Fergie bet Ronaldo £400 he could not score 15 goals. But the Portuguese star’s first-half penalty at Tottenham won him the cash.

Fergie smiled: “Maybe penalties shouldn’t count for this bet.

“But it’s a fantastic achievement for Cristiano to score 15 from midfield. The boy has come on great — he always wants the ball.

“It looks like I’ll have to go to the bank now.”

Irish bookies Boylesports last night started paying out £130,000 to punters who backed United to win the title.

The Reds are six points clear of rivals Chelsea and a spokesman for the firm said: “United look untouchable — they don’t look like being caught.”

Ronaldo’s spot-kick put United ahead seconds before half-time — and made him the Premiership’s joint-top-scorer alongside Chelsea hitman Didier Drogba.

Fergie added: “The scoreline is exceptional, to come to Tottenham and win 4-0. I was glad to get in at half-time 1-0 up.”

Spurs boss Martin Jol insisted ref Mark Clattenburg blundered by awarding the 45th-minute penalty after Steed Malbranque was alleged to have tripped Ronaldo.

He said: “Steed stuck his foot out and I don’t know if Ronaldo has taken advantage of it.

“When you see it on TV afterwards you see it is no penalty.

“The referee is a human being and he makes mistakes but he’s the same referee we had at Manchester United away when Pedro Mendes scored, so it didn’t help.

“He didn’t see that Malbranque took his foot away again. I won’t say Ronaldo was diving but it was a difficult situation for the ref.”

Spurs could be in hot water with the FA for replaying the incident on the big screen during the interval.

That is against guidelines and increased the booing of Ronaldo after the break.

Man-of-the-match Paul Scholes scored the third goal with Nemanja Vidic and Ryan Giggs also on target.

Scholes insisted the margin of victory was a strong message to title rivals Chelsea.

He said: “The score says everything at a tough place like this.”