It's a knockout

Pete's been writing about the latest bout of whingeing from Fish-Eyed Ferguson. Hardly newsworthy in itself, you might think, though the fact that he's in agreement with Arsene Wenger on the issue probably is.

The source of their mutual irritation on this occasion? The seeding arrangements for the knockout stages of the Champions' League - or, rather, the lack of them.

According to Wenger, the current random draw doesn't help "the best teams" - a group which implicitly includes (you can be sure) Arsenal and Man Utd. Both of whom, lest we forget, were eliminated in the first knockout stage this year.

What a load of nonsense. The cream always rises to the top. Porto and Monaco may have been unfancied supposedly "lesser" sides in last season's competition, but the reason they contested the final was because they were better than their opponents. It's as simple as that - nothing to do with turnover, expenditure, merchandising, gates, fanbase.

Ferguson and Wenger's grapes are rarely sweet, but on this occasion they're offensively sour - no doubt partly because their new nemesis Mourinho and his Chelsea team have marched on. Both their sides just weren't good enough - that's all there is to it.