Luis Suarez: Van Persie backers smiling after Liverpool biter gets 10-match ban

Will Luis Suarez still be at Liverpool next season?

The FA today handed Luis Suarez a 10-match ban for biting Branislav Ivanovic, sparking fears that the Uruguayan will leave Liverpool in the summer and pleasing backers of Robin van Persie in the Betfair Top Goalscorer market

Suarez had already accepted a charge of violent conduct but had denied the FA's claim that the standard three-match sanction was insufficient for the offence.

Adding seven games to the standard ban for violent conduct means the Uruguayan misses the final four matches of this season, and the first six of 2013/14. 

Suarez has received the same ban as Southampton's David Prutton did for pushing a referee in 2005, and one more than Arsenal's Paul Davis was handed for breaking Glenn Cockerill's jaw in 1988. The ban does fall short of the 12-game ban handed to Joey Barton after his conduct at the end of QPR's game with Manchester City last season.

The ban means there is definitely no chance of Suarez becoming Premier League Top Goalscorer - as predicted by Betfair's Christian Crowther earlier this month.

The Liverpool striker was matched at a low of 1.341/3 in the market, which now sees Robin van Persie as overwhelming favourite, at 1.031/33 having been matched as high as 14.013/1.

With their best player missing for the rest of the season, chances of a top six finish for Liverpool - already five points behind sixth placed Everton - look remote. They can be backed at 3.412/5 if you think they can pull it off though. 

In the Suarez to stay? market, the Uruguayan has been backed into 1.9620/21 to leave before the end of the summer transfer window.

Liverpool visit Newcastle on Sunday and are trading as 2.546/4 favourites to pick up the three points, with Alan Pardew's men at 3.02/1 and the draw at 3.55/2.