Manchester United have had a poor start to the EPL: Not true. United have claimed exactly the same number of points from their opening 4 fixtures as Manchester City and Chelsea, and they have had a far tougher start. Indeed even with that tough start, United’s goal difference is better than Chelsea’s.

Manchester United’s odds reflect the fact that they are unfancied to win the EPL: That’s clearly what the bookmakers think, pricing them up at $4.20 (in from $4.50) making them third favourites behind City and Chelsea, however, as mentioned above nothing separates them from their rivals, and they’ve had a tougher start. $4.20 is great value and should be snapped up, before it drops further.

United had a poor transfer window: Moyes admits is wasn’t United’s best transfer window, but United had two primary targets, Fellaini and Baines. They got one and missed out on the other. Hardly poor. As for stories of Ozil / Erikson / Thiago etc, most journalists are glossing over the fact that al 3 players were offered to United and United chose not to pursue them. Maybe Moyes will be proved wrong however, if the club choses it doesn’t want to sign someone, that doesn’t make the transfer window unsuccessful. After all it wouldn’t be the first time United stopped pursuing a player and ended up being proved wrong…Bale….Ramsey….Zidane…. etc.

Moyes is no Fergie: Correct, of course he isn’t, but to label him / United doomed to failure because they didn’t sign a left back with a 1980s haircut, or because they chose not to sign a little German with eyes bigger than his head, is wrong. As mentioned before Lord Ferg made many errors in the transfer market, which tend to get forgotten. Kleberson. Djemba Djemba. Bellion. Blanc. Taibi. Milne. Manucho. Dong Fangzhou. etc. Similarly pundits are saying that because a Lord Ferg team would have scored 4 or 5 against Palace, and Moyes’ team only managed two, both from set pieces, it shows him to be a failure. What nonsense. United often ground out routine 2-0 victories against lowly teams under Ferg. Fact.

So after dispelling those myths we can turn to the minor business of Manchester City vs Manchester United (Monday 23rd Sept 01:00am) Sportsbet price the game up thus: Man City – $2.20, Draw – $3.40, Man Utd – $3.00. Rarely will you get a chance to get $3.00 on United, and with City also toiling under a new manager trying to find his best starting XI out of the 48 international players at his disposal, United’s settled and more gelled team should prove too strong for City. For one, I thin United will win this one comfortably, and will be having a little flutter on Man Utd 2-0 at excellent odds of $17.00, in addition to piling into United at odds of $3.00 to win the game.

The more ludicrous rumour which simply will not go away is that Cristiano Ronaldo (CR7) is definitely going back to Manchester United because Antonio Valencia has given up the number 7 shirt in favour of 25. For some hacks, the contract is as good as written.

One player United will be buying is Everton’s Manchester based comedy wig seller’s dream Marouane Fellaini, whilst publically Everton are saying very little, what they are saying is that United won’t get him cheap. In EPL terms that means “United are buying him and we can nibbled a few extra million out of them”

Manchester United’s latest EPL odds 2013 / 2014 are $3.50 where they find themselves behind both Chelsea ($3.25) and Manchester City ($3.25) in the betting.

Chelsea meanwhile along with self publicist manager Jose Mourinho seem to have switched attention away from Wayne Rooney towards the athleticism of Samuel Eto’o. Eto’o's (?) club, the aforementioned Anzhi Makhachkala are having somewhat of a clear out after deciding to downgrade their annual spending by about 90%. Eto’o, believed to be the world’s second best paid player behind Messi (or Ronaldo depending which newspaper you read), is said to be keen to join in former Inter boss at Stamford Bridge.

Roma striker and Italy international Pablo Osvaldo is the latest player said to be interesting Tottenham, who are said to be close to a $30m deal. Spurs seem to be spending the Gareth Bale money before he has even been sold, which surely puts Real Madrid (or Manchester United if believe in fairies and goblins) in a stronger bargaining position. Spurs have never been big spenders, but are dealing out flipping great wodges of cash to teams all over Europe.

Keep check on who has gone where with our EPL transfer watch feature.

Quick summary of the rest of the gossip:

Arsenal to switch attention to Swansea’s Michu if their pursuit of Luiz Suarez fails, which it will do.

Arsenal to buy Swansea defender Ashley Williams in a $20m deal, so they can save money on the delivery charge by shipping him along with Michu.

West Ham striker Modibo Maiga (no I hadn’t either) is to be loaned to 1990′s pop band St Etienne, as Big Sam tries to buy Hugo Almeida from Besiktas.

David Luiz is not joining Barcelona from Chelsea, as Jose Mourinho has issued a hands off warning. He clearly pays attention to them, and respects the position of a club who say a player is not for sale. So expect Barcelona to make a public statement that it is “Luiz or bust” and talk to every available member of the press about how important it is that Luiz gets first team football in his desired position in a World Cup season.