Smart money on rampant United

Source: Football Channel Online - http://fc.sg.msn.com/matchinfocus.aspx?id=415&type=1

The bookies are not always right.

If they were, then a young Cassius Clay would never have beaten Sonny Liston, Buster Douglas would not have left Mike Tyson staring vacantly at the ceiling of the Tokyo Dome and Wimbledon would never have defeated Liverpool in the 1988 FA Cup final.

But they are almost always right.

Which is why the news that one bookmaker is paying out already on bets placed on Manchester United to win the Barclays English Premier League, Carling Cup and FA Cup is more than your average publicity stunt.

It is an endorsement of the best side Sir Alex Ferguson has ever assembled in his 22-year reign at Old Trafford.

And it is not just the bookies who think so.

Arsenal manager Arsene Wenger this week conceded the Premier League title with the generous observation, "United look untouchable."

Liverpool's Jamie Carragher insisted the title chase was now a two-horse race after United went five points clear of Liverpool, 10 points clear of Chelsea and 15 ahead of Arsenal.

And Ferguson himself sounded like a triumphant Barack Obama praising his closest aides when he said of Ryan Giggs and Paul Scholes: "These lads are great examples to young players in how they live their life.

"They have kept their ambition, which is important. We are delighted with their performance and are so proud to have them here."

Normally this would be time to guard against complacency. To scream Liston and Tyson. To spout cliches such as 'There is no such thing as a racing certainty.'

To point out too that I carry no torch for United.

But the evidence is growing to suggest Manchester United just might be on the cusp of making the sort of history not even Ferguson could have dared dream about.

A quintuplet. Five major trophies in the same season.

Already, the FIFA Club World Cup resides in the Old Trafford trophy cabinet.

Chances are the Carling Cup will follow on the first day of next month when United face Tottenham at Wembley.

Admittedly, that leaves the FA Cup, the Premier League and the UEFA Champions League, the three trophies United lifted in their treble-winning year of 1999.

Yet, the fact is that 10 years later United's squad is immeasurably better.

They have a goalkeeper in Edwin Van Der Saar who will set a European record for consecutive clean sheets if he makes it 14 against Blackburn at the weekend.

In Rio Ferdinand and Nemanja Vidic they possess Europe's meanest defenders, having conceded just 10 goals in 25 league matches this season.

That's better than Barcelona's 18 in 23 matches, Inter Milan's 17 in 24, Lyon's 16 in 24, Hertha Berlin's 23 in 20 and AZ Alkmaar's 14 in 23.

They have a quartet of match-winners in Cristiano Ronaldo, Wayne Rooney, Dimitar Berbatov and Carlos Tevez, who could shoehorn their way into any side in Europe.

And they have Giggs and Scholes.

Players of experience and quality who no longer play every game, but who inspire and influence fizzing young blood such as Anderson, Nani and Rafael da Silva in the ways of Old Trafford.

It is why United's bench of substitutes are such a force. Why Ferguson's squad has a depth of quality unique during his reign.

In football there is always need for caution. When a bookie paid out early with Arsenal apparently out of sight in 2003, they were forced to cough up twice as United came back to lift the title.

But there is a 'yin' and 'yang' harmony of attack and defence developing at Old Trafford which is in stark contrast to the uncertainty at Liverpool, the underachievement at Arsenal and the upheaval at Chelsea.

History and the odds are against five trophies. Yet right now United are untouchable. Wenger said it. The rest of us can bet on it.

spot on.

rock on.