Manchester United at Longest Odds in Premier League History to Beat Chelsea

The Racing Post betting paper has pronounced Manchester United are at the longest odds in the Premier League era to win a league game, with the Red Devils available at a best price of 17-4 to beat Chelsea at Stamford Bridge later today.

The paper's lead story, which is not available online, was captured here on Twitter by one of its editors, Bruce Millington: 

"

Manchester United are the biggest price they have ever been for a Premier League fixture today pic.twitter.com/U0HlbSIDf5

— Bruce Millington (@brucemillington) January 19, 2014"

17-4 means that if you stake £10 on a United victory and it comes off, you'd win £42.50, as well as your returning bet.

In fact, you can get an even longer price online (5-1 at the time of writing), judging by the collected data from betting sites across the U.K., per Oddschecker.

Regardless of whether United upset the form book or not, it's certainly an indication of how far their stock has fallen in recent times—literally, in the case of their share price.

Chelsea are a smart bet at home regardless of their opposition, with Jose Mourinho's side having won nine of their last 10 home games (stats via Soccerbase).

And that's before taking into account that United, who began the year by losing three straight matches, are also without their two key strikers, Robin van Persie and Wayne Rooney.

Perhaps unsurprisingly, none of our experts have tipped an away victory this week—you can see their predictions here.

Still, it's not all bad news for travelling fans—if they still think United will win, there's plenty more money to be made betting on it than there has been for the past two decades.