THE most memorable scene of Saturday’s Manchester Cup semi-final occurred a few seconds after the final whistle amid the tussle sparked by Mario Balotelli’s gloating celebrations over by the Manchester United fans.

Marco Tardelli has said that he would like to take the reins of the Republic of Ireland team after Giovanni Trapattoni.

CARLO ANCELOTTI yesterday appeared all but resigned to his fate as Chelsea manager after insisting it would “not be a problem” if club owner Roman Abramovich sacked him.

ARSENAL manager Arsene Wenger insists he will remain very much in charge of team affairs regardless of Stan Kroenke’s multi-million takeover at Emirates Stadium.

HOW quickly some timely victories can change the big picture — especially when time is running out.

MANCHESTER UNITED manager Alex Ferguson has claimed Javier Hernandez’s “startling” introduction to English football has condemned Dimitar Berbatov to life on the substitutes’ bench.

GIVEN Manchester United’s current momentum as they hurtle towards Champions League and Premier League success, noisy neighbours City could be forgiven for hoping the FA Cup is a very poor third on their rival’s wish list.

TOTTENHAM star Gareth Bale believes it is vital for the club’s development — and his own — that Spurs qualify for next year’s Champions League.

HAS Twitter killed the superinjunction? If you are a celebrity watcher, the chances are that you can google information that this newspaper is legally prohibited from publishing — a situation that makes an ass of the law.

THEY may have seen Manchester United effectively overtake their record of 18 league titles just 24 hours earlier, but the Reds of Liverpool were in buoyant mood last night as they hammered hapless Fulham to move back into fifth place.

A WOMAN who stalked footballer Rio Ferdinand and his family was jailed for 10 weeks and put on a restraining order for 10 years.

WELL, at least the build-up was exciting. Rarely has climax morphed into anti-climax as quickly and completely as it did at Old Trafford yesterday.

ARSENE WENGER came into the pressroom at Stoke’s Britannia Stadium and stared up at a TV screen that showed Manchester United leading Chelsea 1-0 with only a couple of minutes on the clock.

NOT so underwhelming now then. Those that can remember the team that won Manchester United’s first title in 1908 would probably claim Michael Carrick would not get a game and that Fabio would get nowhere near the 1911 side.