Sir Alex Ferguson retires from his position as manager of Manchester United after more than 26 years at Old Trafford. Ferguson will take on an ambassadorial at the club as a director from next season.

Honours even on the night for Manchester United and Real Madrid in the Champions League first leg match at the Bernabeu. But does this leave Sir Alex in the driving seat for the return match against Mourinho's men. Ian Stone and football mad DJ Taya Papoola give it the once over.

Real Madrid v Manchester United- UEFA Champions League - Instead, the European heavyweights meet at the last 16 stage, in a match described by Real boss Jose Mourinho as one "the whole world wants to see".

A nice read by Rob Smyth on Rafael's emergence.

In his annual piece for the Guardian, Jonathan Wilson presents his tactical trends for 2012

ZM / Michael Cox on the two Manchesters leading into the derby. I know with the new layout that fanshots just get buried down here, so perhaps Gene or SS in the preview can link to ZM's post.

It really pisses me off that we lost this kid, and I blame Manchester United brass most of all. Sir Alex and the management of Manchester United knew what they had with this kid, but they tried to play hardball with him, and teach him a lesson. Now, he's in Italy, being for Juventus EXACTLY what we need. So stupid on our part.

A really good breakdown of United's first two goals on Sunday by Chelsea fan @CareFreeChronic. It hasn't been talked about much, but Rio had very big contributions on both goals.