FOR all their travails when playing the teams they must measure themselves against, Arsenal’s ability to pick off the also-rans means they have not lost to anyone other than Chelsea and Manchester United since they stumbled at Sunderland in November. With the scores level at 90 minutes, they still took three points from Stoke, firstly when Robert Huth foolishly handled...

Edwin van der Sar has signed a one-year contract extension with Manchester United. The deal means the Dutchman, 39, is tied to the club until the end of the 2010-11 season.

Fears may be growing over Rio Ferdinand’s suspect fitness, but Sir Alex Ferguson does not believe that the defender’s injury problems will force him to scale back his international commitments.

Anderson, the Manchester United midfielder, has been ruled out for the rest of the season after rupturing his cruciate ligament during Tuesday's 3-0 win over West Ham United.

There have been some frank admissions this week that South Africa would not be ready if the World Cup finals were to start tomorrow, but if Fabio Capello were asked the same question about England, concerns over Rio Ferdinand and uncertainty over the fallout from the John Terry affair would force him to apply a similarly alarmist assessment.

Wayne Rooney is sweeping all before him at Manchester United, with 19 goals in his past 19 appearances in all competitions, and his form has not gone unnoticed by the men whose teams will attempt to stop the England forward performing on the World Cup finals stage this summer.

As Sir Alex Ferguson surveyed his walking wounded before the Carling Cup final with Aston Villa, the Manchester United manager succumbed to asking for favours from Manchester City in his attempt to retain the Barclays Premier League title.

Rio Ferdinand has suffered another injury setback that rules him out of the Carling Cup final on Sunday and throws England’s World Cup preparations into further disarray.

“King Midas” was how Gianfranco Zola eloquently referred to Wayne Rooney last night after the Manchester United striker’s latest exhibition of goalscoring brilliance. “Everything he touches turns to gold, ” the West Ham United manager cooed, which is a good job because it is not only the hopes of his club that Rooney carries on those broad shoulders.

Few stand up to Sir Alex Ferguson and escape unscathed. Crossing swords with Sam Allardyce can be scary, too. Only the exceptionally brave or extremely foolhardy take on two of the biggest personalities the game can offer.

Michael Owen could be forgiven for feeling the occasional pang of jealousy towards Wayne Rooney, but the one-time golden boy of English football had nothing but praise last night for the “local scally made good” and the present bearer of that particular crown.

Team news and squad sheets for the midweek games will appear below as soon as the managers have posted them around the country. In the meantime, watch our video previews above.

Michael Owen says he has all but given up hope of being involved in this summer's World Cup finals.

SIR ALEX FERGUSON sent out a message to rival teams and to Wayne Rooney himself last night when he said that his in-form striker had yet to “get to the levels of [Ole Gunnar] Solskjaer and Andy Cole and [Ruud] Van Nistelrooy. If he got to that level, he’d be the best in the world”.