Right Said Fred

In this week's column, BetFred owner Fred Done provides the latest odds on a number of football topics and he also takes a look at who is likely to become the next Labour Party leader.

Both my favourite and least favourite strikers are making the headlines at the moment… and rightly so.

Marcus Rashford is emerging as the number one player of the modern era at United, while Sergio Aguero is now up there with Colin Bell as arguably Manchester City’s greatest ever player.

The hot-shot duo figure highly at Betfred in the market to be the Premier League’s top scorer this season.

Aguero’s latest hat-trick puts him on 13 for the season – and he’s 6/1 second favourite behind Leicester’s Jamie Vardy at 11/10 to pick up the Golden Boot.

Vardy has bagged 17 times in the league so far this campaign, while Rashford is now just three behind having notched two against Norwich at the weekend.

Also on 14 is Southampton’s Danny Ings, who, like Rashford, is an 8/1 shot to finish top of the tree.

Runaway league leaders Liverpool share out their substantial goal tally - and not surprisingly it is Mo Salah who leads the way on the betting front, with ten goals so far, at 9/1.

Now I can’t see this happening, but I’m sure the United hierarchy must be getting just a little concerned about whether Europe’s elite clubs might test the water and bid for Rashford.

He’s a local lad, so it’s highly unlikely he’ll be pushing for a move, but he’s that good he could get into virtually any side, and the Reds must match his ambition to eliminate any chance of him switching allegiance.

I was chuckling when it was reported by United that Rashford was the third youngest player in club history to reach 200 games for United, following in the distinguished footsteps of George Best and Ryan Giggs.

But Norman Whiteside’s missus Dee took exception, taking to Twitter to say that her hubby was in fact younger than all three. She was right - and I’ll tell you what, no one was capable of biting your legs more than Norman!

As for Aguero, well he’s cost me up to £2 million in each of his ten seasons he’s been knocking them in for City.

That’s because of our Double Delight and Hat-trick Heaven promotion… and the fact he’s now a record-breaker with more goals than any other foreign player in English football, as well as scoring 12 hat-tricks since joining the Blues in 2011.

It was a good weekend for United, humbling the league’s bottom club Norwich to help boost morale at Old Trafford.

In fact, United and Chelsea were the only winners amongst the group looking to finish the season behind Liverpool and City, who are light years ahead of the rest of the pack.

Betfred have Leicester 1/10 to finish in the top four, with Chelsea also odds-on at 4/11 – while United are 11/4, Spurs 5/1, Arsenal 14/1 and Wolves 25/1.

City’s tremendous win at Villa and United’s hammering of Norwich has had a significant bearing at the bottom of the Premier League table, with the Canaries now looking dead and buried at 1/16 to face relegation.

While, despite the heroics of Jack Grealish, Villa are second favourites for the drop at 8/11, with Bournemouth 4/5.

Now, how about Watford?

Nigel Pearson is looking a miracle man having led the Hornets to four wins in his last six games since his appointment. He’s got the team concentrating on the basics, and working desperately for each other.

For the first time this season, they’re no longer odds-on to be relegated, with Betfred pricing them at 11/4 – ahead of West Ham and Burnley at 10/3 and fast-improving Southampton at 20/1.

n Meanwhile, what a fantastic turn out there was at Headingley for RL legend Rob Burrow who has been diagnosed with Motor Neurone Disease at the age of 37.

The ground was packed for the testimonial against Bradford Bulls, with over £200,000 raised for Rob, who has been so brave highlighting the illness.

It was tremendous that the sport should put on such a show for Rob.

And finally, the race to be leader of the Labour Party is hotting up.

We are now down to the five candidates who picked up enough nominations from fellow MPs  with the only male  Sir Keir Starmer the outright favourite at Betfred.

He’s 4/11 to succeed Jeremy Corbyn with Rebecca Long-Bailey 9/2, Lisa Nandy in at 8/1, while the outsiders are Jess Phillips  on 25/1 – and Emily Thornberry at 50/1.