for Arsenal than Mudryk is for Chelsea. And that’s and that’s a real loose way of comparing but I’m certainly not lying awake at night going ‘we’ve lost out Mudryk, and we’ve only got Trossard’, that’s for sure.”

Arsenal should cash in on £30m Balogun

Asked on whether on loan striker Folarin Balogun should stay at Arsenal or be sold, Dixon said;

“Arsenal might have already made the decision to sell Balogun, and it’s an added bonus now the fact that he’s scoring the goals. That pushes the price up and then they might cash in on him. I’d be surprised if he came back to Arsenal.”

Arteta’s team way off The Invincibles levels

Speaking about the comparison between Arteta’s current players and The Invincibles era, Dixon said;

“The current team is way off The Invincible’s level at the moment. They’ve lost games, and they’ll continue to lose games. I think that’s just the nature of this Premier League at the moment, I think, The Invincible season was an incredible feat, and I said at the time, would be very, very surprised if that happens again.”

I prefer MOTD with no pundits

When asked about what he thought of last week’s MOTD format, Dixon said;

“It was a novelty when it first came on, but I did quite enjoy the 20 min of no talking on MOTD last week.”