Betting tips / Ralph Ellis / 22 November 2011 / Leave a comment Bet Now View Market

Ralph Ellis urges you to leave the 'ghosts of EPL past behind you' and get onto Man U now, or risk regretting it later!

Ole Gunnar Solskjaer was telling the world last week how, on the way to winning the Norwegian League as manager of Molde, he shamelessly stole one of Sir Alex Ferguson's best team talks.

After a 5-0 defeat he walked into the dressing room and told his players: "Take all your money, your mortgage, and put it on us winning the League because you'll never get better odds."

Fergie apparently used it 15 years ago after losing 5-0 to Newcastle and 6-3 at Southampton in the infamous "grey shirts" game. It made me wonder if it's time for him to try it out on a new set of players. (Not that they would bet, of course, the rules have been tightened up since then!)

United, who were backed with significant money at [1.78] a few weeks ago, are out to [3.05] to retain the title now. With a five point gap behind Manchester City's all-star side, the only reason the price is not even bigger is because we've seen this scenario before. A year ago they were five points behind Chelsea, and their odds had gone out to [3.85], and we all know what happened next.

In their next four games, City, who easily ended Newcastle's unbeaten run with a 3-1 home romp, face Liverpool, Chelsea and Arsenal, and if they are still rolling along at the top of the League after that spell then we'll know they really are potential title winners.

Meanwhile, Fergie's side have some gentler fixtures that might just let them close the gap.

Saturday evening's 1-0 win at Swansea might have lacked the swagger of some of the early performances this season, but since that 6-1 derby defeat to Roberto Mancini's men, United have now gone five games in all competitions without conceding a goal. They've not led the table at this stage in any of the last four seasons, incidentally, and won the title three times. So in the words of the baby-faced assassin: "You'll never get better odds than now!"

But then there are a few other Premier League managers, who having read Solskjaer's interview, might borrow that particular team talk. Now I know Arsene Wenger would hate to steal a line from his nemesis at Old Trafford, but the sentiment must apply to his Arsenal team. The 2-1 win at Norwich was their fifth victory in a row but they are still as long as [2.46] to finish the season in their normal place in the top four.

Robin Van Persie got both goals as predicted by our very own Lee Dixon, and even his colleague Alan Shearer on Match of the Day was putting forward the Dutchman's injury record as a reason why he won't keep scoring. But he's missed only two Premier League matches since the start of 2011, and got 31 goals in 28 games in that time. Amazingly he's still good odds-against for the golden boot at [2.7].

Kenny Dalglish has had so many spats with Fergie that he might actually delight in pinching the team talk - and he'd get the Scottish accent right! Even after an impressive 2-1 win at Chelsea his expensively-rebuilt squad are longest price of the six clubs most likely to take a Champions League spot at [2.68].

Blackburn manager Steve Kean doesn't lack self-confidence, if he has nothing else, and would certainly lay his side for relegation at [2.14] if he was allowed to. A 3-3 draw at Wigan might not seem the best pointer to survival, especially as it needed outrageous luck from awful refereeing. But Yakubu has now got five goals in six games and that could just indicate that things are turning round.

Queen's Park Rangers were matched at even money for relegation back in August, but after a 3-2 win at Stoke, are now [6.8]. That's about the sort of price you could get on Blackpool going down at this time last year. And after seeing Bolton lose 2-1 at West Brom on Saturday it's clear that Owen Coyle still has problems to sort out. The Trotters remain in the bottom three but are [3.45] to stay there. Yet at 35, Kevin Davies looks far less mobile - and with no pace from Daniel Sturridge around him like last season, he's half the threat he was.

Now of course you wouldn't want to take Fergie's mantra at full value and risk your mortgage. But across a long season taking on some contrary bets can be both fun - and profitable.