SO now we've finally seen all the main contenders for the title, I can confidently predict one thing.

Osama Bin Laden has more chance of winning the BBC Sports Personality of the Year next year than Manchester United have of retaining their Premiership crown.

Sir Alex Ferguson -- so long the smug face of English football -- has finally admitted the game's up.

Liverpool, Arsenal and Leeds have not only caught up with the men from Old Trafford, they have suddenly left them trailing in their slip-stream.

And that can only be good for the English game because United's dominance was getting all rather tedious.

So, of the three main contenders, just who are the heirs-apparent to United's throne?

Of all the teams I've seen so far, Liverpool stand head and shoulders above the rest as the most rigid on the circuit.

Their success over the last 12 months has been built on sound foundations -- a rock-solid defence and Michael Owen's blistering pace up front.

And, though, their style of play is hardly the most exhilarating in the world, it's a winning formula which is proving desperately difficult to play against.

But if style and panache is your bag, then few sides are more exciting going forward than Arsenal at the minute.

When Arsene Wenger took over, he inherited a dour side renowned for grinding out 1-0 victories.

But a quick injection of French flair in the form of thoroughbreds like Thierry Henry, Robert Pires and Patrick Vieira has now transformed the Gunners into the most flamboyant of the three title contenders.

And, provided they can get their defensive house in order, they will be there or thereabouts come May.

But what of Leeds? And where do they fit into the championship equation?

If anything, David O'Leary's side appear to sit somewhere in between Liverpool's defensive solidity and Arsenal's free-flowing attacking style.

In players like Harry Kewell and Robbie Keane they, too, possess the attacking flair required to unpick some of the Premiership's most resilient defences.

But they also have the granite-like backbone required to grind out results in the form of David Batty and Oliver Dacourt in midfield.

On top of that, Rio Ferdinand is now maturing into the World class player everyone predicted he would become when he first burst onto the scene as a fresh-faced teenager at West Ham.

But, if they do have a weakness, then it's down the flanks where Danny Mills and Ian Harte, in particular, were torn apart by the marauding Keith Gillespie and Damien Duff on Sunday -- a point surely not lost on O'Leary who couldn't resist moaning about his injury problems after the game.

If I was a betting man, therefore, then I'd have a tenner on the title ending up on Merseyside in May.