AS Torres’ second went in, to give the jammy Scousers their laboured win against a Chelsea side unfairly reduced to ten men, few could resist the temptation to declare this the week that the title race finally became a proper Red v Red death-match for the first time in almost 30 years. If Rafa can avoid reproducing his Keegan impression, that is.

ANOTHER day, another Berbatov icepick to the head of the opposition. Suddenly the ‘Whither Berbatov?’ think-pieces are thin on the media ground. Harrumph.

AND with one late bound, they were free. Not just United on Saturday, but Chelsea too. Twice over, it would seem: Lampard’s goal is being credited with saving Scolari’s job, of course, but there’s also the matter of their very future as a club.

IT had been brass monkeys weather all week in Manchester until the day Chelsea arrived, when the thermometer shot up eight degrees.

YOU have got to love the way football defies economic realities. The world’s most precariously indebted club is beginning to whisper the world ‘quintuple’ whilst the planet’s richest has just ensured its 33rd trophyless year.

IT’S the time of year for facing truths and making resolutions so we might as well start by admitting that we are becoming a tad concerned about the failure of the Liverpool title bandwagon to derail so far.

GREETINGS from my Christmas holiday base, where I am escaping the vicious UK weather and economic collapse; I figure what’s good for the players is good for the fans too.

YOU know, it’s all too easy for cynics to mock this World Club Cup.

How will we cope without the entertainment provided by the greatest living Irishman we’ve become so attached to?

ON those rare occasions when the world seems to turn its gaze towards Manchester, we Mancs will seem to be wholly unconcerned.