Imagine a Tottenham fan had bet his Arsenal-supporting friend £1 that Spurs would finish higher in the Premier League in the 1995/96 season.

And suppose that at the end of each campaign the fans had played 'double or quits'.

The Spurs fan would now owe his friend £131,072.

That's the consequence of 18 consecutive seasons of North London supremacy for the Gunners.

If we go back to August 1995, that Spurs fan's bet might not have looked so stupid.

That February Arsenal had sacked George Graham, and although Stuart Houston led them to a Cup-Winners' Cup final (in a word: Nayim) he was replaced

David Beckham will bring down the curtain on his 21-year career as a professional footballer when the French champions Paris Saint-Germain visit Lorient in their final Ligue 1 match of the season on May 26.

Still only 38, somehow we can't see Becks fishing, playing golf or meandering down the local bowling club when he hangs up his boots. Not with his obvious good looks and charm. So what will Becks, worth an estimated £165 million smackers, do with the next chapter of his career? An emotional Early Doors is in mourning this morning, but has picked itself up off the floor to come up with a

So the interim one becomes a special one. Not THE special one, but certainly A special one.

Branislav Ivanovic's header in added time earned Chelsea a rousing 2-1 win over a technically superior, but profligate Benfica in last night's breathless Europa League final. More poignantly, it ensured their temporary - and probably outgoing - head coach Rafael Benitez of a unique place in the club's folklore.

Whether or not his detractors can stomach it, the much-maligned Benitez will depart Stamford Bridge having enhanced his reputation as a man of character and coach of real substance.

Millions of

If Chelsea win the Europa League tonight, Rafa Benitez will not bask in the adulation of the fans as Roberto Di Matteo did a year ago.

Grateful players will not toss him joyously around like Pep Guardiola or Jupp Heynckes.

The best he can hope for is to be ignored while everyone else celebrates a success devised by him.

Even outside Chelsea, there is not much sympathy for Benitez, but Early Doors reckons he has taken on an impossible job and performed remarkably well.

Don't believe ED? Let's do what the man himself would, and examine the facts:

FACT: Rafa Benitez’s record as Chelsea manager:

The news emerged last night at 10:24pm that Roberto Mancini was being "relieved of his duties" by Manchester City. In blunt British football terms, this is traditionally known as the sack.

At around 12:04am this morning, the chirpy cockney tones of the former City and England forward Rodney Marsh could be discovered on radio discussing what the new manager-in-waiting Manuel Pellegrini will bring to the job.

With Malaga’s Chilean coach apparently poised to succeed Mancini, Marsh seemed a sound enough commentator on the topic having turned out for three years at Maine Road in the early 1970s.

Nobody said following Sir Alex Ferguson was easy; and yesterday David Moyes began to find out just how hard it will be.

Just minutes after bidding farewell to Old Trafford and urging Manchester United fans to back the new manager, Fergie placed item number one in Moyes’s inbox.

Asked a perfectly swervable question by Sky’s Geoff Shreeves about Wayne Rooney’s non-involvement, Ferguson played a straight bat.

“He’s asked for a transfer ... We’re not going to let him go.”

Though his influence around Old Trafford will remain immense, that second statement will depend on the man Ferguson chose as

If this is to be the end for Roberto Mancini, then what a desperate one: beaten, quite unexpectedly yet entirely deservedly by Wigan Athletic in the FA Cup final. After a morning in which his position at Manchester City was placed in extreme doubt, a horrid performance in the afternoon may have extinguished any hopes he had of remaining at the club.

The day just never felt right for Mancini. Reports of Manuel Pellegrini’s supposedly imminent arrival were ill-timed, casting a cloud over the day; his surprising decision to start Joe Hart instead of Costel Pantilimon, who had been nominated as

There were a couple of questions that went unanswered when Manchester United were busy making public yesterday their decision to usher in David Moyes as the club's new manager: does the somewhat frazzled former United player Paddy Crerand know that Sir Alex Ferguson will no longer be running the joint next season?

And what does Jose Mourinho make of some of the statements to have come out of Old Trafford over the past few days?

Mourinho came as close as he ever will to doing a job interview after his Real Madrid side ousted Manchester United from the Champions League in March.

"The best team