Chris Smalling is refusing to celebrate Manchester United’s return to the Champions League.

Gary Neville is excited by the prospect of watching Memphis Depay play for Manchester United, but admits the winger still has much to learn if he is to become a star.

Tottenham 2 Hull 0: What a difference a year makes. This time 12 months ago Hull City were competing in their first FA Cup final at Wembley.

It certainly wasn’t the X Factor, but it was the Next Factor; a battle to prove which of these two great clubs is most likely to challenge Chelsea next season; and the bottom line is Jose Mourinho won’t be too worried.

Pooping Man Utd’s last home game of the season party was always likely to prove a stiff test, especially after ramping up the pressure upon ourselves, following Swansea’s infuriating “smash and grab” last Monday night.

QPR 2 Newcastle 1: There were times, in the not too distant past, when a big end-of-season match for Newcastle meant an FA Cup final, a Champions League qualifier, or even a title tilt.

Sunderland 0 Leicester 0: Leicester players are backing both Nigel Pearsons for manager of the year awards after the Foxes completed perhaps the greatest of all escapes. That’s one for the man we see in public, and another for the real Pearson.

Not so very long ago, some of us were looking forward to this past weekend as being the first under Prime Minister Miliband’s newly-formed government, to be capped by a cracking high-stakes match against our old London enemies.

Man United 1 Arsenal 1: If this contest was expected to provide an indication of whether Manchester United or Arsenal are more likely to sustain a Premier League title challenge next season, it categorically failed to provide it.

It is a decade since the Rossport Five went to prison for three months. As the Corrib gas pipeline prepares to carry offshore gas for the first time, Noel Baker visits the area to ask if the long-running saga is coming to an end.

Good evening. Here’s a briefing on some of the stories and issues highlighted on IrishExaminer.com today.

Welcome to the first episode of #ExaminerFC, a new weekly soccer show on irishexaminer.com.

According to reports, Benfica winger Nicolas Gaitan is in negotiations for a possible move to the Premier League side this summer.

Arsenal are just one player short of being ready to dominate Europe, according to shareholder Alisher Usmanov.

It has been 11 long years since Arsenal won a league title, a drought that threatened Arsene Wenger’s popularity — and even his job — and led to serious questions about the underlying philosophy of a club that appeared to value beautiful football above winning football.

Latest reports suggest 25 migrants have died and 400 rescued after a fishing boat carrying over 600 people capsized off the coast of Libya; An evangelical Belfast preacher who branded Islam “satanic” has said his prosecution is a “waste” of public money and Zimbabwe postpones the trial of the guide who oversaw the shooting of Cecil the Lion. Catch up with these and more of the latest and most read news stories on irishexaminer.com.

Pep Guardiola has cast doubts over Bastian Schweinsteiger’s fitness by revealing the Manchester United midfielder has not been problem-free for three years. 

Tottenham striker Harry Kane hopes to build on his impressive campaign last term in the forthcoming Premier League season.

A Limerick man has been killed in a domestic disturbance in the US. Referee remarks could land the Cork Board in trouble; and an airline has banned hunting trophies following the ’Cecil the Lion’ outcry. Here’s this morning’s irishexaminer.com round-up.