Heavyweight contest leaves soccer out for the count

THE BUILD-UP to this afternoon's FA Cup Final has felt less like a football story than a tale of the tape, a heavyweight eyeball-to-eyeball confrontation with all the appropriate chest-pounding, shadow boxing and verbal sparring.

If it was anyone other than Arsenal and Manchester United we'd be certain we were in for a damp squib.

In the red corner there's Roy 'The Rebel-Rouser' Keane, and in the even redder corner, Pat 'The French Connector' Vieira.