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Us motley crew at the Beat always thought there was something suspicious about the seemingly love / hate relationship between Jose Mourinho and Sir Alex Ferguson. The press would build up a war of words between the two and then we´d hear about the pair sharing bottles of vintage wine after games.

But now the truth is out. They were best muckers all along and thanks to Jose´s latest move; Fergie is in for the easiest title procession of his career.

By lining up Frank Lampard for Inter Milan, Mourinho is effectively pulling the carpet under any chance Chelsea had of winning the title. And let´s face it, Chelsea are United´s only realistic challengers.

Arsenal don´t have a prayer of attaining 83 …

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What’s that sound? It’s Arsenal’s bosses laughing all the bank – if reports today that Barcelona have bid £30 million for Emmanuel Adebayor are anything to go by.

Arsenal boss Arsene Wenger is the master of the buy ‘em cheap, sell ‘em high policy, and he’s got the canny knack of flogging his star players before they burn out and turn useless. After all, not many agreed with his decision to sell Patrick Vieira to Juventus – or Thierry Henry to Barcelona – but both those hunches turned out to be proved bang-on. Neither player has been anywhere near as good since the day they left the Gunners.

But this deal for Adebayor could be Wenger’s best deal yet. The Togo striker …

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We finally admit it; Euro 2008 is sticking in our throats like the fish bone that nearly sent our beloved Queen Mum on a one way ticket to the Big G. Aye we love football but there’s only so much we can take, maybe some of the names that we know and love in the Premier League have donned their national colours and we have that to console us, but it’s not the same.

So we sit here sulking and waiting, for that holy Saturday in August when it all begins again. Yes the start of the Premier League is what we hearken to, and as if by magic we have the fixtures here too.

All eyes will be on Big Phil …

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Much of the talk at Arsenal this season has been about the side that Arsene Wenger is building for the future.

"Hasn´t he done well with such a young side"… "just wait until next season…" blah, blah, blah, blah. Well if everything at the Emirates is so rosy and geared to a golden future how can we interpret the departure of two of their outstanding midfielders?

Matthew Flamini has jumped ship to AC Milan despite being offered a five year contract and it´s now odds-on that Alexander Hleb will join Inter.

And Cesc Fabregas is rumoured to be the target of a GBP 30 million (plus players) move to Barcelona. If true that makes a mockery of any claims that this …

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Alright so the missus is having a moan about the footy being on the telly, so you get your coat and sort yourself out with a couple of pints, a bag of pork scratchings and a nice comfy seat in front of the ‘Big Screen’ at the pub. You might even get your mates down but to be honest you don’t care either way as long as you get to see the game. But does it ever cross your mind where it came from? We may all assume that it’s case of setting up an account with Sky and Bob’s your uncle?

Well apparently not and the FA are clamping down on dodgy companies taking their live games and televising them …

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So now we know. Arsenal’s trophy hopes, for a season at least, are dead. It’s been a long, painful process – like a slow torture – but it’s time to be merciful and put the beast out of its misery. What a shame.

For most of the season, it’s been Arsenal slugging it out with Chelsea and Man Utd, but also more than that. It’s been a battle of footballing philosophies – Utd and Chelsea are the big spenders, Arsenal the purists. Arsene Wenger prefers to develop young talent and sell on ageing superstars to make a profit. It’s romantic, it’s risky, and it very nearly worked. Even now, as he admits his young side petered out before the finish line, …

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Oh Arsene, Arsene, what happened? Things were all going so well, and then…well, disaster frankly. Nobody gave Arsenal a hope in hell’s chance at the beginning of the season, but it looked like they might compete on all fronts at one stage.

Arsene Wenger is a frustrating man. A brilliant tactician and a shrewd manager, but annoyingly stubborn. His team is too inexperienced and his squad is too small. And yet he still insists that he’s only going to bring in one player in the summer.

Bringing in one player to solve their current situation would be like sticking a small Elastoplast on a gaping sword wound. Sure, Wenger has made the likes of Flamini, Fabregas, Clichy and Adebayor into world class …

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Arsene Wenger has ended up with oeuf on his face after his prediction that Arsenal could win the Champions and Premier League double hit the buffers at Anfield. But if that wasn´t bad enough the Gallic moaner is blaming refereeing decisions for Arsenal´s defeat over two legs to Liverpool.

It is a shame that one of the greatest and most dramatic matches in British football history has been tarnished by this ungrateful loser´s comments.

Wenger has been around long enough to know the score. You can´t expect every refereeing call to go in you favour all the time. Rather than accept his side were turned over by a very good side - who came back from a goal down to win …

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He´s talking the talk for his team, but will they walk the walk…?

Kolo Toure has really stuck his neck out by insisting that Liverpool will be running scared of facing Arsenal when they clash in the quarter finals of the Champions League on Wednesday night.

Hmmm. With Steven Gerrard and Fernando Torres in such superb form I don´t think so Kolo. Toure seems to forget he is talking about a side that has reached the Champions League final twice in the past three seasons. Some pre-match nerves in the dressing room maybe, but not scared.

The Ivory Coast player looks to have committed a school boy error here. He´s only gone and provided the Liverpool players with an extra incentive to ram …

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Fair play to Arsene Wenger. He knows how to put a brave face on things and to comment that Sunday’s defeat to Chelsea was a ‘big setback’ in the title race rather than admitting to what he must secretly be thinking – that his side have totally blown it – is positive speaking of the highest order.

Arsenal have suffered a horrible last few weeks and, as things stand, may even have a job on their hands to finish second, let alone top of the league. Losing to Chelsea capped a poor run of results; the Gunners have recently dropped points to Birmingham, Villa, Middlesbrough and Wigan as their frailties have been cruelly exposed.

It’s sad to say, but not for …

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