'Cancel all leave in the Football Association disciplinary department, scramble the noise-abatement officers, and lock up the pizza parlours: the season is going to end with a bang, not a whimper. Sir Alex Ferguson exchanging spiky words with Arsène Wenger, Roy Keane trading tackles with Patrick Vieira, and Gary Neville hunting Jose Antonio Reyes: an FA Cup final between Manchester United and Arsenal on May 21 promises fireworks.
Famously competitive institutions, Manchester United and Arsenal have collided so many times down the years that their rivalry now borders on hostility. Pizza-throwing, name-calling and brawls have scarred relations in recent years. Even that 3-2 epic in 1979, the last time the pair met in the final, saw caustic comments, not least when Arsenal took the lead and one of their number goaded United with a shout of "this is going to end 5-0". United rallied and only Alan Sunderland's sliding, far-post finish won it for the Londoners.
After Arsenal's grace under pressure against Blackburn Rovers here on Saturday, Manchester United dealt dismissively with Newcastle United yesterday. For the visitors from the Gallowgate, this was the most public of executions. The scaffold was erected by the clinical Ruud van Nistelrooy, Paul Scholes, Cristiano Ronaldo and the marvellous Wayne Rooney, and Newcastle were led there, defiantly in the case of Alan Shearer, Shay Given and Steven Taylor, meekly in the case of Laurent Robert and Jean-Alain Boumsong. Ant and Dec could have given more to the Geordie cause than Robert and Boumsong.
How Newcastle needed a leader in midfield. Opposing them was the magnificent Keane, who sat in front of his back four, relishing the astonishing acres of space afforded him and dictating play like a footballing quarterback. How Newcastle craved a youngster like Rooney, part zephyr, part bull. The movement of Ferguson's Cup-holders was too quick, too clever for Souness's men.'