Europe's bid to wrest the Ryder Cup from the Americans begins on Friday and there are five solid reasons for believing they can get the job done.

Home advantage
Home advantage is huge and perhaps even more so this time. Since 1997, the hosts have won five times out of six and the solitary away win in that period - USA in 1993 - came at a layout - the Brabizan Course at The Belfry - on which both teams were familiar. Not so Celtic Manor. While all of the home team have played in the Celtic Manor Wales Open with three of them winning the tournament, the Americans will be stepping on the course for the first time and would be hard pressed to locate it on a map, never mind have a knowledge of the layout. And that's before you take the partisan crowd into account.

The weather
While it's the same for very player of course, there is a strong suspicion that wind and rain - which is forecast for day one at least - is going to favour the European side. Relatively few Americans make good travellers, especially in the worst the British weather can throw at them, and when presented with such conditions at the K Club in 2006, they got thrashed by a record nine points (18.5 to 9.5).

Colin Montgomerie's captaincy
Many people blamed Nick Faldo's captaincy for Europe's defeat at Valhalla two years ago and Monty's approach will be like chalk and cheese. While Faldo seemed somewhat distant from his players and lacked passion during the competition, Monty will no doubt adopt a more hands-on approach and, having competed in eight Ryder Cups (five times on the winning side), he will know exactly what it takes to win one. You've also got to applaud his choice of vice-captains (Darren Clarke, Paul McGinley and Thomas Bjorn), while his decision to include Sergio Garcia as part of the squad looks a smart move.

Europe have greater strength in depth
There was a time when there were two or three weak links in the European team but that's not the case any more. Graeme McDowell and Martin Kaymer's emergence as major winners, Lee Westwood's near misses, PGA Tour wins for Rory McIlroy, Ian Poulter and Westwood, as well as multiple European Tour wins for Edoardo Molinari, Miguel Angel Jimenez and Peter Hanson stack up extremely well against the achievements of the Americans. In fact, only two of the Europeans haven't won this season compared to four of the Americans, two of which (Rickie Fowler and Jeff Overton) haven't even won on the PGA Tour.

The Europeans have enjoyed a better preparation
While all of the home side - bar Luke Donald - would have been watching the final-round of the Tour Championship from the comfort of their sofa, nine of the Americans were playing in the rain-delayed at East Lake for the small matter of $11.35m in prize money, which was the culmination of four intense weeks of FedEx Cup golf. That's hardly an ideal preparation for the Ryder Cup and for some it will have the feel of an 'after the Lord Mayor's show' event.

So, when you take all of the above into account, there can be only one winner. Back the Europeans at a best-priced 7/10 with Paddy Power!