If Mourinho was really gesturing to the English media in yesterday's Carling Cup final and not the Liverpool fans, then perhaps he should have at least been facing the right side of the stadium. An invitation to Lancaster Gate surely awaits.

During the game it occurred to me Steven Gerrard may not be moving to Chelsea despite what everybody says. So far, the Chelsea manager has maintained that he would like two players for each position. As a central midfielder that would mean that Gerrard would replace either Lampard or Makelele, both of whom have been consistently part of the Chelsea midfield this season, have generally produced outstanding performances and would be unlikely to be happy to give up their spot in the first eleven in order to accommodate the current Liverpool captain. The Blues may have the money and Gerrard may well be one of the Premiership's best players, but Chelsea, frankly, do not need him.

Round And White will be running a competition soon together with the guys at goalhanger.com who will supply the prize. Details to follow this week (hopefully).

For those of you who like to see all the latest football headlines in one place might want to have a gander at FootyMania.com. As well as containing football newsfeeds from more than 25 sources, it now also has the links to the latest headlines from a number of football blogs (including Round And White).

I have to congratulate Messieurs Wenger and Redknapp on their appropriate reactions to the events at yesterday's Southampton v Arsenal game. It was hard to decide who was more stupid; Robin Van Persie or David Prutton. Both committed two bad fouls each which justifiably deserved their yellow (and red) cards. Prutton was foolish to push the Alan Wiley aside in his his attempt to get to his assistant. Van Persie was equally as cretinous to go in on Graeme Le Saux in the manner he did with his team 1-0 up and playing against 10 men. Thankfully, Redknapp was there to restrain his player and to condemn him after the match, while Wenger showed his displeasure with the young Dutchman as he walked off early and berated him in the post-match interview. Truly refreshing behaviour from both managers.

The bad incidents aside, the match was of little merit. Both picked up a single point that is of little use now; Arsenal once again lost ground on Man U, while Palace's win over Birmingham now means they have a healthy 4 points lead over Southampton. Lehmann had a good flap in goal again and Cygan showed exactly why Arsenal's defence is not up to the job of defending their title. And now both teams have another player suspended at a crucial time of the season.

But this post isn't just about being sensible in the Premiership. While I think that José's behaviour after his return to the Nou Camp was somewhat childish, the question remains of whether it is ethical for a manager (in this case Frank Rijkaard) to "have a chat" with the referee at half-time, especially given the climate in the European game at the moment.

In Germany, several referees and players are under investigation for match-fixing, while in the Czech Republic they have only just finished clearing up the mess after their most recent match-fixing scandal. The Italian leagues have a reputation for coming up with "predictable" results at the end of the season, while in England, the Premiership's Mike Dean has been just been suspended after officials were told of his involvement in a betting website, albeit (thankfully) one for horse-racing and not connected with football.

So perhaps José has the right to be upset, even though the manner in which he expressed his feelings on the matter was unsuitable. Rijkaard has always struck me as a relatively intelligent player (apart from when he gobbed at Rudi Voeller in 1990 that is). He was sensible enough not to be drawn into the pre-match hype, so I find it hard it to believe that he would be naive enough to approach Anders Frisk at half-time and then expect his opponents not to kick up a fuss.

Taking all of this, as well as the recent batch of newspaper articles on footballers' lack of respect for referees into account, perhaps it's time for UEFA and the various national football associations to come up with some rules for players and managers on suitable behaviour towards referees, both on and off the pitch.

So with the first legs of the second round out of the way, I'll admit that I didn't see results I expected to see in the Champions League. The biggest surprise was to see Liverpool deservedly beat Leverkusen and be the only English team to adequately set themselves up for the return leg in two weeks' time. Apart from Dudek's blunder, which wasn't anywhere near as bad as Carroll's (more on that later), they looked organised against a Bundesliga team who always looked dangerous. But the Germans missed their injured defensive stalwart Jens Nowotny, and with Freier and Ponté suspended for the game in the BayArena, Liverpool possess an excellent opportunity to go through.

Arsenal on the other hand have really got their work cut out now. Toure looked edgy all game and I've said enough about Pascal Cygan already in previous posts. Without Campbell, it was always going to be hard, but Kolo's early mistake simply made life too easy for Bayern. The Bavarians are too experienced to throw away a gift such as that and at times made the Arsenal back four look ordinary. If Arsenal are to somehow manage to squeak through, it will be down to either pure luck or unbelievable brilliance. In any case, they will need considerable amounts of both. It's been said before, but their big names (Henry, Pires, Vieira) can no longer afford to be so anonymous in the big games.

Any bets on Howard regaining his place in goal before the next leg? Carroll's mistake was a bad one and Fergie now has a delightful choice to make, knowing that his two keepers are more than capable of undoing any good work that the likes of Rooney, Keane, Giggs et al may carry out further upfield.
In my mind, Man U will be hoping that Milan will play Shevchenko again (if he's fit), thus resorting to a 4-4-2 and possibly opening up in midfield. But they will need to convert their chances, that is if the Milan defence allows them any. Van Nistelrooy might be excused after his long period out injured, but Scholes' miss was simply unforgivable.

The same of which could be said of Drogba's first half chance in the Barcelona - Chelsea game. After going 1-0 up after the swift counter, Makelele's exquisite pass that led to the forward's one-on-one with Valdés was wasted. If anything he should have going round the keeper, as the Brazilian had pretty much committed himself and Puyol was too far away to be of any danger.
The Ivory Coast player's sending off was harsh. The foul that led to his first yellow, though silly, hardly warranted a card, while his legitimately attempted toe-poke (and not with studs up, as so many are claiming) to intercept the poor back-pass had little malice in it. But that's Anders Frisk for you. Happy to wave cards about, but unlikely to do anything about blatant dives by the likes of Deco. Nevertheless, Chelsea do have the vital away goal and are experienced enough to play for the 1-0 to see them through to the next round.

Apart from Lyon-Bremen, the remaining legs are also pretty open. Juve certainly have the talent to pick apart Real in Turin. And while Inter have the bonus of an away goal from their 1-1 draw, Porto are by no means down and out. The same applies to Monaco-PSV, despite PSV winning 1-0 at home, although Monaco did look somewhat clueless going forward.

It's been a relatively quiet past week in football, hence the lack of postage. Rooney's return to Goodison Park was relatively incident-free, at least for Wayne. Despite the pre-arranged post-match "gathering" and Roy Carroll being struck by a coin, Everton's swift response to both was exactly what was required.

Elsewhere, Newcastle became the first team to finally beat Chelsea since Man City and end Jose's quadruple-trophy bonanza. He'll just have to settle for the treble then eh? Leaving the other FA cup games to one side, it's time for Europe again, although as the teams involved are so closely matched, unless they get a clear 2-0 or better win it seems likely that the return legs are the games to get worked up about.

All the fuss about Ashley Cole being tapped up by Chelsea has got me thinking. If you are planning to meet a potentially new manager or player, then why not arrange to meet them somewhere less obvious than one of London's top hotels? Or at least come disguised...a fake 'tache or wig would surely work wonders when it comes to avoiding the men of the English press.

It's that time again, but before I comment on Newcastle's transfer window acquisitions, it's inevitable that I first turn to the Craig Bellamy affair. Back in October I wrote the following for this column: "Ultimately, Bellamy has to realise that he is likely to remain in the Newcastle squad, but that Souness is not a manager to take any nonsense. Furthermore, as a 'professional' he should just learn to accept his manager’s decision, regardless of whether he agrees with it or not. Luckily for Craig, Souness hasn't been particularly vindictive this time round."

The rest of this post can be found at Black And White And Read All Over.

So for Arsenal, the chase for the title is finally over. Although it was over after Almunia flapped at Diouf's cross during their game against Bolton. Once again, they dropped the crucial points against Sam's Wanderers.

But let us return to last night. Man U deserved to win, but they shouldn't feel too confident. Chelsea are certain to win again tonight and restore their 11 point lead over Sir Alex's team. The result from Highbury was surprising though, particularly as Arsenal took the lead. It seems as though they have lost that killer instinct; I can think of few top teams that fail to defend a lead against their arch-rivals. They also have two players that wouldn't look out of place in the Coca-Cola Championship in the form of Almunia and Cygan. Both demonstrated admirably that they cannot cope with the demands of the Premiership.

During the exchange of words in the tunnel prior to the match, it was interesting to see the Spanish goalkeeper's expression while Keane and Vieira went through their lines. He glanced over at the Irishman and frankly looked scared. Such a mindset doesn't bode well, and he evidently wasn't thinking clearly when he rushed out towards Giggs' feet.

Ultimately, Wenger is to blame. His obstinacy of sticking with the Spanish keeper has not paid off, and after two seasons, he still hasn't found suitable backup for Campbell and Toure. Like Ferguson, he too can now concentrate on the FA Cup and the Champions League.