The question facing Cesc Fabregas is very similar to the one with which Mrs Merton once confronted Debbie McGhee: "So Cesc, what first attracted you to the idea of playing alongside Messi, Xavi and Iniesta?"

The Arsenal captain is off to Barcelona. And frankly, who can blame him? A man who enjoys playing good football playing every week alongside the best footballers in the world: it isn't even close to being an argument that he might resist the lure. ...

Let's face it, selecting the 30 for England's pre-World Cup training camp in Austria is not the hardest task in world football. Basically if you are English, play in the Premier League, are not crocked or are not currently in self-imposed exile in Saddleworth, then you are in.

Sure, were they available, Bobby Zamora, Owen Hargreaves and Paul Scholes might have made things a little more intriguing. ...

The great thing about the Premier League is that there is no arguing with the result. There are no hung decisions, no coalitions, no desperate horse trading about who has the popular mandate. All that matters is the number of points accrued. Whoever has the most is the best team in the land.

So, unless there is a late, unexpected surge in Martinez mania, we can safely say that in this poll at least the blues will overcome the reds and take the top spot. ...

The word in the press this week is that Ledley King has been tipped off by Fabio Capello that he can start packing: he is going to South Africa.

It seems that the England coach has been spending a lot of time going to Spurs matches to look at Michael Dawson and every time he does he can't help thinking that that the best player on the park is King. ...

There was real fear in the air at the KC stadium this week. Not so much among the fans: for many of them, a couple of years in the Premier League has been a bonus, an occasionally pleasurable interlude to the usual business of football. They are robust enough to take relegation without too many sleepless nights.

No, the terror was entirely in the boardroom. There they have access to the books. There they know how perilously City's condition really is. ...

It isn't over yet. And nobody knows that more than Jose Mourinho. Offered the opportunity to announce last night's 3-1 win over Barcelona as the best of his Inter career, the manager politely declined. Winning at Chelsea in the previous round was better, he said, because that was in the second leg and ensured his team's progress. He knows it is still only half-time in this semi.

In many ways for the neutral, last night's result was the best possible thing to happen. ...

Listening to Radio Five's phone-in last night after Chelsea's game with Bolton was a somewhat confusing experience.

First a caller came on the line denouncing Carlo Ancelotti as ultimately a defensive coach with no interest in ball-playing wingers. "He hates dribblers," the caller moaned. And quoted no finer a football witness than Silvio Berlusconi to back up his assertion that the Italian was averse to anything in the way of seat-edge occupying thrill-seeking. ...

In the aftershock of English wipeout in the Champions League, there seemed to be only one silver lining anyone could come up with: now that there season is finishing a fortnight ahead of the final in Madrid, at least the England players would have time for a proper period of rest and recuperation ahead of the World Cup.

It is not the kind of consolation to pacify followers of Arsenal and Manchester United, whose relationship with England is cool at best. ...

As Manchester United had discovered a week before - albeit to less devastating effect - it sometimes doesn't work out quite how you might wish, scoring an early first goal in a European tie. Last night, almost from the moment Nicklas Bendtner put them ahead on aggregate, Arsenal were treated as a small child might be stirring up a sleeping wasps' nest with a stick: scoring just riled their opponents, reminded them of what they needed to do. And how Barcelona did it. ...

Ian Chadband in this morning's Daily Telegraph came up with the perfect analogy to describe the game between Arsenal and Barcelona. Watching from the bench, Theo Walcott had suggested that at times, so precise and electric was their passing, Barca played football that looked like something you would see on a Playstation. ...

When Wayne Rooney broke a metatarsal at the tail end of Manchester United's defeat at Chelsea back in April 2006, it took a moment or two for the injury's significance to sink in. At first, for the watching Blues fans, there was a delightful sense of Schadenfreude: not only were their side winning the title, but their nearest rivals' best player had crocked himself in the process of defeat. ...