English Premier League: Daniel Taylortalks to John Arne Riise who is confident Liverpool can land the Premier League title this season.

A grey October's day on Merseyside and John Arne Riise is navigating his way round the one-way system in Liverpool city centre. He is in the classic footballer's 4x4, complete with tinted windows and a blonde in the passenger seat, but this is no shopping expedition or ordinary day out. He is on his way to the headquarters of the Roy Castle lung cancer foundation and he is in a pensive mood, reflecting on some painful childhood memories.

"It's a very personal thing for me," he explains. "When I was younger I lost someone close to me because of lung cancer. I don't want to think about it most of the time but ever since then I have hated smoking and, if there is anything I can do to support the people who are fighting cancer and its causes, I will do it.

"I have seen the effects of cancer and, believe me, it was a horrible experience, watching someone die before my eyes and knowing there was nothing I could do to stop it. It was something that will be with me for the rest of my life."

The Norwegian is talking about his father, Hans, and a part of his life he has never felt comfortable discussing. Riise was seven when his parents were divorced and for a long time he had no idea his father had gone to prison for domestic abuse.

Hans was sentenced to two years, something his wife, Berit, tried to keep from her two sons, John Arne and his younger brother Bjorn Helge, as she raised them with a new partner. When they found out they gradually lost contact with their father.

Then, nine years ago, the 18-year-old Riise found out his father was terminally ill and flew back from Monaco (his club then) to be at his bedside, along with the rest of the family.

"We didn't have much contact but, at the same time, that was my dad lying there," he recalls. "He was still someone I cared about and it was terrible to see what happened to him. I was young, I had never seen anything like that before and when you see the effects of lung cancer from close quarters that sort of thing can stick with you. My dad's body seemed to shrink; his arms, his legs, his face. He was barely recognisable and it really wasn't nice, especially in the last few days."

Riise is now an enthusiastic anti-smoking campaigner and he spends an afternoon at the foundation, meeting the scientists and looking at a series of computer-enhanced photographs of how he would age if he were a 20-a-day man. It is part of the Premier League's Creating Chances campaign and it is easy to understand why he was the first to raise his arm when Liverpool's community staff asked for a volunteer.

"I've just persuaded my mum to give up smoking," he continues. "I've been nagging at her for years and, finally, she and my stepdad have agreed to stop on a trial basis."

Riise has always been an impressively stubborn character or, in his own words, the "sort of guy who doesn't give up easily".

At 14, growing up in the port of Alesund, he was so determined to become a professional footballer he changed his diet and started to go for gruelling 6am runs to improve his stamina. He left Norway at 17 to move to Monaco, despite knowing barely a word of French, and he is now in his seventh season at Liverpool, with 33 goals to his name (many of them spectacular) despite being fundamentally a defender. His dad, he says, "loved football and would have loved to see me play for Liverpool".

The 27-year-old has done that more than 300 times going into today's Merseyside derby at Everton. He has played in two Champions League finals, winning one and losing one, and he has winner's medals from the FA Cup and League Cup. "The only thing that is missing," he says, "is the league championship and, if I have one burning ambition, it is to fill that void. Winning the Champions League was the best feeling I have experienced in my life but winning the championship would be even better."

Liverpool certainly made an encouraging start but they have been unconvincing lately, drawing three of their last four league games and, in the Champions League, losing at home to a Marseille side in the relegation zone of France's Ligue 1. Can they really outlast Arsenal and Manchester United over 38 games?

"Of course we can," Riise replies, and his voice does not waver. "It's been a long, long time since Liverpool last won the league and it's something that permanently hangs over the club but we genuinely think we have a great chance. It's not just talk. I've never known there to be such a sense of belief in the dressingroom. We really believe we have an outstanding chance."

His confidence is not shared by all Liverpool fans, many of whom are bewildered by Rafael Benitez' seemingly incessant tinkering with the team. Yet Riise says the criticism is unfair. "He won't change," he says. "He generally gets results, he's won trophies and I don't think anyone should question his methods, especially when we are still unbeaten in the league.

"Yes, it can be difficult sometimes because none of the players know who is in the team until an hour before kick-off and sometimes you find yourself not even on the bench. But he wants to use his full squad and he wants everyone to be fresh, not just now but at the end of the season too. I know it is a big thing outside the club but, inside, we respect the manager and we support his choices."

His support for Benitez is unwavering, yet there was a time over the summer, when Liverpool went to an arbitration panel to try to prise Gabriel Heinze from Manchester United, when Riise wondered whether he still featured prominently in the manager's plans. "That was difficult and I would be lying if I said I didn't think it could affect me," he says. "I was on holiday, reading about it in the papers, and thinking 'But he's another left back, what about me?' I just decided that I had to work harder and that, if we signed Heinze, I was the younger man and the one who deserved to play."

Ideally, he says, he wants to stay at Liverpool for the rest of his career and, after that, he can see himself returning to Norway where he is known as the Machine because of his powerful physique and thunderous shot. He is proud to be the president of the Scandinavian branch of Liverpool's supporters' club. "We have 30,000 members in Norway alone," he reports. "The biggest club in Norway probably gets an average crowd of 20,000."

As for today, Riise is still smarting from Liverpool's last visit to Goodison Park. Everton won 3-0 and the DVD was in the club shop within a week. "I don't want to experience that again," he says. "The derby is special. The people in Liverpool build up to this fixture for weeks. And if you lose you don't want to show your face anywhere in the city."

For Everton, he says, it is "the biggest game of the season".

Can the same be said of Liverpool? "Probably not. It's still hugely important to us and we have to make sure we get a better result than last season but we have different priorities to Everton. We are trying to win trophies. We haven't won the league since 1990 and that is too long. Far too long."

• Guardian Service