Can Robin van Persie Inspire Manchester United to Champions League Glory?

Sir Alex Ferguson pulled off one of the biggest transfer coups in Premier League history when he signed Robin van Persie from Arsenal over the summer.

The Dutch striker has already gone some way to paying back his £24million price tag when he scored a hat-trick in just his second start against Southampton. But will his goals help Manchester United challenge for the Champions League trophy?

888sport.com is offering 12/1 on the former Arsenal man ending the season as the top scorer in the Champions League. Though he will have to be in prolific form to beat Lionel Messi; the Barcelona man winning the award in the last four seasons with a best of 14 goals in just 11 appearances.

Van Persie would also be matching the achievements of fellow Dutchman, and Manchester United legend, Ruud van Nistelrooy who finished as top scorer on three occasions.

However, if you think that Chelsea stand the best chance of the English clubs and will go close to retaining their trophy, then Fernando Torres is available at 14/1 with 888sport.com.

For all you superstitious football fans out there, the chances of Chelsea once again meeting Bayern Munich in the final are slim. But just in case you fancy a flutter then you can get 50/1 on a repeat of the 2012 final.

Sticking with the culmination of the competition, the odds of an all British final are 6/1, while if you think it is more likely that Barcelona and Real Madrid will be playing at Wembley then an all Spanish final is 4/1.

Perhaps a dream final would be Manchester United going head-to-head with their noisy neighbours Manchester City. 888sport.com is offering 25/1 for this to be the case.

First of all teams have to get through the tricky group stage and with Manchester City being drawn in the 'Group of Death', there are all sorts of options. City are 4/9 to qualify for the next stage, 13/8 not to qualify, while Mancini's side are 33/1 to not win a single group game.

Finally, with each British side competing in this year's Champions League starting the season in impressive fashion, you can get 11/10 on all four sides qualifying for the last 16 of the tournament.